1️⃣ The Evolutionary Purpose of Stress
Imagine we are living in a time when we resided in jungles, leading a primitive life attuned to the rhythms of nature. In that time and situation, if you felt stressed, what could be the reason?
A common answer is that you sensed something potentially harmful—something that might endanger the species.
2️⃣ Stress as a Signal: The Body’s Alarm System
So, let’s consider stress as the body’s way of signaling danger. It does this by generating hormones that alert the system. Once different organs receive this signal, they reduce their activity and divert energy to prepare the body to fight or flee.
This is similar to how, when blood sugar levels drop, the body sends a hunger signal, prompting the mind to seek food. Now, imagine that instead of feeding the body when it’s hungry, we try to manage the hunger by practicing some techniques. How would that help? It wouldn’t—it would only put the organism at risk.
3️⃣ The Modern “Jungle”: Imaginary Threats
Similarly, stress is the body’s intelligence recognizing danger. Instead of looking around for actual threats and taking action to protect ourselves, if we take a pill or practice stress management techniques, we may be ignoring or even dulling our natural instincts.
Interestingly, unlike the imagined jungle scenario, we don’t face real dangers in our modern world. We’ve created a safe society, yet the threats we feel often come from our minds, imagining imaginary situations. So, if you look around, you might not find a snake. However, if you learn to examine your thoughts, you might discover the ones that triggered a sense of threat.
4️⃣ Rewriting Our Mental Narratives
In our modern “jungle,” the most significant threat is often losing a job. We even use the phrase “I am fired” to describe job loss. This fear—the thought of not meeting deadlines, underperforming, missing appointments, or being late—can trigger a stress response in the body.
The way to escape this imagined danger is to confront the stories we tell ourselves. We need to verify the facts of these stories and assess where they came from. Perhaps they’re not genuine and no longer serve us. By rewriting these mental narratives, we can reduce stress-inducing thoughts and, consequently, the stress itself.
5️⃣ Mindfulness and Practical Solutions for Stress
Mindfulness helps us observe our minds and the stories we tell ourselves. I hope this knowledge is helpful. I also offer a balanced approach to stress relief as a program for corporate employees, helping them change their relationship with stress to deal with it more effectively. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to discuss this further.
Sundar
Founder, Open Circle Yoga