Research: Inward Representation of Fight, Flight, Freeze

Many people may find themselves familiar with the survival responses of fight, flight, and freeze. We turn to these survival responses when we experience a physical threat and our body drops down into survival mode.

But, sometimes, instead of physical threats, we experience emotional threats. In their research, Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Christopher Germer have correlated the fight, flight, and freeze responses with their internal presentations. They write about this work in their book The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff and are listed below.

• Fight correlates with Self-Criticism

• Flight correlates with Isolation

  • Isolation can involve physically isolating yourself. But, it can also mean thinking and feeling as though you are alone in your experiences, especially in your disappointments and inadequacies

• Freeze correlates with Rumination

  • Rumination means continuously thinking about the same thing.

In reflection, do you find you engage with self-criticism, isolation, and rumination? The likely answer is yes. And a likely follow-up question is, what can I do about this?

Fortunately, Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Christopher Germer also correlated each of these internal survival responses with helpful interventions. And they are the three components of self-compassion.

• Self-Criticism can be met with Self-Kindness

• Isolation can be met with Positive Social Connections

• Rumination can be met with Mindfulness

I encourage you to read The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff to walk through each of these responses more in-depth and explore self-compassion as a whole. You can also sign up for my newsletter and I provide you with a free, 30-day journal that incorporates some of the work of Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Christopher Germer.