Fight-or-Flight Response
Sympathetic activation under perceived threat: adrenaline, faster heart rate, blood to the muscles, attention narrowed. It runs before appraisal, so it fires at deadlines and angry emails as readily as at predators.
An everyday example
Heart pounding and a blank mind when a legal notice or a 'final warning' lands.
What it can cost you
Fast, binary reactions — pay, sign, flee, fight — before the situation has been read.
Warning signs
- My body reacted before I finished reading.
- The message feels like an emergency and I cannot say why.
One thing to do
Fifteen minutes before any response to anything that spiked your pulse; the response drafted at minute one is the one you will regret.
Is this happening to you right now?
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