“Fight or Flight!”
“The fight-or-flight response was first described in the 1920s by American physiologist Walter Cannon. Cannon realized that a chain of rapidly occurring reactions inside the body helped to mobilize the body’s resources to deal with threatening circumstances. Today the fight-or-flight response is recognized as part of… stress response.” Author Kendra Cherry.*
Replace Fear with Destiny!
Deal – Engage – Strategy – Trust – Intelligence – Never – Yearn
In this article we will share some of the WeWan Society training we live by, and teach our followers. We know that these steps are vital, and are but first steps in controlling and eliminating fear. It is the goal of the WeWan Society to teach those who wish to Walk in Balance, the Four Basic Stepping Stones of Life… Fear, Time, Joy, and Vision!
Lets go over the Steps to
Controlling Fear in our lives!
Basic Reactions: When confronted with a fearful or stressful emotions one of the first, and our built-in basic instinct is to stay and confront… or run away to safety.
We have evolved mentally in nearly every other function of the brain… but this vital one.
Body response: When this happens, the body instinctively excretes a cascade of hormones that triggers in turn physical reactions such as, rapid heart and lung action, paling or flushing, constriction of blood vessels to slow bleeding and at the same time dilation of blood vessels to the muscles with instant energy release for muscular action, dilation of pupil for best vision, tunnel vision for focusing and other automatic responses.
Crazy isn’t it how primal we are in these situations. These reactions were vital to our ancient ancestors but these same emotions can be a hindrance to our survival today.
But take heart: These same auto-emotions can be both controlled and be a useful tool in conquering your fears. By paying attention to these triggers you can learn to control and refocus… eliminating fears.
Quick Tip: When you feel these changes starting, focus on a singular point in the distance, while refocusing on your task at hand, slow your breathing by breathing thru your nose, shake your shoulders and relax and observe…
while telling yourself, “I’m in control.” Plan your next moves and put them into action. It is all about control. You can do it!
1. Deal with your Doubts
The First part of “Action” is “ACT!”
ACTion: In military training we are taught to be ever vigilant, for the unusual, out of place, unexpected movements, flashes and weird shapes… large and small. We are trained to react to these situations immediately, assess each situation and evaluate as to friend or foe. We also are to be hyper-vigilant, ever alert to all possible exits, and what can be weaponized. The latter could mean the difference between your defense or worse. This ability to act quickly, under pressure prepares us for future situations in real time. In civilian life these same training values apply.
Make a game of it: Take time to practice these actions in your daily life. Go to a mall and “people watch” what they are doing and how they move, or in a park and observe the natural vs unnatural. For every abnormal action or image, assign an action that you could take in a given situation to take in your mind.
The game is vital practice that will serve you well in a real crisis.
Practice, practice and grow in confidence.
Replace Doubt with Reality.
2. Engage-focus elsewhere!
Strange as it sounds, momentarily concentrating on something comfortable and irrelevant can free the part of your brain that processes reactions, to recenter your response from the chemical stimulation back to cognitive thinking.
This doesn’t mean to start picking flowers while a bull in the pasture is starting to become agitated, but for a moment perhaps, concentrate on the safety of the field on the other side of the fence, and your being there in safety… then make a hasty exit from the bull’s pasture.
This allows you to stay in control.
3. Strategy – have your contingency plan
By utilizing the Seven Value Strategies in this article you will create a plan of ACTion that will provide you with contingencies for every FEAR that crosses your path. If you continue to wander onto the path of “Know not Where” will truly bring more fear and only weaken you.
Resolve this day to begin implementation of these Seven Strategies into your life.
So that when FEAR next confronts you… you will be ready!
4. Trust your plan – focus on what matters
Focus on the facts in a given situation. Once you have gathered all the facts you have at hand, sorted them and prioritized them… trust your intel (see 5. Intelligence), the things that matter. Make your plan and ACT on that PLAN. Don’t seek perfection. Allow for flexibility as issues change. Follow the motto of the Boy Scouts and always “BE Prepared!” Remember there is no perfect answer to unpredictable circumstances.
Don’t seek perfection, Trust your ACTion Plan!
5. Intelligence – In military parlance, Intel is king
Know what you know — and what you don’t!
Precisely, fear is the absence of knowledge coupled with a lack of a plan…the lack of information about the factors that are causing you to be fearful, and what can be done in the situation. By ascertaining all the relevant facts, filtering the known from the unknown, evaluating priorities and assigning each their level of importance, you can, as the old story says, “Begin to eat the elephant one bite at a time.”
With this process, you can reduce the potential risks systematically, worse case to least in that order. Doing so you empower yourself, while squelching any need for fear… again, you are controlling your ACTions within any situation…
Leave nothing to happenstance.
6. Never worship the ‘god’ of “What if?”
Within the WeWan Society we often address the fallacy of, as we call it, “Worshiping the ‘god’ of what-if!” What-if is the place of all things improbable, of that which could possibly happen, once in a million years, but never in reality happen. The fanciful, implausible, rare, unbelievable… you know, the unlikely, far-fetched flimsy, slim and none… you get it! Things that just aren’t going to happen.
They are dangerous distractions that waste time, and must be avoided.
Spending any time with this pathetic ‘god’, will only distract you from reality and will clutter your thought process with useless chaff.
Remain calm, and focus on the reality at hand!
7. Yearn for the BEST answer,
Concentrate your entire being on the best possible ACTions for the current situation. Be prepared to be flexible with a contingency plan ready. Then reaffirm the following…
- Practice, practice and grow in confidence. Replace Doubt with Reality.
- Redirect your focus momentarily and then focus on the issue… always stay in control.
- Have a plan of ACTion, and you will always be ready!
- Don’t seek perfection, Trust your ACTion Plan!
- Intel is King… Leave nothing to happenstance.
- Remain calm, and focus on the reality at hand!At all cost avoid negative feelings, no matter your passion and angst…
these are sure sources of stress. - Don’t dwell on the problem, ACT on your BEST solution!
Your learned skills in this exercise will ensure you the ability to weed out the “what ifs” and allow you to focus on the elimination of the FEAR that is confronting you at the moment.
Trust your intuition, a lot!
Practice that trust until it is your next thought.
Eliminate your FEARS…
Trust your instinct
Remember, your planning now will ensure your ACTion Plan to defeat FEAR is the key.
Through practice you will be able to be in command of the abstract world in which FEAR resides. Doing so you are making giant strides towards eliminating FEAR and ensuring that YOU are the Maker of your own DESTINY!
*Kendra Cherry is an author and educator and a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist. www.KendraCherry.com
