HOLD ON! I wanted to check in with you and remind you of how you can identify when you are flip-flopping around in survival mode.
You are undoubtedly in survival mode when you’re overreacting and repressing.
“If this doesn’t get dealt with, EVERYTHING is going to go wrong.”
Overdramatizing and exaggerating stuff, where things are the absolute extreme and the absolute most dramatic.
That is a survival mindset doing OVERREACTION.
But repression is a sliprier fish
REPRESSION! Distracting yourself with things, substances, entertainment, or even just mindlessly scrolling through your phone, all of that stuff is Repression.
Going back and revisiting email several times a day, as if waiting, magically for the inbox to tell you where to put your priority and focus. Using the inbox as a guidance system is a definite sign of survival mode repression.
The TRUTH is; the majority of us living in developed Western countries have a roof over our heads. We have food in our fridge, some money in the bank, and people we can count/rely on. We technically are not in survival, but our amygdala (stress gland in the brain) does not think the same.
That little gland tells your adrenals to pump out adrenaline and cortisol. Anywhere we perceive a threat, consciously or unconsciously, the amygdala kicks in and does its job.
The trick is that the way humans perceive threats is different from all the other animals.
A kangaroo, a donkey, or a dog with their amygdala, only perceive threats from real physical threats.
Humans have this awesome imagination and reference to past emotional experiences. Our amygdala cannot distinguish a real threat from an imaginary threat, that’s our job. We have to maintain our perspective.
Part of the joy of being a human is that we’ve got all these incredible creative faculties. But it’s our curse too, and we have to be in charge of it. We have to be on top of it; we have to be watching it. It is sneaky!
So if you’re in survival mode, the only way to shift out of it is through SAFETY.
We are safe when we remind ourselves of all the resources that we have; we’re safe when we remind ourselves of all the love and care and attention that is around us. We are safe when we remind ourselves of all the things that are going right and all the things that we do have control over.
So you have to be in charge of your amygdala. When you are in your survival mode, you are not producing high-quality results.
Shifting you back to safety is what I do. So, if you’re reacting and repressing, you want to BOOK IN a call with me.
You want to talk to me about the unique way that you perceive threats in your environment, and to shift you back to safety.
Book a call with Emily The Diamond
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Love and REAL leadership,
Emily