Certificate in Stress Management

Our bodies react to stress in a similar way that they react to fear. We experience fear when we have cause to be concerned about our well-being or safety. We experience stress when we are in situations where we feel under threat but are not actually in any immediate danger.

When we feel under threat in this way our bodies respond with the fight or flight syndrome, which prepares our bodies to fight or flee and involves a number of physical changes. Our heartbeat increases, our breathing becomes shallow, all of our senses work better, we may have a desire to defecate, our muscles tense to fight or flee, our hands and feet become colder and we begin to sweat to cool ourselves, as all of these changes make us hot.

This response can be set off by many situations that are not really dangerous or life-threatening, however, we are reacting as if our lives were actually threatened, and the reaction to such threat is a very powerful one. When there is no enemy to fight or run from, the physical feelings created have no release, and thus we begin to build up stress. Stress, which will eventually find an outlet in chronic fatigue, anxiety and a variety of minor, or more serious, physical illnesses.