Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote about our “fight or flight response.” I explained that our brains are wired to look for danger and that our prehistoric ancestors who survived were the ones who were best at spotting it. The first ones to see the saber tooth tiger and run were the most likely to survive. Those ancestors passed their genes on to us, and we can’t help but look for danger everywhere we go. When we spot it, our primitive “fight or flight” response kicks in.
Tragically, our sympathetic nervous systems, responsible for our “fight or flight” responses, are once again in overdrive. We are consuming extremely alarming news, and our bodies are secreting high levels of cortisol. Cortisol causes us to hyper-focus and makes it harder to look away. It seems that wherever you go, people are talking about the crisis in the Ukraine. It is hard to think about much else and for some it is even hard to sleep.
