While we think of anxiety and stress as mental or emotional states, it is important to remember that they are part of a very complex story that encompasses a cascade of physiological events throughout our whole selves. This story involves a delicate flux and balance held in the (autonomic) nervous system between arousal and relaxation, triggering changes throughout our systems (vascular, pulmonary, muscular, digestive, immune) that ideally enable us to meet periods of challenge effectively and, just as importantly, come back to a quieter, easier place when circumstances allow.

To read entire article, click on title link above.