Day in and day out little nuisance things happen to us – little things – you stumble, drop some papers, take a wrong turn, spill a cup of coffee or lose your cell phone connection. In our busy and over-scheduled lives, little events become big events. And when already frazzled, a truly large event now becomes completely unmanageable.

In 2004 Dr. Robert Sapolsky published a book titled, Why Zebra’s Don’t Get Ulcers. In it, he presents that animals and humans are equipped to handle both calm and danger. The parasympathetic system runs all of the routine internal body systems, day in and day out (periods of calm). The sympathetic system is designed to help us survive in a period of danger, stress or euphoria, and interrupts the parasympathetic system.

I am not a scientist, so here is my simple summary of his findings. When we are calm (we are not affected by the nuisance events), our internal maintenance systems respond – we stay healthy.

But when we get upset (the brain senses danger – big or small), it activates a fight or flight response. The body calls all its resources to be ready for something big, shutting down its focus on the daily support functions. We are now ready for a fight or a flight.

Here is the point. The body is designed to handle a temporary fight or flight response. Animals know this. And according to Sapolsky, when the lion gets his prey, or the zebra gets away, the fight or flight response ends and the body resumes its normal response. But humans are different. When we experience recurring nuisance events, we move our systems into a state of perpetual stress; we constantly signal to our bodies to be ready to fight or hit the road. And when this happens, the regular, healthy and maintenance functions of the body are interrupted. The result – a challenged immune system resulting in ulcers, cancer, diabetes and other illnesses.

How we perceive events activates emotions; emotions activate neurological and biological responses in our body. We must train ourselves to manage our emotional responses to all types of events – to know what is danger and what is only a nuisance- to stay healthy and sane.

So consider this:
1. Is this a nuisance and you should laugh it off? (Laughing is great for our health).
2. Is this truly serious and worth the attention?

Life throws out small tests to get us ready for larger ones. Manage your responses and use fight or flight only when it is needed – the body was designed that way. Learn from the zebras – they don’t get ulcers. They don’t let the little stuff get them down. That way, when they need to run, they are really ready – and they survive. And at every other point, they are loving life.