IPCC reports aren’t lions… and why that’s a problem

Imagine you’re being chased by a lion.*

Your body’s cortisol, glycogen and adrenaline will rise to help you outrun the lion.

Because humans are designed to manage these acute stressors.

If you succeed, kill the lion or escape, your body’s fight or flight response decreases from the absence of immediate danger, and in the past us humans often would have celebrated with our community (and maybe even had a feast on lion flesh)*.

This human connection is one of the best ways to ‘complete the stress cycle.’

And that’s why group coaching can be so powerful.

Too often modern threats (e.g., doom scrolling about floods and wildfires; seeing an aluminium can in the bin; or reading an IPCC report) can leave you in an anxious state because these don’t have an intuitive end state (like getting away from a lion).

Modern threats don’t have the same signals to your body that the threat is over.

That means your parasympathetic nervous system doesn’t know to engage and let you relax.

Completing the stress cycle is a key emotional regulation skill you get to start practicing in group coaching.

I share oodles of tools to help you figure out what works for you.

I typically incorporate lots of tools and frameworks in group coaching, knowing it’s like a buffet.** Maybe you’ll discover you hate watermelon, (Emotional Freedom Technique) but surprisingly love radishes (journalling about your inner critic); not everyone has the same tastes and that doesn’t make the techniques or you wrong.

If you like talking in metaphors and want to learn more about emotional regulation and completing the stress cycle, check out my group coaching offers.

*This lion analogy came from the book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by the Nagoski sisters. The Nagoskis show us how our bodies react similarly to receiving an email or talking about the climate crisis as we would to being chased by a lion. It’s one of the best explanations I’ve come across to understand why it’s invaluable to learn to process your emotions.

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**Some other items on that buffet table that ‘complete the stress cycle’ include:

● entering an active physical state in a controlled way (i.e. dancing to Taylor Swift’s The Man)

● creativity (i.e. weaving a basket out of dogwood)

● laughter (i.e. reading Hannah Gadsby’s book Ten Steps to Nanette)

● crying (i.e. reading Hannah Gadsby’s book Ten Steps to Nanette)

● physical affection (bothering your partner every 15 minutes to get a hug)

● breath work (box breathing after being interrupted in a meeting).