There are also times when the body needs to slow down, even times when being absolutely still is a matter of life and death. If flight or fight are impossible, not being noticed may be our ticket to survival. When parasympathetic nerves dominate, the body slumps, the head hangs down, the arms go limp, the eyes are averted, the facial muscles go slack. As the smooth muscle fibers encircling the arterioles in the face lose their tone, these small blood vessels dilate and the facial skin is suffused with blood. We blush. The low-arousal state is experienced in the common feeling of shame. In a
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