Self-Leadership: Meet Your Inner Team — Why Your Emotions Make Perfect Sense | NowShift August 06, 2025

What if your strongest emotional reactions weren’t random at all — but perfectly logical once you understood their origins?

In this episode of Antifragilient OS – NowShift Daily Transmissions, Dr. Abhimanyou Raathore (Clinical Psychologist & Functional Medicine Practitioner) reveals the Internal Family System — the three core parts that work together inside all of us:

• Managers – Proactive protectors, shaping our behavior to prevent emotional pain, often echoing authority figures from our past.
• Firefighters – Reactive defenders, stepping in when pain breaks through, using distraction or intense action to douse emotional flames.
• Exiles – The most vulnerable parts, carrying the shame, fear, loneliness, and powerlessness from our earliest wounds.

These parts aren’t your enemies — they’re your lifelong protectors, each with positive intentions. They don’t need you to obey them; they need you to see them, hear them, and appreciate their service.

By understanding how Managers, Firefighters, and Exiles interact, you’ll begin to see why you respond the way you do — and how to approach your emotions with compassion instead of judgment.

This episode is just the beginning. In upcoming transmissions, Dr. Raathore will explore each part in depth and share practical tools to work with them. Until then, reflect on your own inner team:

• Who’s been speaking the loudest?
• Who’s been waiting the longest to be heard?

🎧 Listen now, and start leading your team with clarity, curiosity, and care.

A podcast by Dr. Abhimanyou Raathore
Thank you for tuning in.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Anti-Fragilient Transmission
• 0:55 Three Parts of Internal Family System
• 1:27 Managers and Firefighters Explained
• 3:29 Understanding Exiles and Their Burdens
• 4:47 Closing and Future Transmissions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Today is August 6th 2025. My name is Dr Abhimanyu Rathore. I'm the founder of the Anti-Fragilient Operating System. Here's the anti-fragilient transmission for the day.

Speaker 1: 0:20

Yesterday, we talked about being self-led, that is, self-based leadership of your internal family system. Now, what parts does this family really comprise of? Let's understand that a little bit better and I promise you, by the end of today, suddenly things would start making a lot more sense to you about those emotions, about those triggers, about those sudden behaviors for yourself or others that you never understood so far. So, as per internal family systems, there are basically three types of parts that make up every internal system, and these three types of parts are managers, firefighters and exiles. Okay, so these are three kinds of parts you have in your internal family system as self to manage and lead. Now let's understand managers and firefighters a little bit. They are both there because they actually seek to protect you from emotional pain, okay, and, as I told you, the intention is always right, but they use different strategies. To do so is always right, but they use different strategies to do so. Okay, and what is the difference in their strategy? As far as the managers are concerned, managers are proactive, just like any manager that you would see, very proactive, while firefighters are reactive, and usually these managers actually all the time almost these managers and firefighters are often modeled after authority figures, whether it was a teacher, whether it was your parents or whoever. Okay, these are the ones that they are usually modeled after, and they work hard to protect you and also to protect another part that we will talk about in some time, which is called the exile, and both of them often get exhausted and burnt out. They're also much younger generally than they appear and, as I've talked to you right throughout, they have absolutely positive intentions for you, at least from their perspective, and what they want from you as self is they want to be heard, they want to be understood and they also like to have their efforts appreciated. Now, notice I did not say that they want you to go ahead and do what they say, but I did say they want to be heard, they want to be understood and they want their efforts appreciated.

Speaker 1: 3:24

Now let's talk about the third type of part which is there, which is called the exiles. These exiles are the vulnerable parts of the system, and these are the ones that firefighters and managers seek to protect or seek to protect us from. Now these are parts that actually rooted in the past and they carry the burden of shame, terror, loneliness and powerlessness from childhood. And these are the ones who hold on to those beliefs such as I am unlovable, I am worthless, I don't matter and even I am never safe. So they actually want to tell their stories, be witnessed with compassion and helped in terms of releasing their burden. That's primarily your internal family system.

Speaker 1: 4:32

In the days to come, we will go ahead and talk about each one of these three parts in a little more detail, so that you are able to know them better, understand them better and work with them better. That's all I have for you today and I will see you tomorrow. Thank you very much. Do let me know how you're liking these sessions, these transmissions, and how are they helping you. I would love to hear that. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.