The Wise Owl and the Barking Dog
We have parts of our brain that function the same way the brains of our ancestors did hundreds of thousands of years ago. If you see a lion, you run. If you’re caught in a trap, you play dead. Let’s call that part the lizard brain.
Then there is the part that does what us humans are known for and so proud of: rational thinking, logic, and self-awareness. When the lizard brain is activated, our rational thinking is hijacked by responding to our safety needs: fight, flight, or freeze.
The best way I’ve heard this explained is in the story of the barking dog and the wise owl, which last week I commemorated with a tattoo by Tati Compton.
Within each of us there is an owl and a dog. Sometimes, our dog will bark and that will scare our owl away. Once we have comforted the dog and the barking has stopped, the owl will return.
The dog represents our lizard brain. When our neuroception detects something in our environment that may be a threat, it activates our sympathetic nervous system and we go into fight, flight, or freeze mode. This developed from our ancestors who needed to run or hide from prey, and still comes in handy in modern times in order to dodge a speeding car or avoid a shady looking street. The dog starts to bark when our sympathetic nervous system is activated.
The thing is, neuroception also picks up on things we perceive as a threat to our safety but are in fact harmless, like a “we need to talk” text from a friend or your partner. This too comes from our pre-historic ancestors: our survival depended on group living, so being liked and staying in relationships could be a matter of life or death.
Unfortunately, when we are activated, it’s harder to access our rational brain (our wise owl). That’s why we can react impulsively to things that trigger us. That could look like starting a fight, ghosting, or shutting down: our fight/flight or freeze response.
If we are in the midst of a hurricane, flood, or forest fires, it’s probably a good thing for our sympathetic nervous system to be activated and for our body to focus its resources to fight or flight. But neuroception may also activate upon hearing or reading about an extreme weather elsewhere. In which case, you are not in danger, but your body is responding as if you were. That’s where a lot of eco-anxiety comes from.
Take the recent heatwaves in India and Pakistan. While you may think “I’m so grateful to have AC, so I’ll be ok if that happens here”, you might not feel ok. Your lizard brain might be picking up on the news as if it were happening to your tiny pre-historic village, and so you don’t feel safe. And if you don’t feel safe, your actions are going to reflect that. That’s why you might feel nervous or restless, or tired and overwhelmed. Maybe your heart races and your palms get sweaty. That heatwave halfway across the globe is triggering you. And it’s not like you can do anything to escape the heat because your not actually in the heat. So it’s harder for your body to react to the trigger as a means to get back to a regulated state. Instead, you need to comfort your dog.
When I notice that my sympathetic nervous system is activated, I hold space for how I am feeling, and I notice the physical sensations in my body. I find comfort in drinking something warm or cool, or maybe calm myself with my favorite treat. I might take a cool shower or put on a cozy hoodie. I write down my barking-dog thoughts and I reflect on them. I also try as hard as I can not to react to the trigger, though for me not taking action is the hardest thing to do.
There are so many things that can activate our fight or flight responses, and so many opportunities for us to pause and notice that. To understand that how we are feeling might not reflect the actual situation at hand. To comfort ourselves. To not react but to respond. These skill will become even more important as global warming increases the frequency of extreme weather, and the predictions of climate change grow sooner and more dire. Without our wise owls and calm dogs by our sides, we wont be able to come up with solutions for sustainable actions, or take political action.
What are some of the ways you tend to react to the news of extreme weather or climate change predictions? Do you tend to fight or freeze? Or are you unable to notice? Book a free call with me to uncover your reaction style and how to respond, no matter the trigger.