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To help people who help people, the organization needs to be healthy and have practices in place that consider the trauma of those they serve. Lauren Spigelmyer and Jessica Doering have helped thousands of people who help people all over the world. Each week they'll explore tools, insights, and stories to help you lead and live with more clarity, calm, and connection. If you’re looking for support as you grow your organization’s capacity for caring for staff and the community, we would love to be part of that journey.
Returning to Us
Fight or Flight: Our Sympathetic Nervous System
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In this episode, Lauren discusses the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and how it keeps us safe. The SNS is the “Fight or Flight” part of your brain. It’s the pathway we use to respond to danger, which means it keeps us safe. This is a good thing!
The problem today is we are often pushed into SNS mode even when not physically in danger.
What causes this?
Daily stressors. Lack of control. Excessive demands. They can all cause fear and anxiety which activates the SNS part of our brain.
We don’t want to live in this heightened state of emotion. If we do, the long-term effects can be things like diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.
When your body is in overdrive all the time, the way to fix it is to do the opposite. Lauren explains ways to deactivate the SNS and create a calmer state of mind.
Lauren answers this week’s listener question during the episode:
What do we do when a child has avoidant behaviors? (IE overuses the calm-down area)
Try-at-home tip: Eat something to wake up your system instead of coffee.
Other related resources from The Behavior Hub:
Blog Post:
Fight or Flight: Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
5 Reasons Behaviors Occur
Podcast:
Why Behaviors Occur - The 5 Needs Areas
Our Online Courses:
From Wild Emotions to Tamed Feelings – How to Self-Regulate (5 Needs Areas)
- Do you have a question? I can answer it in a future episode!
Email questions to podcast@thebehaviorhub.com or send via text to 717-693-7744. - Subscribe to our mailing list and find out more about the Emotional Brain.
- Check out our Facebook Group – Raising and Teaching Respectful Children
- The Behavior Hub website
- The Behavior Hub blog
Are you struggling with behaviors and not sure where to begin? Let me help!
Schedule a free discovery call and let me be your Guide.