Fight Flight Freeze - Our Stress Response
One of the most important things that we can learn about when it comes to our mental health - or more accurately our overall health as everything is part of the same system - is about how we respond to feeling stressed.
When something is going on in the world around us that feels unsafe, or we feel in danger or under threat in any way, our stress response takes over with the purpose of keeping us safe.
We automatically adopt a survival mode which is often called fight, flight or freeze - because that is exactly what we are prepared to do. This response is the reason that we survive day to day challenges that are a threat to our actual safety.
However, once in survival mode, we are not able to think calmly and rationally, because the part of our brain that is responsible for that is not working as it normally would - we are too busy surviving.
So, when our actual safety is not under threat It is important that we learn how to find our way out of survival mode and back to a place where we feel balance, often called to self regulate.
There are lots of ways to do this, including some moments in a natural space.
Check out these videos for more thoughts: