It’s not the situation that causes stress. The evaluation of a situation as a dangerous (whether correct of incorrect) is what triggers the stress response. Stress activates the hypothalamus, which stimulates other glands. Let us suppose: That the evaluation of a situation is negative, the hypothalamus of our brain secretes a hormone called ACTH, or adrenocorticotropin. This hormone then binds to cells in the outer cortex of the adrenal gland and causes them to manufacture and secrete cortisol and other hormones to arouse vital organs to co-ordinate the Fight or Flight reaction, the body’s response to the feeling of fear in times of emergency. Instantly after the evaluation, these drugs (as mentioned above) are pumped out of the brain into the blood stream and eventually bind to the surface of all the cells in your body, the way that a key fits into a lock. They then affect the function of all your cells. Every cell in your body is connected to a nerve and every nerve is connected to the brain and the brain can be influenced by your thought and your thought creates changes. The area of the brain in which thought is transformed into an emotional response is called the limbic system. Cells of the limbic system are particularly active in the manufacture and secretion of neuropeptides - a direct line of communication between emotions and the body. If on the other hand the evaluation is positive. You feel relaxed and joyful. Every cell in your body responds to that emotion joyfully. This joy or relaxation spreads through our entire body/mind by the neuropeptides. Your positive evaluation causes cells in our limbic system to release neuropeptides that crosses the blood/brain barrier and enters your blood stream. In a matter of seconds these clever little chemicals fit into the receptor sites all over your body. When the key slides into the lock, various genes in your cells are turned on or off, starting or stopping the synthesis of proteins. Depending on what proteins are activated or deactivated, the function of all your system is potentially alerted. This is one of the many pathways through which thought becomes things.

Book Title: The Power of the Mind to heal by Joan Borysenko Ph.D & Miroslav Borsysenko Ph.D. Ref: ISBN: 1-870845-14-5

If the cell is the engine that drives all life, then the receptors are the buttons on the control panel of the engine and a specific peptide is the finger that pushes the button and gets things started.

Book Title: MOLECULES of EMOTION, By Candace B. Pert, Ph.D Ref: ISBN 0-684-81981-3

Apart from postures, A.N.S. activity and the activities of the Hypothalamus, our breathing (or rather the precise way in which we breathe) is the most important regulatory activity over which we can have direct control. Control of the ANS by the cerebral cortex occurs primarily during emotional stress. In extreme anxiety, the cortex can stimulate the hypothalamus as part of the limbic system. This, in turn, stimulates the cardiac and vasomotor centres of the medulla, which increase the rate and force of the heartbeat and blood pressure. Stimulation of the cortex by hearing bad news or experiencing an extremely unpleasant sight may cause vasodilatation of blood vessels, a lowering of blood pressure, and fainting. While most ANS responses are involuntary, with practice it may be possible to achieve some voluntary control. Biofeedback experiments and the feats of accomplished yogis provide evidence for some degree of learning to control autonomic motor neurons.

Book Title: PRINCIPLES of Human Anatomy 7th Addition by GERARD J. TORTORA Ref: ISBN 0-673-99074-5

The first Indian yogi, Swami Rama of the Himailayas, gave a demonstration of his ability to stop his heart, before the American Medical Society in 1964 (the Himalayan Institute Press, P.O. Box 405, Honesdale, PA 18431-9709 USA). Breath control is the ultimate weapon. It is the simplest, safest, doesn’t cost you anything, most accessible technique there is for mastering emotional control, also for recharging the ideal performance state in response to problems, for staying in control and for becoming a peak performer.