Fear and Loathing

Fear Viewing

We are currently being exposed to the basest form of fear viewing. With our news screens being filled with news of impending war, virus, and in the UK storms.

To understand why we are being bombarded with this, when a simple bulletin at 6pm would work fine. Is deeply rooted in our human experience. Nothing mystical, I can go there, but right now, let’s keep this grounded in neuroscience and psychology.

Lets have a look at what we’ve been conditioned with over the last couple of years. There is a virus that is infecting billions. The world as we know it has changed, work, business, life has changed. We’ve been fed daily counts of deaths and infections. This taps into a very primal route of our neurology. The part of us that wants to stay alive. Spot the threats and respond to them.

We’ve been hyper stimulated for the last two years to be aware of threats, and before that too, it’s just come to a head in the last two years. We’ve been trained to spot threats from a long way out, by putting our awareness of others as a threat we isolate ourselves from those who can support us, and in turn those who can support are fearful of others too. This makes it harder for us to feel safe.

We’ve kind of got used to the virus thing, we know how to manage that. Hugs are happening, life is starting to return to a version of normality. With events on the world stage being what they are right now, our finely honed threat detection systems are lighting up again. We see problems in Ukraine, problems with shipping, and locally to me, big wind. And our response goes into overdrive.

Should I stay at home? Do I need to work from home? Should I avoid other people? Because we are constantly seeking reassurance from others what we should do, and we’ve been conditioned to stay inside. Turn on the tv and check the news. The news is there not to tell us what is going on, that is secondary. The stations exist to sell you stuff, me stuff everyone stuff.

There is a vested interest in keeping you watching. The same goes for social media. I’m not tin foil hatting this. I can, but not right now. Yes the individuals are doing what they deem best reporting what they see as news and the truth. But the structures that pay them, pay for the infostructure for us to see them are paid for through advertising. And are beholden to institutions that are dependent on you seeing their products and buying them.

I’m not telling you this to freak you out or scare you. What I’m trying to do is show you that we are animals that are looking for a threat. We are hyper vigilant because of the pandemic, and even a strong storm is enough to send us over the edge. We are glued to fear viewing as our ancient primal neurology desperately tries to locate a threat to respond too. Unless you are in Ukraine or Russia, it’s very hard to respond to the threat there. Or the chronic threat from covid we know the rules. Or the threat of ‘Red Warnings’ for wind or snow or rain. All these things trigger our survival coding that is as old as the mountains.

This is why advertising is driving the dramatization of the news. By buying something our primitive minds think they have taken action to resolve the threat. We get a dopamine hit and we relax slightly, until we see the next bit of fear viewing.

Its not our fault.

It is however our responsibility to respond as aware humans. If you need to order uber eats to feel better, rock on. Or buy the new thing. No drama. We don’t have to be in fear reactiveness like a wolf caught in a trap. We can choose to look at all the information going on, being fed by it and letting it sit. For lots of things we can ask ourselves what we can do about it right now?

The storm?

Is the house secure? Is the cat inside? Is the shed all closed up?

Political Tomfoolery?

Write to your MP/Congress person? Sign a petition?

Pandemic?

Got your mask? Cleaned your hands?

Practical and physical actions that you can actually do, and actually do them are how we can calm our primal survival brain. Not imagined things, real things.

Yes we can numb with food, drink, sex, drugs etc that is great for a short period of time. But taking positive action beats numbing. So take action to beat your personal experience of fear viewing.

Try not to react, by reacting we act without thinking. When we respond we can feel and think our way through a situation. Reacting we act like our primal selves. Snapping at the pain, running, hiding, eating all the things.

In the moment it is almost impossible to realise you are reacting not responding. I’ll go as far as to say, it is impossible. Once you are on that rollercoaster you are on it. You’ve got to wait for the process to stop. Wait until you find some form of safty.

People who deal with random stress all the time train for it. Nurses and Drs do training days, Solders go to Boot Camp, Fire and Ambulance crews train.

Us regular humans have tools we can practice helping us not slip straight into the fear and primal programming. The most effective of these are breath.

Most of our bodies systems happen without conscious thought. This is great, as I’m sure I’d forget how to digest food. There is one unconscious process we have direct control over. Our Breath.

By adjusting how we breathe we can adjust how our bodies act. Fast shallow breathing makes us slip into a more panicking mind set, slow deep breath into a more relaxed process.

My favourite way of doing this is seven eleven breaths. I do this with my Scouts all the time. They are super aware of threats, as any young person is who’s lived through the last two years.

This is a story of a ‘survival camp’ that they requested that happened at the end of Autumn last year. The scouts had to build their own shelter, and fire to cook with. In teams that they chose. Once they were established, they had to do various tasks.

One such task was too ‘rescue’ their kit that had been stolen by the leaders. We gave them some clues and they had to follow directions. At about 9pm. So, pitch dark. What the scouts managed to do, was terrify themselves. They went off into the woods that they know every well, had been playing in for the last two days. What we leaders did not realise was what I’ve just told you about. Their fear response was so close to the surface. The game was abandoned, and we came back to the fire. They were all wild eyed and crusted together in little groups.

What I got them to do was stand in a circle and hold hands.

This way they got to feel other people. And see them. Then they stamped their feet so they could feel their bodies. They clapped their hands. They orientated themselves to the here and now. Not to some imagined threat in the woods. Then we did some 7/11 breaths. Until they were calmer.

To increase the humanness of the experience we got them to sing songs around the fire, the long exhale from singing does the same as the 7/11 breath. And the communal action of singing as a group builds that sense of safety. They then had marshmallows on sticks.

Being scared burns lots of calories. And can leave you quivery. Its why food delivery companies do so well in fraught situations.

We sent them to get ready for bed. Calm and relaxed.

Unfortunately, then some fly-tippers dumped a load of trash on the road making loads of noise. So we had to start again.

Because the Scouts were so conditioned to be afraid, their fear pathways were activated super easily. It’s simple to see in young people. As they’ve not learned to mask as much as we have yet. Fortunately their little neurology is passified the same way as ours is.

Stamp feet, clap hands. Feel where your body is.

Hold hands or hug another human.

Make eye contact with another human.

Do the seven, eleven breaths.

Have some water,

Have some food.

These things help our bodies and minds feel safe and in control, and therefore stop a lot of the fear viewing form harming us.

The old Vikings knew this too. As did the Aztecs, Romans, Knights, and in fact everyone who did things that were scary. The simplest way to build this sense of safety is to sing and dance. The communal action causes the body and mind to relax and build connection with the world around them.

What’s your favourite song? Give it a sing. See how you feel. Get in the car, turn the stereo up and sing. See how you feel about fear viewing now.