S7 EP3 | How to Navigate the Fight or Flight Response
Carla used to be locked in a constant cycle of trauma response. That acute stress response that causes us to either fight, flight, freeze or fawn. There are ways to improve our response to perceived threats in general - and in the midst of an attack.
Hear how Carla has navigated trauma triggers and learn how to implement these strategies in your life too.
Understanding the Fight or Flight Response
The fight or flight response is a natural reaction to acute stress.
Originally designed for physical threats, it now often triggers in response to cognitive and emotional stressors.
Four stress responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn.
Identifying triggers related to core beliefs and fears.
Everyday Practices to Retrain Your Stress Response
Anchor in God's Truth
Knowing God and His truths.
Emphasizing that God never abandons or rejects you.
Regular Exercise
Intentional daily movement.
Promotes lower cortisol levels.
Limit Stimulants
Reduce caffeine and alcohol consumption.
Create a less stressed environment in your body.
In-the-Moment Techniques to Navigate Fight or Flight
Techniques to reset your nervous system:
Ice your face or take a cold shower.
Engage in worship and dance, shaking off stress.
Practice rapid eye movement to melt away sensations.
Remember, navigating the fight or flight response involves daily practices and in-the-moment techniques.
Ground yourself in God's truth, prioritize physical well-being, and utilize these strategies to regain control over your stress response.
Affirming Truth - I can overcome my fight or flight response.
Key scriptures:
2 Timothy 1:7 - "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
Connect With Carla:
Inquire about 1:1 coaching ---> carlaagreswellness@gmail.com
Join In His Image Wellness Collective ---> carlaargeswellness@gmail.com
Come hangout on IG with me @carlaarges
Check out the blog
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Carla: Hey friends, welcome to Affirming Truths. I'm your friend and host, Carla Arges. This show is a safe place to share our struggles, grow in faith, and root our identity in Christ. My hope is that you will leave each episode feeling encouraged in your journey. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode and it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review.
[00:00:30] Carla: I am so glad you're here. Let's get started. Hello, friends. Welcome to this episode of Affirming Truths. I am your host, Carla Arges, and I am so glad you're joining me today. I have had conversations with women in the past few weeks all about navigating the fight or flight response. If you struggle with your mental health, if you have this [00:01:00] acute stress response, anxiety, trauma, you may get triggered into this fight or flight, and I want you to know that there is hope in navigating it.
[00:01:13] Carla: And so I thought we would talk about it today and anchor ourselves back in the word as we do it. So that fight or flight response is what happens when we go into acute stress. Now, this used to be a good thing, right? Back in the day when we face physical threats, it is good to have an appropriate response.
[00:01:36] Carla: The problem is these days, our threats are not physical. They're more cognitive, emotional, and we get this Increase in the sympathetic nervous system activity, which causes us in, in areas where we're not actually threatened to perceive a threat and react accordingly. [00:02:00] And there's really four ways we call it fight or flight, but there's actually four stress responses that we may feel fight is one of them.
[00:02:09] Carla: And that's where we look at our perceived threat. Aggressively, right? This is where we're yelling and screaming and fighting back when you're your rage is going. Maybe that sounds familiar to you. The other one is flight. It's when you're. Body urges you to run away from danger. Um, I know for me in the past, this would be anytime there was conflict with my husband and I, I used to be like, I gotta go for a walk.
[00:02:40] Carla: And not in a way that was therapeutic to walk at my emotions, but it was my flight response. Like, I gotta get out of here, like at all costs, I've got to leave. The other one is freeze. And this is also one that has been. Part of my past, the inability to [00:03:00] act or move against a threat. Maybe this is where you numb out, you disassociate, you binge watch Netflix to try to avoid the problem and to try to you know, Turn the volume down on it.
[00:03:16] Carla: And the next is FON, and that's our body's response to threat to try to please someone and avoid conflict. A lot of people pleasing actions are actually the FON response towards a perceived threat. And maybe these perceived threats, guys, are something that is triggering a core belief in you or a core fear.
[00:03:41] Carla: Like, maybe when you have confrontation with your spouse, because you've never been modeled healthy conflict, you fear abandonment. And that conflict makes you feel abandoned. And you go into an acute pain. Stress response, fight, flight, freeze, or [00:04:00] fawn, maybe when, um, someone gives you constructive criticism, you get triggered into a stress response because all of a sudden you feel you're not worth it, that you've had to earn your worth your whole life, so when you don't feel like you're performing up to par, you're afraid your worth is being undermined.
[00:04:21] Carla: These are all examples of fight or flight, and it can really. Impact living our lives to the fullest. It can really impact doing God's work in our life and impact our relationships. And so. Here's the thing. There's things that we can do in the moment to navigate the fight or flight response, but then there's also things we need to do outside of the moment to train us in how to respond, right?
