Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion, & Change

Happy Sunday!

Today, I will be short, brief, and to the point.

But first, a bit of a rant. I did post this the other day in regard to inflation, price gouging, and the falling decline of our ethereally-wonderful country. As the world turns in conduct, I decided to hit up Google News for ideas on this article. I was met with a barrage of bullet holes, closing businesses (yes, including McDonalds ), and I was reminded of Morgan Freeman's quiet notion in "Bruce Almighty" (the exchange goes like this):

Bruce: Where are you going?

God: I am going on a vacation.

Bruce: God doesn't take vacations.

God: Ever hear of The Dark Ages?

I can see the point here, whatever your spiritual, religious or cultural perspectives showcase. Yes, the world seems to be progressing into a downward in a slump, almost like a game of Shoots-And-Ladders where you hit "11" (in this case, 2022) and fall back to 2008. I wanted to make a mental note that I wrote something very similar to this already:

The article can be found here.

However, today we are discussing Psychology and engagement.

We Are Panicking Too Much...

And that is not a good thing.

There is some psychology behind the matter that we all need to maintain wholeheartedly as this recession consumes us.

Essentially, with gas prices soaring , food shortages amidst, and a world we are not able to control...well, think again. Human nature has taught us one thing about ourselves that we must not ignore this quiet Sunday morning:

Back us into a corner and we will run, or fight.

Personally, I suggest doing neither. Rather, we have to wait this period out, and note that this happens more often than once thought. But then again, we also have to be prepared for the future, which many seem to not be thinking much about.

A 2,800-person survey performed in 2008 (and dictated by Jean Hagman) found that only around 10 percent of us think about the future , and that is the key we have to all focalize on here. It is, essentially, not a one-man fight we are waging here.

Take this website as an example: LinkedIn . We are uniting by distance, haphazardously allowing progress to be born from agitation, and yes, we will figure all of this out. In fact, I can bet my future on it (something you probably do not think about, according to Hagman!)

Recall 2008's Epic Recession...

I bring into the discussion: 2008. The market dropped; wars became commonplace; Bush disappeared and was quite literally never seen again (there is much speculation that he ran into a glass wall like Trump did when trying to stop the election process this past session).

True story!

But we made it through that, did we not? Did we beat terrorism? Kind of. Did we beat the recession? Yup. Did we find ways to adapt to new society? Yep. All of these are coming...

You just have to believe in human kind.

You see, human nature hardwires us to fear the unknown.

Every time you see gas prices rise, the corticoid levels in your blood rise (i.e. stress hormones), causing a three-stage process: G.A.S. that is known as "general adaptation syndrome ." Because of the business-savvy mindset of most who will be reading this, I want to make it absolutely clear that this is useful to know, despite what you may think.

I know, you may want more business news, or updates/blogs/posts on related topics to your niche, but because I have done so many of those already, I decided to take a risk here. Read if you are interested in a hardcore discussion about where we are headed, read on.

If you'd like to skip ahead to a business-minded discussion, click here for a better article more suiting to you. If you want to quite possibly learn something new, continue reading. There are three stages we are currently engaging in, and I promise, it has a point.

Alarm Reaction (Stage I)

The brain begins to understand that something is happening out of our control.

Distress signals are sent to the hypothalamus which causes corticoids to release, increasing physiological changes within the body and mind.

This is the point where we notice:

"Hmm, this person is holding a gun at my head."

Bodily Changes & The Pandemic

Your body and brain chemistry changes dramatically, and you are officially siphoning on adrenaline. This is much like where we were when we first heard about the pandemic.

We reacted after seeing news stories of sick patients (I recall the beginning, and it was haphazardously one of the scariest moments of my life, as it was yours...) and at this point, the fight-or-flight response begins its epic journey throughout our brain chemistry.

At this point, you are realizing you can run or hit back.

Resistance Stage (Stage II)

This is the point where our parasympathetic nervous system (countering on the sympathetic nervous system, which is the anxiety-inducing part of the G.A.S. formula) begins to counteract the system. It decides to try and calm you, but if the stressor (a mugger, as an example) is holding, say, a loaded pistol to your head, this is when you realize you cannot win the fight. In fact, it is known as the "alarm" stage.

This is when you reach a point in your momentous journey down the G.A.S. formula that dictates if you will win or lose the fight. In our example here, we are in a much, much more dangerous part of the G.A.S. notion, and that is...

Exhaustion Stage (Stage III)

Now, this is where we are about to stumble into.

The exhaustion stage is when the body has no more adrenaline to release; the body has tried to fight the alarm and resistance stages, and guess what?

We are headed here, to a point of no return. Back on track: we are hitting the exhaustion stage at present, and this is where the dangers of human nature begin to lurk.

You see, when we fear the unknown (i.e. "will gas prices keep rising?"), we fall into a rather dangerous pattern, and as relevant as the G.A.S. formula, we begin to lose control.

Think about the many, many mass shootings taking place in elementary schools.

There were 30+ elementary school shootings in 2021-2022, and this is truly a matter of losing our sense-of-self. We seem to be wavering from the G.A.S. formula and into a much more frightening part of the equation, which I am marking as the "D" in "G.A.S."

