What You Need To Know About The Stress Response (Part 2)

What you need to know about the stress response (Part 2)

The human brain is incredibly intelligent, and its response to stress is no exception.

When the stress response is triggered, the brain takes a snapshot of all the sensory information we receive in that moment. If we encounter that sensory stimulus again, the brain will trigger the stress response earlier, allowing us to prepare for fight or flight sooner. This process is known as a premature cognitive commitment (PCC).

Brilliant, right?

If I see a shark fin in the water, the next time I see a shark fin in the water, I’ll react faster and escape unharmed, thanks to that PCC! But on that same morning, when I went for my swim, I had the taste of minty toothpaste in my mouth, I could smell the sea breeze, hear the waves crashing on the shore, and see the orange glow of a beautiful sunrise.

Despite being innocent and enjoyable sensory experiences, they also become part of the shark fin PCC. So, the next time I taste mint, hear crashing waves, or see the colour orange etc… you guessed it. Stress response triggered.

Most neuroscientists agree that by the time we reach adulthood, we’ve accumulated around one hundred thousand stress triggers (PCCs).

There are a hundred thousand little things that make you tense up for no good reason. They aren’t protecting you or doing you any favours. They have nothing to do with what’s happening around you, and half the time, you don’t even know what triggered them. Even if you could identify every single stress point, you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself from reacting. A certain colour, a sound, or some random detail that happened to be around when you reacted poorly—that’s all it takes. And here you are, sipping on mint tea, preparing for a shark attack, something that isn’t there. Even if we don’t consciously feel a full blown stress response happening, it is there, in the background, preparing for the worst. 

Vedic Meditation is a systematic way of releasing these PCCs from the body due to the profound rest it provides. This leads to more relevant responses to sensory stimuli and saves valuable energy from being wasted on threats that aren’t actually present.