This is a physiological reaction that arises when we are in the presence of something that may be psychologically or physically terrifying. This response is triggered by the release of several hormones that prepare your body to fight the threat, freeze or hide from the threat, fawn or convince the threat not to cause you harm or flee the threat.

The Psoas muscle plays a pivotal role in the functioning of the hips, as it connects your torso to your legs and helps you stay in an upright position. This area plays a key function in your fight or flight response and retains stress pockets, especially when dealing with overactivation of the nervous system. One way to release and break down these stress pockets is by engaging in yoga and other tension-release exercises.

The prefrontal cortex is a brain area that is involved in emotional and cognitive processing and emotion regulation. It regulates anxiety-like behaviors and stress-induced fear responses by enforcing inhibitory effects. It is our brains, chief executive officer, in charge of planning complex behaviors, attention, personality expression, memory, and decision-making abilities.

The amygdala, a marble-sized brain area, helps coordinate responses to things in your environment, especially those that trigger an emotional response. This structure plays an important role in fear and anger. Amygdala hijack happens when your brain reacts to psychological stress as if it's physical danger and triggers your fight-or-flight response.

The hippocampus is a key area of the brain involved in basic function. It is part of the temporal lobe and intimately related to the amygdala. The hippocampus is involved with memory retrieval and storage. When functioning optimally, the hippocampus is thought to create an appropriate context for memories, helping to support a coherent narrative of what is and isn’t dangerous, keeping the amygdala regulated so that it is active only when appropriate.

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is critical for both stress and inhibitory control processes and has been implicated in childhood trauma. Sitting right under the top of your head, it serves to help us stay aware and take in stimuli around us to make informed-decisions. When impacted by trauma, this part of the brain diminishes in size over time and is unable to take in environment cues optimally, and instead relies on past learning data to make decisions.

Dopamine is a chemical messenger made by our bodies, and is controlled by our nervous system. It plays a primary role in determining how we feel pleasure. It guides our ability to plan, draw motivation, think, find things interesting, and focus.

Serotonin is another important chemical messenger. It helps us in regulating mood and social behaviors. It often guides our appetite, digestion, sexual desire, and functioning, as well as sleep and memory. Low serotonin levels are often linked with depression symptoms.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal gland in response to stress and is one of the three hormones involved in the fight-flight-freeze-fawn response. Cortisol helps to regulate our blood sugar, blood pressure, and maintain our immune system. However, the issue arises when we are continuously exposed to stressful stimuli resulting in the overproduction of cortisol in our bodies, which may lead to health issues.

Epinephrine (also called adrenaline) is one of the three hormones involved in the fight-flight-freeze-fawn response. It is an evolutionary adaptation that allows us to cope with unexpected and dangerous situations. It increases our heart rate, and gives us a surge of energy and focus allowing us to brace for and/or confront a threat.

Last but not least in hormones involved in the fight-flight-freeze-fawn response is Norepinephrine. Norepinephrine works alongside Epinephrine. Its primary purpose is to invoke arousal. Similar to the purpose of Epinephrine, it serves as a backup system of sorts.

Endorphins are chemicals that our body releases when it is in pain or is under stress. These chemicals help in reducing emotional distress, relieving pain, and offering a sense of well-being. These chemicals interact with receptors in the brain that help in lessening our perception of pain.

Oxytocin is a powerful hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. It plays a crucial role in reproduction, childbirth, and childcare. It is also involved in broader social behavior and cognition. Often called the “love hormone” due to its pair-bonding, it reinforces attachment between mother-infant as well as adult romantic relationships.

Metacognition is quite simply “thinking about thinking”. It involves conscious awareness of one’s thoughts. Separating the thought from you, the onlooker. This emboldening idea lends the notion that if we have the ability to observe our thoughts, we may possibly have the power to change our thoughts.

Metta meditation is one of many types of Buddhist Meditation. The term is derived from the Pali language, meaning friendliness, amity, goodwill, benevolence, loving-kindness, and active interest in others. The goal of such meditation is to cultivate kindness for oneself and for all those around us. The main technique of this meditation involves reciting positive affirmations towards oneself and these surrounding beings.

The ego is the psychological component of the personality that is represented by our conscious decision-making process.

Egosyntonic refers to values, feelings, and behaviors that are in harmony with the needs and goals of the ego, and one's ideal self-image.

Egodystonic is the opposite, wherein, one's thoughts and behaviors conflict with the needs and goals of one's ego and ideal self-image.

In psychology, projection is a defense mechanism, wherein one may attribute intolerable thoughts, impulses, urges, or feelings that they do not want to admit, onto other people.

This is another defense mechanism, involving an inability to consciously acknowledge feelings, desires, thoughts, or facets of reality that may be too painful or unacceptable for the self.