Getting out of survival mode

through everything. Experiencing any or all of the above can be an indication that your body is stressed and potentially lacking in enough nutrients to give you the energy you need to face the day-to-day tasks of your life.

When we feel this way, it means that our body is caught in ‘‘fight or flight’’ – the arm of our nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system (SNS).

Our bodies are hard-wired for survival so when we are caught in fight or flight, the body translates your perceived stress or pressure as a life-threatening danger. As such, it diverts the blood away from your digestive tract and into your arms and legs.

It also lowers the priority of a number of other functions, such as the production of sex hormones, the repair of tissue damage and the digestion of food, in favour of producing adrenalin and cortisol, the stress hormones your body creates to help you through the period of danger. It also affects your sleep since of course your body doesn’t want you sleeping too deeply if there is any potential threat about.

When we make these stress hormones, it changes how we breathe to being more rapid and shallow breaths, turning over more oxygen leading to more free radicals.

These free radicals have the potential to damage our tissues so we must consume more antioxidants to combat their effect.

Yet, many people eat poorer quality food when they are stressed, right when their body needs more nutrients.

There are many ways to shift yourself from this state.

If you’re feeling as though you’re stuck in survival mode, try taking 20 long, slow diaphragmatic breaths each morning and night as this helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the body’s natural ‘‘rest and repair’’ system that balances out the SNS.

It might not sound like much but it can make a world of difference and is a great first step.

To learn all the other ways you can support your body out of survival mode, join Dr Libby on her upcoming New Zealand wide tour From Surviving to Thriving: what every woman needs to know. More information and tickets are available from drlibby.com