Inner World of Yoga – Day 8
With this shift to psycho/social/emotional stimulus our fight/flight response becomes more or less constant. The complex messenger system triggering a physiological response involving epinephrine (adrenaline), cortisol (stress hormone), glucose, fatty acids, and norepinephrine producing an energy burst designed to save our bodies from an oncoming meat eating T-Rex, Saber Tooth tiger, or out of control vehicle, itself goes out of control internally as our body reacts in the same way to the stimulus of constant worry over finances, schedules, health, relationships, jobs, a crazy world of conflict, violent weather patterns and even, constant need for attachment to devices. Our adrenals get exhausted, we drag ourselves home from work, we fight with or ignore our spouse, we gain weight, yell at the kids, we are fatigued, we seek mindless entertainment – you get the picture. We react because of some form of fear.
ref. http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/fight_flight/
We essentially have three brains in one: reptilian, old mammalian and new mammalian. The problem is, our fight/flight response hasn’t changed since humans walked upright, and to have it constantly firing does a lot of damage to our physical body. While present day science is constantly updated with evolving brain research, the fact remains that in our minds we are stressed and depressed and anti-depressants aren’t really good for us and don’t solve the problem.
Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbic_system
We can manage a lot of this with exercise and eating nutritious food, but most of us don’t get enough of either, which leads to an even greater compromised condition on all levels.
