Your brain is well-adapted to survive a bear attack--but are you really being attacked by a bear? Charlie Stewart survived a bear attack. He credits divine intervention but it was brain intervention. When your life is at risk, your amygdala responds with a fight-flight-or-freeze response. Charlie says, "Next thing I know I was running again." During his response his slower thinking brain turned off so his faster feeling brain could instantaneous Fight! or Freeze! or in Charlie's case Flee!
In safe parts of Canada, we rarely need our fight-flight-or-freeze response. Yet, there are daily possible triggers. This is problematic because our amygdala does not differentiate between physical and psychological bears.
Take this brain response to a farmyard near Biggar, Saskatchewan on August 9, 2016. Did Gerald Stanley have a fight response to a psychological bear? This makes him no less culpable but it does suggest a solution. We can practice priming. When we meet individuals who are negatively portrayed in the media and elsewhere, we can intentionally think of positive examples.
The practice of priming requires self-regulation. Self-regulation is best wired into our brains early. Every child needs a primary caregiver who practices attunement. Attunement is being "in tune" with the child's emotional states so they feel understood and accepted. It is through attunement that we learn to regulate our physical and psychological states. Once self-regulated, our thinking brain has a better chance of outrunning our feeling brain when it sees a psychological bear.