Dangerous (Addition IV)

I add a "D" to the equation (in essence, "G.A.S.D." because there is no figure of danger in this epic equation). Danger seems appropriate, where the mind and body begins to react in a manner far transcendent from simply exhaustion.

If we continue down this dangerous path of fear, hate, racism, gun violence, and so much else...well, we are far surpassing the General Adaptation Syndrome formula, entering into a new realm of terror. This is where bubbles appear over your head saying: "Oh no."

Back On Track

Danger lurks in the wary minds of those who feel threatened by change, and we are all experiencing such a phenomenon. Danger is a reaction to fear, hence my addition to the G.A.S. formula. I feel we are heading down this path, where we are far transcending past exhaustion and straight into a new realm of the formula: danger.

When we reach exhaustion, the body climbs down from its high-horse and into a threat.

If we truly stop at "Exhaustion," why are we all acting so nuts? Well, for one, we are entering a realm of human nature unexplored by even the greatest of scientists.

"But There Are Two "E's"

It is because fear triggers something in the mind that brings back an adrenal response to distance and unitedness. This is where we pick back up on the discussion at-hand, and sorry for the lecture, but like I said, it has a point: we are not looking forward enough, and that is where danger lurks. In fact, we need to begin to add an "E" to the equation...

Engagement (Stage V...)

We need to all take a long beat and momentously realize that it is our own actions at-hand that are causing this recession. When gun violence runs rampant, and when climate changes thrust dangerous winds our way, and gas prices rise, and we all begin to lose sight of our goals and our standard human etiquette, we have to make a stand against the "G.A.S.D" formula and begin to add an "E" to the "G.A.S.E.D" (well, a second "E"):

Engagement.

When dangerous things begin to reluctantly spiral into a taciturn spiral, we have two choices, and this is where I am leading with this discussion. We can "engage" in a much more fruitful manner, and we can choose to suffer at the hands of an oppressed society, or we can take a stand and begin to do something about it.

Frustration haunts the weary minds of all businessmen and women...

When we begin to see this world changing, we need to do something about it, right?

Now, I do not mean rush Capitol Hill and engage in yet another debauchery. Rather, I mean that we require some calmness in the matter: we can choose to run, or we can choose to exhaust. But what about the fightback? What if, say, we know enough Ninja moves and maneuvers that we can reluctantly grab our metaphorical mugger's gun out of their hands?

Of course, I recommend complying to their demands, but point being: we can start right here, right now, working together to return our economy back to normal.

If we begin to sympathize with one another (click here to read about the homeless man I gave $20 to), patterns of exhaustion and danger will deplete.

We will find ourselves doing our very, very best to remain calm and lucid; we will begin to look in places we never dared to look; we will begin to reshape society in a manner conducive to Ben Franklin's epic journey after the signing of the Declaration Of Independence, where a woman approached him on the street.

Ben Franklin's Famous Words

She asked: "Mr. Franklin, what manner of government have you bequeathed us?" and he responded with a calm smile: "I have given you a Republic, madam, if you can keep it." In other words, do not fight back. Rather, choose to run.

Choosing to run versus choosing to fight allows us to calm ourselves down a bit.

The mugger is no longer a danger to us if we simply hand over our wallets and avoid the danger, thus eliminating the threat without fight. Rather, flight (engaging in random acts of kindness) can be a famous manner in which our consensus becomes a viral contagion.

Bruce: What if I need you? What if I require your assistance? I can't do it alone.

God: Bruce, that's everybody's problem. You keep looking up, hoping for answers.

Don't Be Frightened...

Be engaged! Do good things for bad people, even in the midst of a recession.

If you are afraid of gas prices, you have ever right to do so. It is scary right now, but we need to unite in a wholehearted soldierly routine: do not react to the negativity surrounding you. If someone cuts you off in traffic, do not raise your middle finger. Thank them for reminding you that perhaps you were not looking closely enough at the traffic patterns.

I will leave it at this for this article of the 90 Day Content Challenge : engage life. It is hard enough surviving these days, so we all need to begin to realize that just as we beat the recession of 2008 by uniting with new laws and etiquette, we can beat this, too.

Today, so something good for someone, and you are set. Give them a discount when they have less than enough; give them true customer care rather than spamming them on LinkedIn (i.e. do not spam me, I'm here to write); know your purpose on earth.

And one more quote, as infamously stated in a movie we can all relate to:

"Life will find a way..."

Realize that this recession will eventually end, if and only if we can make lemonade out of lemons. Now, that may be tricky, considering lemons cost more now than ever. We every day we have a choice: to leave our homes angry, bringing about a whirlwind of danger, or we can think positively (read another article I wrote about this) and get through it together. We are all united by distance; remote work is becoming commonplace.

This is a sure-fire sign that we managed to adapt to a world where a pandemic almost wiped out our entire species. We will surely adapt to this, too.

Be warned: leave your home angry today, or tomorrow, or the next day, and you will be met with angry people. However, if you leave your home happy, not letting anybody stand in your way, and allowing happiness into your heart, you will pass that onto others, and this is where the balance of our society comes into play. Do not listen to my advice.

Rather, use it to your advantage. It will get you much further than you think. If you are low on gas today, leave happy that you have enough to go to work, or the beach, or the movies. Do something good for you, and others. And start with this post by...

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