Rapid Activation and Deactivation—Animal vs Human Stress Response

Welcome to Stretch—I’m Charlotte, a certified breathwork facilitator and online writer. My goal is to inspire you to be curious about your body and how you can use it to be more focused, motivated and energized.

⏪ Last time, I shared what happens to your brain and body when you “overbreathe” (i.e. too much and too fast), and why learning how to slow down your breathing improves focus, moods, and stress levels.

⏩ Todayyyyy, we’re talking about how wild animals manage stress versus humans (spoiler alert: we can learn quite a bit from them!)

Have you ever watched a nature documentary and marveled at how quickly animals seem to shake off stressful encounters?

One minute a gazelle is running for its life from a cheetah, the next it's calmly grazing as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, I can spend hours ruminating over my neighbor’s passive-aggressive comment about the bins.

I’ve been exploring the science of the stress response in previous newsletters—like how anxiety can be used for good and good versus not-so-good stress-relief strategies. I’ve noticed how having a basic understanding of what’s going on physiologically helps me observe stress with curiosity instead of panic or self-criticism. It’s helped me move from “stress is the enemy” to “stress is natural, and there are things I can do to move forward.”

Then more recently, in my Breath Science program with Martin McPhilimey, I’ve been learning about the stress response of animals versus humans.

And as per usual, there’s quite a bit we can learn from so-called “less intelligent” species…

The Animal Way: Quick and Efficient

When faced with a threat, animals typically exhibit what scientists call the "fight-or-flight" response. It's a beautifully orchestrated physiological dance:

• Heart rate increases

• Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol flood the system

• The animal freezes, flees, or fights

But then once the threat passes, animals quickly return to their baseline state. It's like they have an internal "reset" button that gets pushed as soon as danger is gone.

This rapid cycle of activation and deactivation is incredibly adaptive for survival in the wild. It allows animals to conserve energy and stay alert for the next potential threat.

Dr. Peter Levine, an American psychotraumatologist and biophysicist, did a lot of interesting research here.

He observed how after stress, wild animals undergo a natural healing process. They shake, tremble, or breathe deeply, which helps their bodies recover and calms their nervous systems after intense stress. He found that even though these animals often face dangerous situations, they don't suffer from long-term trauma.

Zoo animals? Different story. Humans? Also different story.

The Human Way: Complex and Prolonged

While we have similar rapid "fight-or-flight" responses, our stress reactions tend to be more complex and long-lasting.

This has everything to do with our evolved brains and social structures:

• Our brains have evolved in a way that we’re able to override our fight-or-flight instincts. We often suppress or internalize stress due to social norms or personal hang-ups.

• We can get stuck in a "freeze" response, especially when fight or flight isn't socially acceptable. Even though our heart is racing and we have adrenaline and cortisol coursing through our system, we stay seated. We stay quiet. We lie down.

• We have the mental capability to feel stressed about things that haven’t happened (yet), or ruminate on past events. That brain power for complex memory and imagination has been crucial for our survival and development as a species, but in our modern world, that ability can also backfire, and means we never really get a break. There’s Harvard research showing that we spend 47% of our waking hours ruminating. It’s a miracle we function as well as we do!

So as humans, we tend to remain in a sedentary, socially acceptable state of stress activation long after the immediate “threat” has passed.

As a result, we don’t complete the cycle of rapid activation and deactivation like animals do. The energy remains trapped in our body, and over time, manifests as distress and disease.

Channel Your Inner Gazelle

I have two pieces of good news for you:

Firstly, we’re all born with a hardwired system for stress (activation) and a system for destress (deactivation). Just like animals.

That means that we can learn how to control and release stress.

Secondly, we all have several tools at our immediate disposal to control and release our stress. There’s no need to buy anything. No need to quit your job and go live by the beach. All it takes is some of your time and attention.

01 Reframe stress

Animals respond to threats without second-guessing themselves, and then they move on. They don’t beat themselves up for feeling stressed and they don’t see it as a personal failing. Stress is neither good or bad. It just is.

So the first place to start is to understand and reframe stress.

Stress, at its core, is a survival mechanism. It’s a biological system designed to focus you. To get you moving. To keep you alive.

We have very little control over the stress response, and it happens to everyone.

When we understand what’s happening, we can learn to observe the reactions in our mind and body and immediately use our body-based tools to mitigate the stress response.

I feel very strongly about the fact that everyone should understand what their autonomic nervous sytem does. (When you don’t, it’s like you’re driving a car at high speed but you don’t know where the gas pedal or brake is!)

02 Physical release

Animals literally shake off stress. We can do the same. A quick walk or a run, some jumping jacks, a Qi Gong shake routine—these all help release tension.

Stress needs to be processed via the body, not just the mind.

My personal mantra has become “when stuck, get up.” I’ve learned that my tendency is to freeze when I’m feeling overwhelmed. I stare at my laptop. Grab my phone and start doomscrolling. Feel the urge to crawl into bed.

When I notice these urges, I remind myself to get up and move. Sometimes I have to repeat it a few times. But every single time, I feel better after just 30 seconds of moving, even if it’s simply walking a few circles around my living room.

Quick side note but I find it important to share:

This is an area where I’ve most strongly experienced the beauty of neuroplasticity. I have literally rewired my brain in a way that movement has become an almost automatic reaction to stress. I still get as stressed and overwhelmed, but I don’t feel as stuck. I’m much quicker to get up and move. I’ve trained myself to do this through repetition and intention, and you guessed it, understanding my nervous system. One of the things that helped me in the beginning, is having a physical reminder on the wall that literally said “when stuck, get up.” 

03 Quick reset

Animals don't worry about tomorrow's hunt or yesterday's close call. Once it’s over, they move on.

As humans, we can also work on our recovery time by developing our own internal “reset” button.

I’ve been working with a client and his reset button is 3 expansive breaths, focusing on 360 expansion of his lower ribcage.

My quick reset is walking, stretching my body, or a few physiological sighs.

I encourage you to give the physiological sigh a try—it’s very powerful. According to Andrew Huberman, the physiological sigh is “the quickest way to push back on the stress response in real-time.”

It’s simple:

• 2 inhales through the nose (one long until you feel you can do no more, and then a second small one)

• 1 long extended exhale through the mouth

• 1–3 times

Here’s a 20-seconds demonstration of how to do this:

Next time you're feeling stressed, try channeling your inner gazelle. Recognize the threat, respond appropriately, and then let it go. It might feel strange at first, but remember: it's in your nature too. And the more often you can do this, the more your brain will learn.

What else I’m up to…