Most of us have heard about the fight, flight and flee response to stress. But what about the fawn response? Well, let’s put them altogether so that we can understand the different responses in the face of stress. 

Fight, flight or freeze is a set of stress response arising in natural body reactions to perceived threats. It’s a survival response that has been programmed since the days of our ancestors when there was real danger posed by dangerous animals. These days, the threats that we face are largely psychological. However, the body continues to respond in the same manner as if there is a tiger standing right in front of us.

In a nutshell, when faced with stress, your sympathetic nervous system is being activated. Hormones are released in your body after being stimulated by your adrenal glands; from a signal that was first transmitted to the hypothalamus by your amygdala, the emotional part of your brain. As a result, you are prompted to stay and fight, run and flee danger or stay frozen and stuck.

Acute stress response can result in the following….

• Breathlessness
• Heart rate increase
• Blood pressure rise
• Nervous tension 
• Pale or flushed skin
• Dilated pupils
• Stomach upset 

There are detrimental effects if your stress response remains activated over long periods of time as in chronic stress. 

What is the Fawn Response? 

The fawn stress response is used after an unsuccessful fight, flight, or freeze attempt.

Fawn is your body’s stress response to try to please someone to avoid conflict. It is often rooted in childhood issues where you believe that you need to be agreeable as a survival strategy. Subconsciously, you are hoping to fulfil your basic need for love and belonging due to constant emotional neglect and rejection. Unfortunately, fawn creates codependency and a loss in identity.

If stress impacts your quality of life, affects you in daily functioning or if you have a nervous system that is overreacting, do look for appropriate solutions.  

Common Signs of Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fawn Stress Response 

How to Alleviate the Stress Response

While our stress response is meant to protect us from extreme harm, chronic illnesses can develop with a stress response that is always activated.

One great way to alleviate the stress response is to apply EFT tapping for calming your nervous system. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. It involves tapping on specific meridian points on your face and body using your fingertips. Tapping sends a calming signal to the emotional part of your brain, thereby releasing stress and restoring your body’s energy system. 

If you’ve been using the fawn response, it is also possible to address core issues that stem from childhood. EFT tapping can be applied for healing your inner child, to change your programming and break the patterns of codependency.  Review some of the testimonials here. 

Apply for a discovery call if you’d like to find out more about stress reduction at deep-rooted levels and working together. 

Love and abundance always, 
Evelyn Lim
Accredited Advanced EFT Practitioner 
Self-Love Healing Specialist 

The post What is the Fight-Flight-Freeze-Fawn Stress Response appeared first on Abundance Coach for Women in Business | Evelyn Lim.

You may get all fiery, red and hot when feeling angry.

It may also be that you lash out at others when you start to feel mad.

However, anger may not just be about getting triggered and exploding in an outward behaviour.

While you may feel justified about feeling angry, excessive anger can create an impact on your health and also hurt your relationships. 

Hence, to alleviate intense emotional levels such as anger, an inner deep dive is warranted. 

In fact, if you choose to investigate, you may just find out that there are deeper “onion” layers (emotionally and cognitively).

Refer to the image below for some examples on what you may discover.

At the root, you may find out that there are certain negative core beliefs that make up your thought patterns.

Examples of core beliefs 
– “I am not lovable”
– “I’m not important”
– I’m unworthy”
– “I’m not good enough”
– etc. 

These core beliefs are likely to influence you in how you feel and how you respond in terms of reactive behaviour. They form the programming that drive your impulses. The beliefs are your default automatic negative thought patterns. They may explain why you find yourself in the same negative situation repeatedly. 

Deep Dive into the Root Cause of Anger 

My question is: To get to what is really behind anger, how far or deep are you willing to go?

If you want to make a change in how you react or respond to triggers, consider diving in to find out the root cause of anger. 

I work with clients to unearth deeper layers and to heal somatically, so that they can alleviate their automatic angry reactions. We find out what core beliefs are driving their patterns of behaviour and we work on integrating a new set of loving and supportive beliefs for a better way forward. A shift gives way to an embodied sense of calm and ease.

If you’d like to find out more about working together, click over here for a discovery call. 

To your well-being,
Evelyn Lim
Therapeutic Coach 
Self-Love Healing Specialist 

The post How to Deep Dive into the Root Cause of Anger appeared first on Abundance Coach for Women in Business | Evelyn Lim.