You have probably noticed that there seems to be a lot of this around at the moment and it’s probably impacting you more than you’d like it to.
Fear and anger are highly motivating emotions and both stem from a perceived threat to safety. And that word ‘perceived’ is really important here. We don’t have to be unsafe to feel it. In fact, our imaginations are so powerful that we can often invoke bodily responses to imagined stimuli that are as strong as if it were the real thing. It’s why horror movies and book thrillers are so satisfying to engage with - all of the feels with none of the reality. And fear and anger are contagious - our nervous system picks up on them in others and sets off our own internal alarm system which can send us into fight or flight even though we're not sure why.
Our ‘flight or fight’ mechanism is a basic brain function designed for safety - a reactionary, in the moment response to threat that helps us to evade attack or fight back. It’s like a reflex - there’s no thought involved, just action. It’s helpful when there’s a real threat but distinctly unhelpful when threat is simply ‘perceived’ and isn’t actually real. The adrenaline spike, the stomach-drop, and the ‘drop everything’ response can be a hindrance and can only be tempered by accessing higher-level brain functioning where we apply logic and assess the situation before we run away or find a weapon.
The reality is that we live in an age where a lot of the higher-level processing is being left up to opinion-leaders²/influencers and now also to artificial intelligence. The ‘opinion-leader’ bit isn’t unusual - communities and tribes have always had leaders, shamans, elders, priests, governors, kings, etc. to provide wisdom and decide direction at a group and individual level. However, global travel, migration and ease of communication have complicated things. We are more aware now, more than ever in human history, of the different ways in which people live their lives, the different cultural and religious practices, attitudes to community, to family life and to individual freedoms. Access to all this extra information exposes our biases and the contradictions that exist within a narrowed way of thinking and raises questions that we don't always have answers for. We can either engage with that and learn and expand our view or, we can double down on our biases, ignore the contradictions and proceed with tunnel vision - it’s far easier. Easier still to delegate the thinking process to someone (or something) else and simply follow their lead.
We are sense-making creatures. We are designed to recognise patterns, conserve our energy by creating automatic responses to everyday occurrences, and predict future outcomes based on past experiences. We want to make sense of our world and our situation, our existence, and when we can’t it can lead towards a crisis at an existential level.
So, we retreat to our tribes where we feel a sense of belonging and safety. The tribe knows us. It understands us. It wants nothing more than for us to belong to it.
Within the tribe, a sense of cohesion and cooperation are essential; we can’t have a functioning society without them. We have to communicate and to work together. And this is true not only within the tribe but also cross-tribally. Especially now, in the Information Age, cross-community communication and cooperation is more important than ever before. Beneficent leaders respect this. They value it and protect it. Unfortunately, many leaders / opinion-leaders do not. They appreciate only the power of their position and its monetary value and they recognise fear and anger for the powerful motivators they are and they use them to further solidify their own position and extend their bank balance.
They recognise that once we are in ‘fight/flight’ mode we struggle to apply logic. We act out of reaction rather than decision. We go into self-protection mode and our primitive defence mechanisms¹ come into play.
Acting out - tantruming, using physical or impulsive behaviour to avoid uncomfortable feelings
Avoidance - actively avoiding certain topics because it’s too uncomfortable
Denial - refusal to accept reality because it is too challenging
Identification - behaving the same as people around us
Introjection - internalising someone else’s values as if they were ours
Projection - accusing other people of thoughts or impulses which are actually our own
Regression - behaving like we did when we were children
Repression - subconsciously blocking undesirable thoughts or impulses
Fantasising - creating an imaginary alternative reality
Splitting - all or nothing thinking
The ‘fear’ that is being engendered via all media platforms, but especially social media, is pushing us further into our caves, convincing us that the threat is ‘out there’ and that we are surrounded by it. And maybe sometimes they’re right but the only way to know for sure is to stick your head out of the cave and have a look for yourself every so often.
For me, what that looks like is engaging with a variety of media sources, not just the ones that say the things I like to hear or that are in agreement with me. I try to listen with an open mind and think about how what they have said fits with my lived experience. I look at the values of the person delivering the message - their moral code, their ethics and I think about whether I align with them. I listen to the tone in which the message is being delivered. Is it angry, dismissive, derisory? Are my emotions being played with and to what end? I think about the people I have come in contact with and what the messaging means for them. It’s hard work but it’s worth it. I know what I think and why I think that way but I’m willing to have my mind changed and I’m willing to be challenged.
If you’re feeling stuck in flight or fight mode you might want to try some of the following to ease your nervous system:
- Exercise. I know it’s the answer to everything these days but the reality is that increased blood flow to the brain helps us to think more clearly. Exercise also releases more of the body’s natural mood-enhancers - endorphins and serotonin.
- Journalling. Getting your negative thoughts out of your head and down on paper can be helpful. It also requires higher-order thinking processes so gets us out of our primitive heads.
- Reduce interaction with social media, especially the comment sections or choose to engage only with media that induces positive feelings.
- Engage in something creative either as a participant or spectator - a theatre trip, a comedy show, music, puzzles etc.
- Socialise with positive people. Choose to spend time with people who make you laugh. It sounds cliché but laughter is actually a really amazing, if not the best, medicine.
- Breathing exercises and meditation. These reduce our stress hormone levels. So does a good cry!
- Cut down on drugs - legal and illegal. Some drugs such as marijuana increase paranoia; others such as alcohol decrease brain function; nicotine creates false stress-relief so actually leads to long-term anxiety; cocaine reduces dopamine signalling so it’s harder to feel happy; caffeine raises stress hormone levels.
- Therapy. Of course I’m including therapy on the list but it’s true - if fear, anger, anxiety, depression or anything is impacting your life, therapy can be an excellent place to explore that.
¹ Defence mechanisms are a Freudian concept
² Opinion leaders is a concept introduced by Lazarsfeld and Katz in their two-step flow of communication model