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SPEAKER_02So welcome back, Funilla. And uh we are going to talk about adaptive response. Yeah. When you are really dealing with high-level challenges or setbacks, what can you do? Yeah. And it really is a game changer. So here I talk about having an adaptive response.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I have a personal story to share if you don't mind. I'd love to hear that. So around 2013-14, I was going through some very high level of challenges related to workplace. And uh one of my friends, who was a psychiatrist, he suggested me to read the book Man's Search for Meaning. Man's Search for Meaning is written by Viktor Frankl around the Holocaust. Really a very empowering book. And what Viktor Frankel talks about is how he was when he was in the concentration camp, where unfortunately he had lost his wife and his entire family. So he started observing people who could deal even with the most challenging situations. So he said that between the stimulus and the response, there is a space. And in that space, if you can choose the response, that makes all the difference. And that is the last of human freedoms which nobody can take away from you. For example, somebody can be nasty to you, somebody can be angry with you, somebody can be abusive to you, but inside you, whether you feel offended, whether you feel humiliated, whether you feel unhappy, that response you still might choose. And what Victor Frankel said, that people who were able to exert that choice, not everybody can do that, but people who were able to do that, those are the people who could survive. So they gave the meaning to a particular event, they became a master of that meaning, and they could deal even in the most challenging of the crisis.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So if if your good fortune is that physically you're still there, you're still alive, what can you then do? How can you have agency in the most awful circumstances in this case? Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So in the adaptive response, uh, as you can see in the illustration, that there is a uh there's a frog on a on a on a frog on a crocodile, and rather than generating a fear response, yeah, he's shifted that perception now as if he is and it's not that he is in a fantasy. Yeah. He's shifting the perception purposefully so that he gets time and he's reframing it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that reframing is changing to succumbing to a high level of stress or a perceived stress and going into the fear response, yeah, and now able to take take the stock of the situation and to be able to reframe it in a different way. Yeah. And that really helps remarkably with resilience. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So so this frog, the character in the picture, perhaps had some hard choices to make. Yeah. Um, using the crocodile as a raft. Crocodile as a raft? Not the choice that frog would have wanted to make. Yeah. But it's the choice that's there. It's the best chance for survival. Best chance for survival. Yeah. And and in that frog's psyche, the choice that they're making is to envisage a better situation. And getting on the other side. Getting to the other side, having something that's positive that generates some more positive emotions. Yes. Taking you away from some of the fear and into a different mindset.
SPEAKER_02Because many times people might be in situations or circumstances that they might feel very trapped.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And they might not be able to immediately change the situations. But what they can change is between the two ears inside their head what they are thinking. Yeah. And that makes that creates a lot of shift in our environment. Yeah. And then that's what they create. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So they know the truth. This this frog here isn't d delusional. The frog knows that it's on the back of a crocodile or an alligator. But within themselves, they're generating more positive emotions. They've accepted the reality of the situation, but now it's about how can I accept the fear but move beyond it.
SPEAKER_02They're also reframing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02They're also reframing. And the other thing Victor Frankel talks about is logotherapy, which is seeing something in the future that you can latch on to, some higher purpose, some higher connection, some goal to reach, which gives you a strong purpose. So rather than in that particular moment when you are getting into a fear response, you reframe the reframe that response into a different, reframe that response into a different way. For example, like I see on a day-to-day many patients who sometimes have terminal illnesses. And they might take time to come to terms with the diagnosis. But many of the patients I've seen, especially the remarkable uh resilient patients and the survivors, is they start seeing things in a different way. They start finding meaning in a different way. And as they go through that their journey, sometimes they have a illness which cannot be cured, but still they can bring a lot of healing to their to their situations, if you know what I'm saying, Vanilla.
SPEAKER_01So they improve their experiences. Yeah. Yeah. They they have this hard knowledge that they've they've had to try somehow to accept, but then with reframing, with looking at how else could I see this, they can find some other meaning that that improves the the quality of life, improves how we're experiencing what's happening to us. And and that's adaptation, that's our adaptive. That's adaptation. That's adaptation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And that adaptation is very important in when we talk about the environmental management. Yeah. Because there will be crisis. There will be change.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Simple thing is like you and me have spent a lot of time in Ireland and Scotland.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02We know the weather.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02Weather is also changing all the time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Similarly, life can throw curveballs. Life is also changing. But how we continuously keep adapting makes a lot of difference.
SPEAKER_01I hear you. It's our own personal evolution that matters. That's what counts.
SPEAKER_02And how we can keep bringing that how we can keep bringing that and keep growing from that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. And but also back to the growth mindset. So it's all so interconnected to the skills that you're presenting here in the book.
SPEAKER_02Having an adaptive response really helps you to have a growth mindset.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Having an adaptive response also means that you're aware of how you felt in the first place.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It links into self-awareness and self-reflection. Yeah. Then you take a stock. Okay, this is what I'm feeling just now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But how can I sit back and see how I can shift my response to a more meaningful response? Yeah. And that is what, especially in this particular chapter, it what is the journey of having that adaptive response? How to develop that skill when we are faced with change, when we are faced with situations, we land ourselves which we didn't want. But now it has been kind of forced upon us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02How do we shift that mindset? How do we have that adaptive response? Is the game changer in terms of having a more higher level response as compared to going into the amygdala hijack and having the acute stress response or chronic stress in this situation. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And we can use things like emotional and social intelligence as levers. We don't have to be on our own. We can find help, we can find support.
SPEAKER_02Very, very important to have that, to have also that knowing and understanding that we don't have to do this on our own. Yeah. And there are many other situations, many other people, many other people in these kind of situations. And being open to find the right kind of support along with this helps us to develop a resilience. And as I told you in the beginning, all these skills, whether it is emotional intelligence, social intelligence, adaptive response, they are all interlinked. Yeah. Part of the bigger ecosystem, but helping us like a rope. You see, the if there is a thick rope, how many strings come, but they're more intertwined with each other, they create a strong rope which cannot be broken. But if there is a single piece of string, it's easy to break with if there is a tension placed on that. But if there's a thick rope with a lot of strings intertwined, it's much, much more difficult and much harder and much more resilient. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So we're pulling every strand together, we're avoiding that binary thinking, we're avoiding looking at things as good or bad. We're looking for a sort of diverse kind of thinking, aren't we? Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing your insights, Punella. That was really uh inspiring discussion. Yes. And certainly something has very deeply affected my life and inspired me with the work. And it is something which, even in the most challenging situation, can give us hope and meaning.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And I know, Ash, if you don't mind me saying from knowing you for seven years professionally, that you've lived this and you know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you. The proof is in the pudding. Absolutely. I'm sitting in front of you, I'm I'm alive, I'm kicking, I'm thriving. Yeah, and you've just written two books. And published two books, and hopefully another four next year. Yeah. So uh no, I thank you for acknowledging that. I'm very grateful for your support. And together we thrive. Together we thrive. Together we thrive.
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