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Fight Or Flight Response Papers

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Have you ever been in a situation where you either ran away or fought it off? If you have then you have possibly experienced the fight or flight response. The fight or flight response can be very beneficial to your survival, but in today's world it can also be very harmful to you.
Our fight or flight response originally protected us from saber tooth tigers (The Fight or Flight Response, paragraph 7). Today, most threats that we encounter are not a threat to our survival. People are mostly worried about being late to work or school, phone's running out of power or even the gas running out in your car. Nonetheless, these modern day threats trigger the activation of your fight or flight system as if your physical survival was threatened. On a …show more content…

“When our fight or flight response is activated, sequences of nerve cell firing occur, and chemicals like adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol are released into your bloodstream” (Fight). These patterns of chemical release and nerve cell firing cause your body to undergo very dramatic changes. Your respiratory rate increases, blood is shunted away from our digestive track and directed into our muscles and limbs, which will require extra energy and fuel for running and fighting. your pupils will dilate, your sight sharpens causing your awareness to intensify, impulses quicken, your perception of pain diminishes, and your immune system mobilizes with increased activation. With those symptoms you are prepared physically and mentally to fight or flight with all of the changes happening in our world.
With the world rapidly changing our bodies have to adapt and so does the fight or flight response. “Our behavior adapts to the changing times and environment, it’s thought that it never completely forgets its evolutionary roots” (Purpose). “The fight or flight response is characterized by feeling bodily sensations of stress” (Fight). Since our bodies have evolved over time, threats are not as obvious. Even though we have evolved, our fight or flight response is still the …show more content…

Remember that the natural conclusion of fight or flight is vigorous physical activity. When we exercise, we metabolize excessive stress hormones—restoring our body and mind to a calmer, more relaxed state.
For the purpose of stress reduction and counteracting the fight or flight response, we do not need to exercise for 30 to 40 minutes. Any form of activity where we "work up a sweat" for five minutes will effectively metabolize off—and prevent the excessive buildup of—stress hormones. Get down and do 50 pushups, 50 sit-ups, jumping jacks, jump rope, run in place, run up and down the stairs, whatever. By exercising to the point of sweating, we effectively counteract the ill effects of the fight of flight response, drawing it to its natural conclusion.
Sometimes when I’m upset, I close the door to my office, do 25 quick pushups, work up a light sweat, and return to work, clearer and calmer. Frequent repetitions of short exercise are easy to fit into our busy schedules. For full cardiovascular fitness, longer periods of exercise do have additional benefits, but for the purpose of stress reduction, mini-exercise sessions are practical, effective and

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