Freeze

I saw a clip recently talking about our response to stress.

We most often hear about fight or flight. Right? If there is danger, our body responds by increasing cortisol, our stress hormone, in order to give us the ability to run or fight. Both providing an outlet for the adrenaline dumped into our body.

What you don't often hear about is that our body can respond another way, Freeze.

Fight. Flight. Freeze.

I have never paid much attention to the third response. When are under stress and our body dumps a ton of cortisol, we need to be able to do something with it. So fight or flight makes sense. Now think about a deer in the headlights, they know they need to be afraid but they don't know what to do with that fear so they freeze. It's only for a minute. Long enough for them to process what's coming at them and for them to choose to either run or fight. 

Now think about the stress that comes at us in our daily lives. So, so often there is nothing physical we can do about it. Particularly in our current situation. Information overload, our hands tied so we have no choices, nothing we can do. The stress comes in, our body dumps cortisol and we are perpetually stuck in this freeze. There is nothing to do with that adrenaline and nothing to do with that energy that comes so it is bottled up in our body, wreaking havoc and depleting our body of its resources.

If we don't intentionally do something with that adrenaline or address that cortisol dump it just stays and tears through our body. 

Stress contributes to weight gain and mood swings, hormone imbalance and hunger, unstable blood sugar, anxiety, depression, inability to sleep, increased risk for heart attack and stroke and thyroid dysfunction. It effects us physically, emotionally and mentally. 

So there it is, we don't run, we don't fight, we are stuck in a suspended freeze. A space that our bodies are not meant to maintain for extended periods of time. 

So what do we do? We become aware, notice our body's response, take the time to pause and reset, breath deep, and train our body to respond to stress the right way. 

There are tools to help. Reset cortisol, balance hormones, get your body what it needs to function how it was created.

I would love to walk this journey with you. Hormone health begins with awareness of your level of stress and using tools to help manage it. Let me know how I can come along side you!