Social situations are the new stalking lions in our lives. How can we survive?
The bullets:
The brain reacts the same to emotional threat as to physical threat.
Threat takes us out of the game and majorly decreases our creativity.
Knowing you're in threat is powerful to combating an unnecessary threat response.
There are some steps you can take to help restore peace.
The brain can’t tell the difference between physical threat and emotional threat. It is going react (ie fight/flight/freeze) to both the same.
HOW TO KNOW IF YOU'RE POSSIBLY IN THREAT
Heart speeds up
Sweating Blood will flow to larger areas like your legs to prep you to run away
Hearing negatively effected (less middle frequency)
Ability for eye contact goes down
Ability to think smoothly and reflectively diminishes
Becoming more reactive
Less creativity
Vigilance (noticing every little problem)
Thoughts that see others as a threat (likely in the form of judging people) and yourself as vulnerable (likely in over inflating yourself or under inflating).
2 STEPS TO CONSIDER FOR RESTORING PEACE:
Awareness: notice that you’re in a threat response without judging yourself. This is MASSIVELY different than just being IN a threat response.
Shift from inside focus to outside focus: this comes from Somatic Experiencing. We take 80% of our content in from sight. Using your vision, let your eyes go wherever they want. SLOWLY. You are trying to not think and just notice the outside environment: colors, lighting, textures, objects, details, shapes, etc. Doesn’t matter why you want to look at anything. The point is to shift from the brain focusing on the inside to focusing on the outside. This literally shifts which part of the brain is activated and can give your nervous system a chance to reset. Notice if you spontaneously take a deeper breath or sigh or yawn or want to stretch. It could help to tap your feet while you do this.