Our brains are instinctively designed to respond to a crisis in three ways.
PICTURE: Haley Phelps/Unsplash
Freeze: Hide, to stay still and hope the crisis doesn’t notice us and passes by.
Flight: To run for it as fast as we can and hope we outrun the crisis.
Fight: To come out with our fists, flailing at anything that might want to hurt us.
It was a good tactic when we were cave dwellers.
Psychologist Miriam Brown talks about a fourth option – float. Standing back, acknowledging the emotions that want to drive a fight, flight, freeze response, and letting them pass. Instead, floating in God’s goodness. Trusting that things will be OK.
If you can master the float, then the more advanced parts of our brain can go to work to find a better solution.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.
