On this particular day, as I was holding and tickling his five year old, Sarah Kate, I fell backward and caught her bare leg and foot between me and the wrought iron chair I was sitting in. As you can imagine, with her tiny leg being caught between my weight and the hard chair, she became justifiably hysterical. When we asked if she was okay, she just shook her head, “no,” with a terrified expression, and cried. Of course, I felt terrible, and wanting to help, I calmly said, “I'm sorry, Sarah Kate. Can you tell us, on a scale of one to ten, how bad your leg is hurt?”
My original intention was to assess if she would need any drastic medical attention. It turns out, she was okay, but something very interesting happened during the exchange. Within about three seconds, she went from a hysterical state to a light whimper, stating she was ok. Instantly, I realized that when I asked the slightly more complicated question, Sara Kate's consciousness shifted out of her automatic, fight or flight state to a place where she could access her higher brain in order to answer.
This little incident is really a great analogy for what happens to us in our daily lives on a more subtle basis. The physiological mechanism of fight or flight is exactly the same as the stressed physiology that many folks live in for their entire existence.
Just to clarify, there are times when that physiology is totally appropriate. For instance, the other day, while moving furniture and electronics in the office; I accidentally grabbed hold of a plug that was half in and half out of the wall. I quickly jerked my hand away when I felt the hundred and twenty some odd volts running through my fingers. It was an automatic reaction, and a good thing too, since it would have taken too long for me to access my higher brain and consider a mode of action. Luckily, the body is set up to access the lower, more reactive brain for these very situations.
The whole incident had come and gone within a second. It wouldn't have been appropriate for me to stay in that reactive state after the incident was over. But that is exactly what happens to so many people who are overwhelmed with ongoing or peak stressful events. Even after the event is over, the heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar stay elevated. Our breath becomes shallower, our muscles tighten down and resources are directed away from the higher brain to take care of the “emergency.”
The higher brain, or more specifically, the prefrontal lobes, provides us with the ability to love, process new information, be creative and make self-assessments. These are all functions that we do not generally have access to in crisis situations. A majority of the time, people are actually unaware that they are even in a stressed physiology. In addition to all of the physical detriments that manifest with stress, our perceptions and behaviors are altered. Not only do we have a limited perspective on life situations, but we are less able to develop conscious strategies or options to deal with our life situations.
Methods such as Somato-Respiratory Integration and Network Spinal Analysis are designed to help individuals gain greater access to their own resources and navigate life in a more conscious state. Just as young Sara Kate was able to access her own higher brain and consciously consider her response and behaviors, we have the opportunity to do the same and navigate our lives from a place of resource instead of crisis.
