HUMAN VALUES AND STRESS MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT-1
R Reddappa Reddy
EC21B1114

Stress is nothing more than something that throws us out of balance in homeostasis. Homeostasis

is essentially a state of being. We have this small area. This is called the limbic system. And in the
limbic system, we actually have what's called the amygdala. It is a kind of emotional center of our

brain. It signals the rest of the body when something is really stressful. What happens when a
stressor comes in, something that is perceived as a stressor, the amygdala is activated. And when

strongly activated, it can really explode. You can be very stressed. And what happens is the frontal
lobe of the brain stops working. The frontal lobes are responsible for making good decisions,

weighing the consequences of actions, rational thinking and all important mechanisms. We often
call it the CEO of the brain. Now the amygdala sends signals to the autonomic nervous system.

And the autonomic nervous system branches out into the rest of our body. And there are two
parts of the autonomic nervous system that we actually call the stress response. The most

important of these is the sympathetic nervous system. It is also called gas pedal. When it hits, we
move into what is called fight, flight, or freeze. Another part of the autonomic nervous system is

the parasympathetic response. And it's like a brake. It helps us heal. It helps us calm down. It
creates a feeling of relaxation. So sympathetic and parasympathetic are almost yin and yang. When

a stressor enters, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, causing fight, flight or freeze. And
the parasympathetic is the response that actually turns off the sympathetic nervous system or

slows down the sympathetic nervous system so that we can refuel, restore and relax. And finally, to
become resilient, we must learn to silence the sympathetic nervous system by activating its

parasympathetic response. But that's how the stress response works. It starts in the brain and goes
to our nervous system. We must be resilient to stressors in order to manage and minimize them so

that they do not cause chronic wear and tear on our mind, body and behaviour.