What Are Your Instincts? Your Emotions.
Yin and Yang. Every positive has a possible negative – one can’t exist without the other. Every cloud has a silver lining, but it can be hard to find sometimes.
What you call emotion is in reality your instincts – and most – if not all – of your behaviors are a result of the instincts that you’ve developed over the years. Makes a little more sense when it is put that way right?
Every instinct you have – there are 3 possible outcomes – fight, flight or become indifferent – meh. You move forward, you move away or you don’t care. And every behavior ends with a consequence – positive or negative.
We tend to think that fight or flight is about aggression and reactivity. But think about everything you do as a fight or flight response. Walking is moving forward – fight – and is of positive consequence. If you don’t think that way, would you call tripping and falling on your face a negative consequence? It’s a negative that can always happen.
If you’re sitting on the couch and you’re thirsty, you make the fight response to get up and make all the actions to get a drink of water. Unless your bound up on the couch after stuffing yourself with a turkey dinner – then you more likely become indifferent.
If a woman has a baby, and brings that baby to their moms. Chances are the grandma is going to have a fight response due to the instinct/emotion called joy. I’ll be honest, me and babies don’t get along – I have a flight response. I don’t want to hold the baby.
Offer your child a bowl of their favorite ice cream, chances are good they will have a fight response. But if they have a cavity – it’s going to be pretty soon a flight response will ensue. Think about it.
If you reach up and scratch your nose, that’s a fight response. If you need to fart and you’re around friends – men especially – let it rip. Fight. But if you’re on a first date, you’re probably going to flight – hold it in our move to a place where you can.
Surprise is another big emotion. If you walk into a surprise birthday party held for you – you’re going to fight – move forward. But if your husband scares the crap out of you wearing a mask – that’s a negative, you’re going to flight.
Sadness is another instinct. Sadness can drive you into someones arms to get a hug – fight response. But it can also make you withdraw from the world and be alone – flight response.
Anger will definitely cause a fight response we call aggression. Fear is the instinct that will cause flight – avoidance.
It’s no different for the dog. Think about this as you navigate your way through life. And think about the consequences that come from every behavior.
It’ll change the way you think.
