As you turn off your car and escape the demands of the day, you hear a newsflash on the radio: “A tiger just…”

You dismiss the warning and head toward the door after a hard day of work. You’ve already walked half there when you notice a very large, very disoriented Bengal tiger perched close to your font door. Before you have the chance to think, your heart races, adrenaline courses through your veins, and the “fight or flight” response of the human body begins to take place.

The amount of energy and disparity in your choices cause a malfunction in your brain. Instead of running to safety, you cannot move. As you become glued to the sidewalk, the Bengal crouches low to the ground and take a few stealthy steps toward you.

Your mind begins to weigh the options for safety. Run as fast you can back to the car. Take the last few steps toward the front stoop and unlock the door. Reach for your phone and dial 911. Yell for help.

You survey the yard and notice that a squirrel sits to your left, also frozen in time like you. Without much thought, you throw your keys at the squirrel, hoping the tiger will get distracted from you long enough an escape. Though your idea worked and the Bengal moves toward the squirrel running toward the tree, you now have to regain your keys and make it to safety, which will take twice as long.

This all happens in a matter of 10 seconds. You get the picture. When your body has a “fight or flight” response, the frontal cortex of the brain energizes the body before you have the chance to make a clear, deductive choice. This is also the case when you have a PTSD moment. The same chemicals reach the frontal lobes of the brain faster than your mind can reasonably process the situation, which usually results in a negative response to a situation that could have been changed by a rational thought.

You don’t have to wonder too hard to understand why human beings have a stronger response to fear than you would think we need, if you simply realize that the majority of humans have only lived in protective homes for the past 200 years. Before that homes were basic shelter with few amenities, including safety from the wild. Humans were designed as hunter/gatherers more than they were for sitting at desks or passing time on a cellphone.

So, when you respond or react without thinking because of fluttering heart or disorienting thought, give yourself a break. The instance wasn’t all your fault. Some of what happened was a malfunction in the brain. My question, and perhaps yours is: Can the brain and the chemicals of the body learn to change old, neural pathways for responses that have been learned and tethered to your life for many years?

The answer is yes!

Without proper response triggers reprogrammed into the subconscious mind, you can take an old thought pattern and change it to a new, positive one. You can also see signs of “fight or flight” patterns before they actually occur, in which case you can curb the need to act irrationally.

Give me a call to learn more about this process.

Hypnosis on Las Olas: 954-253-6493.

Bo Sebastian

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