When we’re alarmed or afraid, the two primitive and immediate reactions are either to stand and fight off the danger or else to run away as quickly as possible. As soon as you feel threatened, the body mobilizes for action. It happens more quickly than we can think and is triggered off by hormones, the most powerful and well-known of which is adrenalin. Instantly all muscles tense for action. You breathe faster, your heart beats more quickly and your blood pressure goes up to provide oxygen for those tense muscles. Sugar is released from the liver in much higher quantities to provide fuel for the muscles. The balance of potassium and sodium in the body alters. You begin to sweat. The muscles in your belly tighten and your digestion is slowed down or even stops altogether. There are even changes in the electrical resistance in your skin. In every sense of the word, you become a different person. And the first sign that you are under stress and responding to it is that your muscles become tense.

When you deliberately relax your muscles, you put the body into reverse. You calm it down. Because your muscles are no longer tense they no longer need so much oxygen and sugar. So your heart beats more slowly and your blood pressure drops. You breathe more easily; your liver cuts back its release of sugar; you start to digest your food again; you stop sweating. The sodium and potassium in your body find their original balance. You also stop producing adrenalin and all the other hormones you needed when you were under stress. And as the sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone, and the stress hormone adrenalin, are all produced from the same ‘chemical building blocks’ it seems to me as though when we are under stress we cut down on the amount of those two sex hormones we produce. So you can see how essential relaxation is to give our bodies the best chance to produce the hormones vital for pain-free periods.

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