Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 2, Issue 7, (January 1, 2018) | Page 27

" Blood is drawn away from your digestive system to your arms and
legs, be- cause running and/or defending yourself is – in case of an
emergency – more important than digesting food. In the short term
this gives you maximum power and ability to react. In the long run this
could give you constipation or digestion problems.
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" When the alarm center of the brain, controlled by the
amygdala, hijacks your mind, blood is also drawn from your
frontal cortex, the part of your think- ing, logical and observing
brain, located behind your forehead. This will leave you less
oriented to thinking and more into reacting. In the short run this
gives you fast reactions, whereas in the long run it will cause
problems thinking straight, focusing and remembering.
" The stress hormone adrenaline affects your muscles. In the
short term this provides peak power bursts. In the long run it will
wear out your muscles creating a weakness.
" Cortisol is also released upon stress, and in the short run this
will give you strength, but in the long run it will create a fragile
internal landscape that opens up for more traumatic stress
responses to be conditioned.
" You get tunnel vision, in the acute situation allowing you to
focus on the most vital details of the current situation. In the
longer perspective, you might have problems focusing on
general issues of your life situation and those around you.
" Your breathing is elevated high in your chest, filling your
muscles with the oxygen that in the short run will give you
maximum leverage of power, and in the long run will cause
problems falling asleep, since sleeping is something we don’t
do when we are in alert mode.
Fight, Flight, Freeze or Faint 
 There are four common reactions of our
alarm center – the amygdala – when we are overwhelmed or
threatened. Remember that none of these is a conscious
choice, they are happening on an instinctual level and therefore