[00:04:52] Carla: To train us, uh, to be in training, right? For when that happens so we can better [00:05:00] navigate. So what can you do every day? To retrain your stress response to get to the root of these triggers, um, The first thing is, and you're going to hear me say this all the time, is you've got to anchor in God's truth.
[00:05:19] Carla: When we're triggered to feel like we're not good enough, when we're triggered to feel like we're going to be abandoned, when we're triggered to feel like we're not lovable, all of these things are based on beliefs. Rooted in lies, and maybe those lies come from your childhood or how someone spoken to your life.
[00:05:39] Carla: Maybe they're direct, you know, attacks of the enemy, whatever they are, you have to be so anchored in God's truth. So the first thing you need to do. Is know God, get in your Bible, know the truth, know the truth that God never leaves you or abandons you. Know the truth [00:06:00] that through what Christ did on the cross, righteousness is imputed on you and you don't need to earn your worth.
[00:06:06] Carla: Know the truth that you are his beloved and chosen. Know those fundamental truths. Number one, number two, in a more everyday conscious awareness perspective, you need to do things that don't put your body in a heightened state of stress. If you are someone constantly being triggered into fight or flight, you have to create an environment in your body that is less stressed.
[00:06:36] Carla: That means number two in our list, exercising. I want you guys moving every day, every single day, and when I say move every single day, I'm not talking about doing HIIT workouts seven days a week, but I'm talking about intentionally moving your body. Maybe three days a week, that looks like a 20 or 30 minutes of lifting weights.[00:07:00]
[00:07:00] Carla: Maybe it looks like getting 8, 000 steps a day. Yeah, it doesn't have to be 10. You know, whatever it looks like you are moving intentionally. The third thing is I want you to limit stimulants. If you are someone who is prone to anxiety and being triggered in your fight or flight response, take an honest look at how much caffeine are you getting, how much alcohol are you consuming, and we really want to limit those stimulants and create an environment in our body where cortisol is lower.
[00:07:35] Carla: So cortisol is our, our stress hormone and it unbalances all the other hormones and it's not meant to be in a constant state of high. And yet for so many of us, it is so in your everyday life, when it comes to navigating fight or flight, I want you anchoring in God's truth. [00:08:00] I want you to move your body and I want you to limit stimulants.
[00:08:06] Carla: But what do you do in the moment? This is what I get asked a lot, Carla. Like, okay, I am doing all the right things. I am trying to get to the root of my triggers and rewire core beliefs around that. Um, and I'm going to be doing another episode on core beliefs, how they're formed, how to change them. But you're doing that work and you've come to a point where you've been triggered and that fight or flight response kicks in.
[00:08:33] Carla: There's some things that you can do in the moment to reset your nervous system. One of them is ice your face. This is actually a favorite of mine. It's a tip skill from DBT. And it is super effective, ice your face, it will shock your nervous system and bring it back into more homeostasis. You could take a cold shower, if [00:09:00] icing your face doesn't sound attractive, get into a cold shower.
[00:09:03] Carla: Bring your body temperature down. Another thing is to put on worship and dance, especially jumping up and down. Kind of like shaking your body out. Have you ever, you know, done the dance when you were a kid? Put your whole body in, take your whole body out, put your whole body in and you shake it all about.
[00:09:23] Carla: You're going to do something like that. to move your body, move the energy through your body and you're going to do it with worship music so it is going to speak to your spirit. You can try rapid eye movement. Rapid eye movement is where you keeping your head still. Look left to right, left to right, left to right for 40 seconds and imagine the sensations that you're feeling in your body melting away.
[00:09:54] Carla: If you follow me on Instagram, I have a whole highlight on there on how to do that. [00:10:00] So go check it out. But those are things that you can do in the moment. And here is one thing I want you to affirm in yourself today. Your affirming truth is I can overcome my fight or flight response. So many of us feel like we are a slave to that.
[00:10:17] Carla: It comes over us and we don't know what to do. Well, now you know what to do. Starting with the everyday task of anchoring yourself in truth. And here's a verse I want you to keep in mind. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1. 7 When that fight or flight comes over you, I want you to remember that God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.
[00:10:50] Carla: You can rehearse the truth of God's Word in your life. You can command your body in the authority that Christ has given you to calm down, [00:11:00] to find peace in Christ. You do not have to be a slave to this. But try these things out. Let me know how they work for you. And friend, Be blessed.
[00:11:19] Carla: Thanks for joining me today. I hope we're already friends on social media, but if we're not, come find me on Instagram at Carla Arges or at Affirming Truth. Can't wait to see you back here next week. Bye friends.