A real life situation
Being in flow is like a tennis game… You can insert any other favorite sports of yours and replace tennis with it, if you wish to. On the other hand, this is LIFE, and many life situations can happen to you and distort the beauty of your flow.
Following, is a real a conversation from somebody’s life. In this part of it, I am on the listening side. It literally could be any of us.
I’ve been meditating for so many months already… I did the ‘selfless work’ for the community… I quit my job through this journey, joined an ashram, joined the yoga practices there, and did it each & every day for 4 hours… I believed that all the materialistic aspects of life were bad in their nature… I believed they were all ego related.
I spent all my savings during the last 2 years. I am down here, stuck in the corner, my back facing the wall.
I expected the UNIVERSE guide me. And it didn’t! I don’t know what to do now. All my ex-colleagues and friends who blamed me in the past for being irresponsible, were right!
There is no god! There are no higher realms! This what we see around us, is ALL THAT IS! There is nothing else than this! I am done, down to square one. I feel lost.
This is just one of many similar situations that I face daily, while listening to my clients. Other clients’ expressions are mostly similar, but usually they add up an extra pace to it, making them lose their breath sometimes.
We have a situation: Amygdala hijacked rest of the brain!
This is a typical ‘Amygdala Hijack’ situation. Neurons are firing! When it occurs, it leaves people under high levels of stress, fear, worry, self-blaming etc. But before that, what is Amygdala? Encyclopedia Britannica‘s definition of ‘Amygdala‘ in a brief form is below:
Amygdala, region of the brain primarily associated with emotional processes. The amygdala is located in the medial temporal lobe, just anterior to (in front of) the hippocampus. The amygdala is part of the limbic system, a neural network that mediates many aspects of emotion and memory. The amygdala plays a prominent role in mediating many aspects of emotional learning and behavior. There exist a vast array of human emotions, ranging from joy to sadness, disgust to excitement, and regret to satisfaction.
When described in an encyclopedic & neutral form, it leaves the first impression that this amygdala is a well-balanced & well-functioning part of the brain. The ‘Amygdala Hijack‘ situation, on the other hand, is absolutely a different story. It is an immediate and overwhelming emotional response which may be triggered by many visible or invisible factors. The response may be disproportionate to the original stimulus. The reason of being so might be that there may be deeper & hidden emotional triggers. A perceived threat of one’s life, might be a good example for those.
When this hijacking situation takes place, amygdala (indirectly) shuts down the other very important region of the brain, the ‘Prefrontal Cortex‘, which is responsible for most of the rational, analytical & executive functions (planning, decision making, problem solving etc.).
Don’t just take my words and description at the face value! Let’s see Study.com’s definition:
When someone is caught in an amygdala hijack, they tend to react first and think later. As a result, their reactions are primal and highly reactive rather than sound and rational. Its onset also happens so incredibly fast (in a matter of milliseconds) that most people aren’t aware they’re in one until it’s actually over.
Literally, it can happen to anyone
There are many well-known such situations, but my personal favorite is the one performed by the legendary football – Well, ok, ‘Soccer’, if you insist on – player, Zinedine Zidane, of France. He absolutely lost his self-control and head butted (!) Marco Materazzi (an Italian player) in 2006, during the very final minutes of an overtime FIFA World Cup football (soccer) final game between France and Italy. Zidane was kicked out of the game, France lost the World Cup to Italy, most likely because of this action. This last sentence is of course my subjective personal view. His glorious career ended right there, right at that moment! (He had previously announced that this would be the final game of his career).
Being in flow is like a tennis game, and all high level tennis players know this very well. They play the game, their 100% being in that moment. Zidane applied this to his football, most of his career. When he was dribbling with that ball, nothing else mattered. No one could distract him and put him out of ‘his flow’… until that infamous moment. One specific type of stimulus could put him out of his balance, out of his flow.
Zidane, later apologized, especially to all the children because of his inappropriate act. He also commented that Materazzi’s statements (please read it as ‘trash talk‘) provoked him. During those milliseconds of the hijack, Zidane instantly made a choice, and he chose to FIGHT! Commonly, this situation is referred to as, ‘Fight or Flight Response‘.
Health Essentials of Cleveland Clinic describes it in daily language:
“The fight or flight response, or stress response, is triggered by a release of hormones either prompting us to stay and fight or run away and flee,” explains psychologist Carolyn Fisher, PhD. “During the response, all bodily systems are working to keep us alive in what we’ve perceived as a dangerous situation.”
