Dahn Yoga Class Texas Member's blog

Consider, for example, two young men taking a graduate school entrance exam. Imagine they are taking the same exam and that both are equally prepared, but one person arrives at the classroom with sweaty palms and a racing heartbeat, while the other remains perfectly calm and relaxed. What really makes the difference here?

The distinction lies in the story that each of the students is telling himself. One student may be saying to him, “I will just do my best. Everything will be fine.” Meanwhile the other is saying, “I am terrible at standardized tests, and my whole future depends on this one test.”

In both cases, the story is the creation of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that analyzes and judges our environment. In the case of the stressed-out student, he is sending out a message that says, “Emergency! Sound the alarms!” The hypothalamus, sitting like a guard on top of the brain stem, hears the message and then relays it through hormonal and bioelectrical signals to the rest of the body. The sympathetic nervous system also known as the fight-or-flight response, is activated- diction is slowed, heartbeat is increased, and circulation is compromised, including in the brain.