Hello, Spiritual Warrior! Thank you for being here today.

Humans are hard-wired with this self-preservation mechanism known as fight or flight. It’s woven into our physiology, and has been for tens of thousands of years. This design of the body goes back to the days when humans were evolving and living amongst the dangers of the animal kingdom.

Tens of thousands of years ago, when you were walking through a jungle and knew you were being tracked by a sabertooth tiger, your body put a system in place to help ensure your survival. That system is called fight or flight – you either fight back, or you run.

In less than 5 seconds, your autonomic nervous system makes sure it does all that it can to help you survive. Here’s a few ways that your nervous system jumps into high gear:

• You’ll immediately begin to perspire, as you will overheat either fighting or running
• Your breath becomes rapid and shallow, helping the blood start flowing
• Your heartbeat races, and blood pressure increases
• Peripheral vision shrinks – our bodies are helping us to only focus on this one thing in front of us
• Our five senses start to shut down, and we will zone into whatever sense we need
• Our blood begins clotting, so that if we are attacked, our body will heal faster
• We get a huge surge of adrenaline – so that 100% of our resources are given to fight or flight

All of this happens within 5 seconds, and can last for up to 18 hours if we survive the situation.

These days, we are no longer being chased by a sabertooth tiger, but now we have threats that look quite different. We are living in a society of triggers now that look much different than being attacked by a wild animal, yet the physiological response in the body is still the same.

So how can we manage this? One of my favorite tools to help is a breathing exercise called the 16 Seconds Technique:

1. Breathe in through nose
2. Watch the breath come in, go down into the belly.
3. Hold and watch and witness.
4. Then release it – watching as it flows out.
5. Hold and watch and witness.

By simply doing this exercise (over and over again if needed!), you can move yourself from an experience of fight / flight back into a space of calm and restful awareness.