Fear and Panic Can Turn Us Into The Lowest Common Denominator
I am not one those people that preach about the importance of being fearless and how being
"The King of Cool" will reap more rewards. Fear and panic are important and have their place in our lives otherwise they would not have survived our evolutionary cycle.
The fascinating thing about us humans is that we have this thing called context. No other animal has it. Context is everywhere and it means everything to us whether we realize it or not. Fear and panic will save our lives when put into its proper, context. But more often than not we apply fear and panic in a manner which is quite simply out of control. I have a habit of food shopping that is unusual to many even in calm times. I tend to buy only what I intend to eat for a day or two. Granted, as a single person with no children this is an option I have. A trip to my local ACME market yesterday made me think for a second that humanity was facing an extinction level event. Sleeves were bare, people were pushing two carts at a time, people were aggressively loading their carts with what was left on the shelves. I am not a virologist so I make no claim to know where this coronavirus situation will end but I trust the experts in the field when they tell us to be concerned and vigilant but not to panic. I have the same fears that everyone else has. I have an elderly mother with dementia in a nursing home whom I am greatly concerned about. I have other older family members whose well being I worry about. As a single person I have concerns about getting ill and having to care for myself, so fear about this and in life in general is normal. But I am far from panicking. We are only in the beginning stages of this life altering event event. The panic trigger is not even one week old. What are things going to be like when it gets worse and all things point to it getting worse before it gets better.
When we panic we resort to our primal self preservation software. We are far from living in an environment that calls for this. Phobias are given rise, dehumanizing behavior and thinking creaks into mindsets where they weren't present prior to panic states, and all this occurs beneath our level of awareness. This already happening. While in the market I found it amusing to hear panic shoppers criticizing other panic shoppers but justifying their own panic shopping. An amazing fact about us all is that when we are in a defensive state (like panic) we effectively cut ourselves off from an offensive or creative state. This is important to note because the conditions that work to elicit a defensive posture require us to problem solve and this is not possible in survival mode. Take a few deeps breaths, be careful, be cautious, but know that you are ok and work to problem solve and we will all get through this for the better.
"The King of Cool" will reap more rewards. Fear and panic are important and have their place in our lives otherwise they would not have survived our evolutionary cycle.
The fascinating thing about us humans is that we have this thing called context. No other animal has it. Context is everywhere and it means everything to us whether we realize it or not. Fear and panic will save our lives when put into its proper, context. But more often than not we apply fear and panic in a manner which is quite simply out of control. I have a habit of food shopping that is unusual to many even in calm times. I tend to buy only what I intend to eat for a day or two. Granted, as a single person with no children this is an option I have. A trip to my local ACME market yesterday made me think for a second that humanity was facing an extinction level event. Sleeves were bare, people were pushing two carts at a time, people were aggressively loading their carts with what was left on the shelves. I am not a virologist so I make no claim to know where this coronavirus situation will end but I trust the experts in the field when they tell us to be concerned and vigilant but not to panic. I have the same fears that everyone else has. I have an elderly mother with dementia in a nursing home whom I am greatly concerned about. I have other older family members whose well being I worry about. As a single person I have concerns about getting ill and having to care for myself, so fear about this and in life in general is normal. But I am far from panicking. We are only in the beginning stages of this life altering event event. The panic trigger is not even one week old. What are things going to be like when it gets worse and all things point to it getting worse before it gets better.
When we panic we resort to our primal self preservation software. We are far from living in an environment that calls for this. Phobias are given rise, dehumanizing behavior and thinking creaks into mindsets where they weren't present prior to panic states, and all this occurs beneath our level of awareness. This already happening. While in the market I found it amusing to hear panic shoppers criticizing other panic shoppers but justifying their own panic shopping. An amazing fact about us all is that when we are in a defensive state (like panic) we effectively cut ourselves off from an offensive or creative state. This is important to note because the conditions that work to elicit a defensive posture require us to problem solve and this is not possible in survival mode. Take a few deeps breaths, be careful, be cautious, but know that you are ok and work to problem solve and we will all get through this for the better.
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