Fight Or Flight: Do We Face Our Problems Or Avoid Them? | The Odyssey Online
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Fight Or Flight: Do We Face Our Problems Or Avoid Them?

It only takes a leap of faith.

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Fight Or Flight: Do We Face Our Problems Or Avoid Them?

We have a response created by our sympathetic nervous system called acute stress response or hyperarousal. This response is most commonly known as the fight-or-flight response. So what do we do in the time of a harmful event? Do we stay and fight or do we stand up and defend ourselves? There are times in our lives where we find it easier to flee and not deal with the problem at hand, and it is totally acceptable, and in the end, we all choose what we need to do for our own survival. So, what happens after fleeing? You still this problem weighing on you and it starts to stir, and all of a sudden you're consumed by what you're trying to avoid. It takes this act of fleeing to realize what we need to do though. It takes time to think through and process our situation, and justify our next cause of action. We transition from this period of flight to a realization to finally take a stand for ourselves and realize the problem will never be fixed until we decide on our own terms that we are ready to move on and settle the issue. The issue may not be fixed, but I believe we all need to find a way to finalized a problem and put it to bed to have the peace of mind.

There are people in our lives who are going to try and derail you of our plans in life and keep you from achieving our goals, and try and tell you their opinion on how they think you should handle your problems. Some times they're right and sometimes they're not, but in the end, it's always up to you and people will support you or they won't.

We tend to want things at that moment, right now and don't usually like waiting. We struggle through what we go through and want it to be over, but its that process of struggling through our decisions in life that ultimately make us who we are and who we will become. I have a tendency to want to find the moment where everything clicks into place, and I think I am coming to the terms that it doesn't exist. That sometimes taking a break, finding my breath, and slowing down may be the greatest decision I can take. Our actions of fight-or-flight aren't predetermined and even though we all like to think we are becoming adults that the best thing for us to do sometimes is to just be a kid, and not try to take on so much. This doesn't just apply for an 18-year-old trying to find his place in the world but for the people who are still a kid at heart and are almost 30 years old, or 80 years old. We are brought up to take on our problems and push through them, but maybe the best thing for us to do is to set the bigger task down for a minute, go through the tiny steps and plan the bigger problems out for the long term. Although, we will never know when we are ready for anything. It's just a leap of faith.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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