“A New Day – It’s What I Live For!”

If you are an impala, a wildebeest, a zebra, a buffalo or any other grazing species, life-threatening stress is part of every day. You are most certainly on the menu for the resident pride of lions. For you, life is here and now. ?Every day, life is all about this one day.

Prey animals like these master stress in three remarkable ways.

First, they fully focus on their purpose in life which is to feed, to breed and to conserve their energy for when they will need it – which they will. Despite the presence of hungry predators, they are role-models of Alfred E. Neuman’s philosophy: “What, me worry?”

Second, they remain calm even while they are keenly aware of everything around them. Yet at the first sign, sound, sight or whiff of danger, they are instantly alert. They immediately freeze, motionless, while they assess the threat. That’s smart. There’s no point in wasting precious energy by running away if the danger is not real.? Only if the threat becomes acute does their body release adrenaline and cortisol which are the jet-fuel to propel their instantaneous fight-or-flight response.

Third, when the threat is over, they go straight into recovery mode. They stop, slow down their heartrate, and replenish their energy by resuming peaceful grazing. That’s called getting ready for the next threat.

We’re Pretty Bad at Stress Management

Most of us don’t manage stress in any way close to this.

Humans lives are a lot more complex than wildlife, and that generates much of our stress. We face challenges on many levels that create worry, anxiety and, for many, a pathological fear of the future. Our minds too easily go into “what-if” worst-case scenario mode. Under daily bombardment by news-channels and social media with a relentless flood of bad news, it’s easy for us to become paranoid about what could happen.? Most damaging of all, after a stressful incident is over, we don’t immediately go into recovery mode like the prey animals do. No, – we go on reliving the incident in our heads, over and over again, compounding the damaging impact of stress on mind and body.

It may not be possible for us to replicate all the stress management techniques in the wildlife playbook, but we can certainly adapt some of their ‘no worries’ behaviors. For example:

Simplify our lives.

Focus on what truly matters in life and on what we actually can control.

Avoid the endless loop of rethinking the “what if’s” of a stressful incident.

Don’t overreact to every imagined threat. Conserve our energy for the true crises when we really need it.?

Be more resilient.

Join us on a Tasimba safari and learn about stress management from the grazing herds. ?Maybe you will adopt the mantra that seems to work for them:

“A new day – it’s what I live for!”