Our body is feeling the stress, now what?
If we can interrupt the stress response and send our brain the message that we are ok and that there is not a real threat to our safety, we can "reprogram" that response so that eventually we do not react to that stimulus in that same way.
How do we do that?
The hippocampus (where we store memory) needs to get involved. We are experiencing the stress because our hippocampus had a negative memory attached to a situation similar to that which is causing the stress response. If we can send a message to the hippocampus that the situation is not a threat to us, we can interrupt the stress response and eventually that situation should not cause that response again. We have told our brain that whatever that was, was not a danger to our lives.