If you don’t already know about the stress hormones in your body, it would be useful to find out about them and how they work and where they are produced? Your Endocrine System is a very efficient system, designed to respond to all kinds of situations that get thrown at it. Because of this magnificent system, we are fully able to control how much stress we feel in our lives at any given time. Have you ever run into a saber-tooth tiger that thought of you as lunch? Of course, you haven’t because the Cro-Magnon period is over. It’s been years since human beings were snack food in the food chain. Maybe you’ve been in a relationship with a cave dweller (who hasn’t?), but that’s not quite the same thing as the "fight or flight" stress response system needed by the cave dwellers of long ago.

The hormones, made in your Endocrine system, deserve real recognition, since they have likely saved your life more than once, even if you didn’t know it. Do you remember when you were cruising along, not paying particular attention, and you almost ended up in the ditch or flew off that bank? Alternatively, perhaps there was a time when you weren’t completely attentive and nearly lost your footing when you were about to go down some stairs. Well, your stress response system saved your life those times, just like all the other times, too.

Do you get the picture? Your stress response system is built into you and you need it for survival, but lately we have been quite demanding on it. Give the poor thing a break. Rather than overusing it all the time, start making better decisions and use that noggin a little more and not just while driving. Stop relying on your hormones, so much, to be your savior.

Of course, I don’t think we are all dummies, but there are two popular book series on the market that think we are, not only, dummies, but, in fact, complete idiots, I'm just saying that perhaps we’ve lost a little of our motivation to be creative with our problem solving. Stop letting life push you around so much and then you won’t need to be reactive and rely on your hormones so much. When we let life push, it will always push hard but when we push back, just a little, the laws of physics mobilize and then we don’t need our stress response quite so much.

Do you remember your high school physics? Remember inertia and mass and when the immovable force met the irresistible object. Of course, we’re all aware there’s no such thing as an immovable force or an irresistible object, but the point is, when we push on something, it will move, as opposed to our being on the receiving end of the push. This applies to most everything in life - family, kids, careers, and everything else. So, push back a little or even a lot and take back control of your health and your life. That way, your hormones can earn a well-deserved break and get a little rest. It’s just like the commercial used to say, "You deserve a break today," and so do your hormones.