The Stress Response Series: Fight
Last week I talked about why we can’t think our way out of stress and burnout and starting this week I’ll be doing a mini series on each of the 4 major stress responses.
So, let’s begin shall we?
Of the 4 stress responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn), I think fight tends to be the one that most people can immediately recognize.
Have you ever gotten cut off in traffic and felt your heart rate increase? Your breathing get a little more shallow? And if you’re really on one you may even yell out some expletives or even worse, try to pull up next to them at some point and let them see how pissed you are 👀?
Welcome to the fight response.
Remember, one of the main jobs of our nervous system is to keep us safe and our stress responses are a direct result of our nervous system believing we are in some form of danger.
The point is not to never have stress and/or to never have a response. They are there for a reason - they kept many of our ancestors alive (and are the reason we are here today) and in our current lives we still need these responses in certain moments to protect us.
The problem becomes when we have these responses and we can’t / don’t come out of it; when our body stays in the fight mode and we remain in prolonged states of stress.
When we stay in these states, such as fight, for too long we can experience dis-ease and literal disease. Our cortisol increases and our blood vessels shrink which decreases the flow of blood and oxygen to our brain and other vital organs.
All parts of our body are impacted: our hormones, our cognitive functioning, our digestion and the list goes on which can have both acute and long term physical effects.
And don’t even get me started on the mental and emotional effects! Have you ever tried to talk to a friend, a family member or a significant other when they are stressed? Or be the one that people try to talk to when you are stressed? I think it’s safe to say……. it ain’t cute.
I find that the misconception around the fight response is that it literally means you want to fight someone (like in the car example above), and you might, but more times than not it’s really the emotional response that is often associated with preparing for a fight.
The fight response is part of the hyper-arousal category which means that you are more prone to be hyper vigilant, feel a sense of urgency, feelings of anxiety and heightened agitation.
This can translate in real time to being a high performer but not knowing how to turn off; it can look like urgency being involved in everything that you do with little to no discernment; it can look like hyper-productivity with little to no rest or boundaries as well as being more prone to seek out conflict.
From personal experience and observation, because of tight timelines, competition and high pressure, the fight state is nearly the norm in most corporate / organizational settings.
Without any way of recognizing + addressing it, it can and most likely will eventually lead to complete burnout.
5 Ways to Address the Fight Response
Return to your senses. Take note of 1 thing for each sense (taste, touch, sound, sight and smell)
Deep belly (not chest) breathing
Incorporate slow movements: slow eye moving, slow walking, slow breathing.
Look at (and be in, if possible) scenes of nature. Our nervous systems feel the most safe looking at (and being immersed in) natural environments.
Notice the moments when your fight response is the most active and get curious if there’s a pattern.
I’d also like to note that as important as it is to notice and address the response, if it’s something that is frequent and ongoing, it’s equally as important to get curious about its deeper roots (examining your environments, relationships, belief systems, past traumas and overall nervous system health/healing).
This may be something you feel safe to do and explore on your own and it also may require professional support. Either way, give yourself the gift of healing on the deeper levels so you have full access to your energy (vs. spending all of your time and energy trying to manage your stress.
Next week we’ll be looking at the next stress response: Flight!
Until next time, sending you peace and clean energy,
Bianca
p.s - If you need some extra nervous system support, here is an EFT video on turning off the fight response. Hope it helps!
p.p.s - If you want to dive deeper into the stress responses and burnout specifically within the work place (how they show up, how they impact our well-being, our relationships and our work,), you can check out my 2 part Nervous System Series which is designed for organizations who are ready to support their employees’ stress and burnout levels on a deeper and more sustainable level.