What You Believe About Stress May Matter More Than the Stress Itself

Something happens in your body before you are even aware of it. A difficult phone call lands. A symptom shows up uninvited. A demand arrives that you were not expecting. And in the space of a heartbeat, your nervous system has already begun shaping your response, not based on the stressor itself, but on a question it asks beneath the level of conscious thought: Do I have what I need to meet this?