Many people understand that your brain and nervous system run everything that happens in your body, but the vast majority of their actions are subconscious.
The most important thing that your brain is doing in every moment is perceiving the environment both inside your body and that of the outside world. What people don’t always realize is that your brain is filtering out most of that information and that happens without you knowing it and without your permission. For example, your lungs have a smell, your teeth have a taste, your clothes have a feel, but your brain is filtering out most of that information.
So what happens if your brain and nervous system are in a heightened state of stress? Wouldn’t that change the way it perceives the environment? A person might experience that heightened state of anxiety as focus issues at work or school, or perhaps as a general heightened state of perception like kids who have issues with texture in their food or itchy tags that they’re always playing with. Overactive survival instincts change the way we perceive the world and that, in turn, affects our feelings, actions, and health.