The involuntary emotional primal reactions for self-protection: fight, flight, freeze, fawn serve people well under limited circumstances like wars, violence, or physical invasions. These reactions, designed to self-protect, are usually unhelpful if they leak into or invade our day-to-day relationships.
When faced with an enemy, a threat, or a danger (real or perceived), humans will react to protect. The reaction evoked will require no thinking; it will be immediate and one of, or a combination of:
Fight – eliminate the threat.
Flight – flee the threat, get away.
Freeze – be immobilised by the threat.
Fawn – give excessive attention to the threat to seek approval, and therefore escape.
Humans are somewhat complicated, and what was intended for survival can get in the way of “thrival” (to thrive – this…