This fight or flight flight response is a simplified version of a complex trauma response series, known as ‘6F response‘.
What happens when a ‘6F’ situation takes place?
‘6F’ situation, as a trauma response, takes place (generally) in the following order: ‘Freeze, Fight, Flight, Fright, Flag and Faint’.
Even when we eliminate the extreme traumatic situations out of the equation, mild forms of emotionally triggering stimuli also may get us ‘kicked out of the game’, just like it did to Zidane.
Needless to explain it in detailed fashion, this place is absolutely NOT the place for being creative, being solution oriented, keeping the focus on the right track. It’s a place where a lot of accusations take place (self or others). The person keeps on recalling & mentioning the same past events. This usually provides them a lot of material for arguments and inner dialogues. They continuously ask themselves why the rest of the world is so unfair to them. Doing so, helps them in two ways: 1) They play a victim role 2) They rationalize many of their actions. The phase after this one tastes even sweeter: They blame their families, they blame other people, God, Universe etc.
I personally have NEVER experienced it nor observed it in other people’s lives, that UNIVERSE (please read it alternatively as ‘God’, ‘Higher Realms’, ‘The Divine Intelligence’ etc.) would take someone’s hand, open all the doors for them, walk them all the way -still holding their hands-, and take all the relevant steps from A to Z, on their behalf.
It is a tennis game
Universe loves action! Universe (read it your own way, according to your own belief system) loves it when people take action. Once a person makes the decision and takes a step forward, universe always responds. Being in flow is like a tennis game. When the ball is on your half court, you would want to hit the ball and send it to the half court of the universe. As long as you keep doing so, universe will NEVER turn its back to you and leave the court, saying “I don’t want to play this game with you, anymore”.
How would you know which step to take? How will you know in which direction to invest your energy & time.
‘Time’ is an illusion, anyway, but we are buying that illusion, because of how our brains are designed. The current perception of time (an illusion) is hard-coded in our minds. The only true investment here, is our energy, but that deserves to be a separate topic itself, for another article 🙂
Please start asking yourself deep, meaningful and honest questions. The questions that will trigger emotional reactions in you – but for this time – the desired type of reactions. They will start the chain reaction and make you take courageous steps forward, which will make all the difference in your life. One person’s honest & deep question may be different than another, but here are a few examples: “What does truly make me happy?”, “What does truly matter to me in life?”, “Is there any true meaning in how I am currently living my life?”, and similar ones…
Universe sends us signs
Yes, universe sends us signs. No, not ‘those type of signs’ that we love to keep on waiting for. Not those ones, which we blame for taking so long time to appear. We love to rationalize our procrastination by continuously waiting for the signs 🙂
The signs I am talking about here are different. We all can notice them, hear them, feel them… as long as we pay attention to them.
Universe DOESN’T scream 🙂 Those signs would be, in most cases, calmly & peacefully vibrating messages. They will bring a sort of lightness to your heart… similar to an inspiration. Unless it is an emergency situation, universe doesn’t repeat its messages very often. The other voice that keeps on talking to you inside your mind, repeating the same phrases and the story over and over again – in a compulsive way – would possibly be your EGO.
How to read those signs of Universe?
It takes a calm mind, broad perspective and a sharp intuition, to notice those signs and interpret them accurately. Those are the qualities that shine bright, when the brain operates on one of those lower frequency ranges: A very very low Beta brain frequency, the Alpha brain frequency, or even better, the Theta brain frequency. Those are the operating frequency ranges of the brain, when the person feels safe, calm, creative etc. During such times, the person will more likely be open, ready for accepting new possibilities.
Those feelings & emotions stand precisely on the opposite side of the spectrum, when a ‘6F’ situation takes place.
Make all your decisions when calm
Easier said than done, I strongly suggest you to pay respect & attention to your intuition and to all those other extrasensory skills you have. They will guide you wisely, but calmly, without imposing anything at you. If you free yourself from taking too long time to observe and to contemplate ONLY (two actions that lead straight to the highway of Procrastination), but also can interpret the signs accurately… and finally take action as a result of it… Then you may live your beautiful life without having to go through many of those Amygdala Hijack situations.
What will possibly follow those beautiful proactive steps? One wise decision will lead to another one! Those decision-based actionable steps that you continuously take, will keep ‘the Universe’ on the tennis court, playing your game, with you! Many doors will keep on opening for you…one after another… with ease & grace 🙂
Kıvanç Öroglu
Transformative Coach & Healer
Photo by Freepik.com
