The Survival Mode… It is a pretty heavy word. A lot of people live in it, and don’t even know or realize it. You keep hearing people say ‘I want to live life to the fullest…’, but yet, they have no idea how to, because they are stuck in the survival mode still. When you’re in survival mode, that’s exactly what you do through life…. You survive. But that’s not fully living life.
The survival mode was defined by Psychology Today as an adaptive response of the human body to help survive the danger and stress.
When something bad happens to you, you put yourself into survival mode, in order to make it through it. You do it, in order to protect yourself someway, somehow in the moment. But what happens a lot of time, people stay in that mode. When you’re very young, and something happens to you, you get yourself into survival mode, to someway process what you’re experiencing. You are too young to understand it, but you have to continue living somehow. And because that’s the only mode you remember, and are familiar with, you don’t realize that you’re still in it later on, unless you get out of it, and get into the living mode.
‘Just Surviving’, is not Living
Usually, when you’re stuck in the survival mode, you carry around a lot of emotional baggage. Some is recent, and some is from years and years ago, that you might not even completely remember where you picked it up from. And be completely honest here… is carrying around a lot of baggage comfortable? No… when you travel, and carry a lot of baggage, it gets really heavy on you. It slows you down. That’s the same with the emotional baggage. If you continue carrying around, it gets heavier and heavier on you emotionally, because you keep piling up more and more. It slows you down in life. You can’t fully enjoy life anymore because you’re constantly thinking about things that hold you back. And just like being stuck in survival mode without realizing it, you can carry around a lot of emotional baggage without even knowing it.
Emotional baggage involves several different things. When you leave unresolved issues in your life, it causes emotional baggage. Things that happened to you, or negative things you experienced in the past, build up emotional baggage if just dragged under the carpet. It has a negative effect on your attitudes, and your behavior.
Things We Tend to Pack in Our Bags for Survival
There are so many events in life that can cause emotional baggage if not handled in a good way. It’s the negative events that have to be faced at some point or another throughout life. Things such as: Heart breaks, when you experience violence in some type of way, perhaps from a loss of a job, infidelity, major life changes, or a death of someone close to you. Those are all events causing heavy emotions inside you. If those emotions are being suppressed, and not dealt with, it results in emotional baggage, which can lead to heavy depression, anxiety, and affect you physically the longer it’s being carried around. And when you stay with that emotional baggage, you are in survival mode, and don’t really get to live and experience life to the fullest.
Even though it’s not an easy process, emotions have to have recognized and processed. God created humans with emotions… and having emotions is nothing bad to have. Emotions in our lives have a purpose. Other humans might’ve made you believe that emotions are not good, and need to be hidden as you grew up, but that’s not true. If you don’t allow yourself to recognize your emotions to the fullest, you won’t live life to the fullest. Emotions give you unbelievable experiences. If emotions are not being processed, they get… well, stuck in your body.
The Recognition of Emotions
When you feel something, whether it’s good or bad, recognize it. Identify what you feel. Don’t just push it away, or aside. It is okay for you to feel what you’re feeling. After you recognize what you feel, accept it. Just as it is. There is no need to try to ‘change’ that feeling you’re feeling, or beating yourself up for what you’re feeling. Accept it. Next, release the emotion. Release it in a way that works for you. Is it through crying? Maybe you feel like screaming? Watch a comedy and laugh if that helps you to release it. If you want to punch a pillow, do so. Perhaps you lighten up when you dance? Feel free to do so. Whatever it takes for you to release that emotion, do so.
From here on forth, no more burying pain and emotions. Try your absolute best to recognize it, express it, and release it. This week, take time to focus on emotions you feel. When you first catch it, recognize it. Describe what you feel. Maybe writing it down is best for you. If you want to write a note in your phone app, do so. Perhaps just speaking it out loud to yourself is what works for you. If you have a friend that is walking through this growth process with you, tell them what you’re feeling. Whatever method works for you to recognize what you feel, use it. After that, release it. Try different ways to release, and use the one that works best for you.
It is completely okay to feel as you feel, and it absolutely okay to have fun with releasing it. No more building up, and carrying around more and more baggage. And most of all, it’s time to live life to the fullest, and no longer hardly getting by in survival mode. Live life, and enjoy life to the fullest for yourself. You are absolutely worth it!!! And next week we’ll talk about baggage claim in relationships 😊. Keep me posted how things are going for you!
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