From Fear to Flow

12

Monitoring and blunting

Introduction

Suddenly, you find yourself in a situation of threat. The threat is not immediate, like a gun pointed to your head or you gasping for air in ice-cold water – situations which evoke instinctive reactions rather than long cognitive processing – but a threat of a more slowly evolving nature. You have a birthmark that has changed color, and a medical check-up shows that you have developed melanoma. Your company’s economy has lately gone bad and you are called to your boss’s office to have a serious talk; within minutes you are laid off. Your daughter’s teacher calls you up to inform you about a drug problem they suspect she has. What would you do? Think about it for a minute. Your first reaction would probably ...