Your heart races, your hands clench the wheel; you’re distracted from driving by constantly looking at the clock. Stress overwhelms you as you realize you will be late for work again or have to face an unpleasant situation, and your body’s systems react. Stress occurs in our lives every day in small segments like this, and we seem to survive just fine. However, when stress is prolonged and our body is never given a chance to relax, it can have dangerous consequences. Many chronic health conditions are created from having too much stress for too long.

There is no way to prevent stressful situations from ever occurring in our lives. However, there are ways to reduce the harmful effects that stress has on our body systems. Biofeedback is a process in which individuals can learn to use their mind to teach their body functions to work efficiently. Beyond negative stress-related effects on the body, biofeedback can also help people train their bodies to deal with symptoms from other health conditions.