"To Better Cope With Stress, Listen to Your Body"

"the researchers had been examining how adventure racers and elite special-operations soldiers develop resilience in the face of the frequent and often extreme physical and emotional demands of their jobs. The researchers had asked those men and women to lie in brain scanning machines while wearing face masks that, when the researchers touched a button, made it difficult to breathe, conditions that the brain and body find quite stressful.

The scientists soon noticed a common pattern of brain activity among these volunteers. Portions of their brains that receive and process signals from the body, such as changes in heart rate or breathing, were very active when the volunteers thought that their masks were about to close. But despite this heightened awareness, the flow of messages from those parts of the brain to areas that intensify bodily arousal were fairly slight.

In other words, the brains of these highly trained men and women closely monitored the beginnings of bodily panic but dampened the response. They experienced stress but didn’t overreact. They were resilient physically and mentally."


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/to-better-cope-with-stress-listen-to-your-body/

Hmmm,  I've been thinking about this distinction a lot: high sensitivity but low reactivity.

And this inspires me to spend more time thinking about how my body feels.