Fight, Flight, or… Flow.

Fight, Flight, or… Flow.
What do you do when you’re imprisoned in an Auschwitz Concentration Camp with a future that may include being gassed alive?

Edith Eger faced that at a young age of 16.

Threat always triggered the Fight or Flight reaction in humans, which determines whether you survived or not and I hadn’t considered the ‘Flow’ option until I listened to Edith speak about her experience in a podcast this morning.

Perhaps it’s what I would have termed ‘resiliency’, but she explained how being able to face the situation without trying to escape or fight the guards, that enabled her survival; going with the Flow, adapting, surviving, and ultimately, thriving.

I believe that while the world has changed, how people react to their surroundings remain the same.

The only difference is that the multitide of ways that we can flee difficult situations have exploded – drugs, drink, netflix, food, social media… you name it, we have a distraction from Life that would suit any taste.

What I took away from this is that life is brief and beautiful, and we need to find meaning in it in order to fully engage in the experience.
To share, to teach, to care, to love, to see, to touch.
To be.

The plague, world wars, revolution, covid… all life events that happen to us.
Much is outside our circle of influence.

But there is also much within it – your sense of self, your words, thoughts, deeds, intention.

Don’t escape Life.
Engage in it, and find meaning in the every day.

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