Stress Response

Below are the 4 main types of stress responses that we all will experience and may struggle balancing health vs unhealthy applications. Some of us may find that we struggle with certain responses more than others. While others may notice that depending on the situation, they struggle with all of them.

Make note that these stress responses are not inherently bad. By divine design we experience them to help us understand our experiences. Knowing each response can offer each of us a sense of feedback of areas in our emotional IQ that need attention or a healthier response.

Fight

Sometimes we use the fight response to confront challenges. Our body will adapt tissues, hormones, and resources to show up and empower us to take defensive action. This response unchecked, can develop into always needing to be right and being unwilling to sympathize with another's point of view. Excessive anger can also develop to force situations and people to do things your way as a power move to fill the need to always be in control of situations.

To help find balance with this response, try this journaling technique to help you identify emotions and distorted thinking patters. *Taken from Dr. David Burns CBT website.

Flight

This response prioritizes the escape option in our minds. Again, the body will adapt tissues, hormones and resources to help us find the best and most affective escape route to evade danger. An unhealthy presentation of this response might show up as excessive avoiding patterns and not taking responsibility for our own actions.

One of the best things to combat flight and avoidance is meditation. Meditation can look like many different things. it ca be traditional meditation sitting in a quiet space or something less traditional like just sitting still. The trick is to find stillness in the chaos. This takes practice. Doing daily meditations of as little as 10 min can make a big impact on your future responses to flee a stressful situation. Here's one of our favorites.

Freeze

This response prioritizes the immobilizing mechanisms in our mind and body. If we can just hold still and go unnoticed, maybe the threat wont see us and will move on allowing us to escape unharmed. If this response goes unchecked, it can lead us to numbing our emotions that need space to be delt with.

To help break free from freezing, one of the best things you can do is exercise. Its not necessary to join a cross fit gym or anything that intense. Simply going on walks 20-40 min can make a big difference both in the moment of the stress and out of it. Exercise helps to train the brain that we have option rather than feeling stuck.

Fawn

While a lesser known stress response, this response allows us to find ways to downplay stressful situations or minimize the situation. While helpful in arguments to help de-escalate emotions, it can also develop into people pleasing, placating behaviors, and minimizing the severity of situations.

To help reduce a fawning response, try this Values Card Exercise. When you know what matters to you and are clear on what they are, you'll be more likely to hold better boundaries and not allow your fawning response to be unhealthy.