Your body was built to survive in the Stone Age.
We adapt to change slowly. It takes about 200,000 years for a beneficial mutation to spread throughout the human gene pool.
That means we should have begun making the changes that help us survive in the Information Age 200,000 years ago.
We didn’t.
Your body goes into fight, flight, or freeze countless times a day.
When your body perceives a threat, your nervous system ensures that you have the resources you need to survive.
But how often do you actually fight, flee, or freeze? And where does all that survival energy go if you don’t use it up to save yourself?
Your body responds to all perceived threats in the same way.
A threat is a threat, and your body can’t tell the difference between a lion and a layoff.
We respond to every threat by going into fight, flight, or freeze.
The stress response is a threat response.
Stress adds up impacts your health.
An estimated 60 to 90 percent of all doctor visits are stress-related.
Stress causes “diseases of civilization,” including high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, neck or low back pain, and cancer.
For your body, everything is happening right now.
Your body doesn’t distinguish between the past, present, or future.
Whether you’re remembering yesterday’s threat, facing one today, or worrying about one that might happen tomorrow, your body responds the same way.
Stress also adversely impacts your relationships.
Social engagement is a survival strategy we hear less about than fight, flight, and freeze. Because humans have always lived in clans or tribes, social engagement is our most evolved survival skill.
We use it all the time to keep things harmonious at home and at work. But we can’t be socially engaged when we’re in fight, flight, or freeze.
Fortunately, there are antidotes to stress and trauma.
Because the fight, flight, and freeze response takes place in the body, it has to be addressed via the body. We teach you somatic (body-oriented) methods for relieving stress, which can improve every facet of your life.