The Bear….. From Fight Flight to Back to Grazing
The Bear….. From Fight Flight to Back to Grazing
Gail Boone September 2023
He was close enough to pick me out of a lineup had he been human. I got the fright of my life the other night. It was a quiet evening, and I had been hanging out in the barn with my four horses and donkey for forty-five minutes or so. Everything was chill, calm, and serene. When it came time to let them out, I did what I always do. I open the stall doors in a particular order according to the herd’s pecking order. The first two walked out of the barn and stopped in a laneway, waiting for the others. I returned to the barn to let the third one out when I noticed the horses and my little donkey turn to face something adjacent to the back of the barn around the manure pile.
Horses are particularly sensitive animals constantly scanning their environment for safety, and their hearing is very sensitive. They can pinpoint sound’s general direction, allowing them to quickly escape danger. Their physical presence shifts significantly when they are alerted to something in their environment. So I got curious when I saw their ears standing straight up, their bodies tensing preparing to run, their gaze fixed on something I could not yet see, their power emanating from their presence. What did they see?
We have three families of deer here. Mamas with babies. I expected to see one of the families out behind the barn around the manure pile. So I quietly crept out of the front of the barn and turned to my left to peek around the corner. It wasn’t a deer. A big black bear was down on all four, sitting smack dab in the middle of my manure pile with just an electric fence between us. It was just the length of the barn away from me. In that moment – fear and I became instant companions. To top it all off, my phone battery was dying, and my hubby was away. All I could think about was two horses and my miniature donkey were outside; two were inside and I didn’t know what this bear would do.
Moment of vulnerability and truth! I am an equine-facilitated coach. Over the years, I have learned a great deal about how our nervous system works when we feel threatened. I regularly practice coherent breathing to self-regulate and manage my response and behaviour to situations around me. I understand fight, flight, freeze, fawn, appease and dissociate. And over the years, I’ve been very successful at teaching myself how to manage various situations that traditionally have called my fear into action. Not this time. Not right away. And, that’s the point of this piece.
Our body has a natural and healthy way of responding to short-term stress. It gets us ready to respond to the threat. Our brain is the first to notice when our body is exposed to something that causes stress. It prepares us for flight or flight by sending an alarm signal to the adrenal glands located at the top of our kidneys. These glands are responsible for secreting the stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is distributed throughout and causes the whole body to respond. Our heart rate speeds up. Our breath becomes shallow and fast. These work together to move more oxygen throughout our body. Digestion slows because it is not when we need to fight or flee.
Our thinking also affects the body’s response. Our brain acts differently depending on how much control we think we have over a situation. If we believe we have control, our body will release less stress hormones than if we feel out of control. How much is released directly relates to what we think about the situation.
In short-term or acute stress, as the body releases stress hormones and we respond appropriately, the stress hormones get used up and the body returns to a natural steady state. This is normal. Chronic stress occurs when there is a consistent state of stress and overwhelm. When chronically stressed, the cortisol is not all used up, gets stored in the tissues and adverse health effects result. Our bodies are not designed for chronic stress. In chronic stress, fight flight never gets turned off.
The beautiful black bear, crouched on all fours and just the length of the barn away from me, flung me right into the normal (acute) stress response. I was terrified. “My phone battery’s dying… nobody is home…I’m in the barn alone and with three of my boys out and two in here with me; what if my boys get hurt?” and so on and so on. You get the picture. Full-blown cortisol dump.
I quickly returned to the barn, closed the doors, ran into the tack room and climbed the ladder leading to the hayloft. It’s fascinating now when I think about it. I was aware my body was in fight-flight. I knew I was having a normal body response. My heart rate was up. My breathing was shallow and in my chest. My hands were shaking, and my ability to think clearly was shut down. That happens. Our prefrontal cortex, our executive functioning area, is temporarily short-circuited by the work of the amygdala, our emotional response center. We don’t make good decisions when we’re stressed. Period. I couldn’t remember the names or telephone numbers of my neighbours. People I see or call regularly. Gone. Nadda. Not accessible in that moment.
We can influence our body’s response to stress by learning to control or manage our breath. One technique is called coherent breathing. Controlling or managing our breathing can affect how we respond to stress and help us to shift our nervous system from fight or flight to rest and digest.
Coherent breathing involves shifting our breath’s rate, depth, and evenness. Breathing coherently means breathing low, slow, with an even flow. So “low” means breathing deeply into our belly, with the stomach rising as we breathe in and collapsing as we breathe out. This takes practice because most of us naturally breathe into our throat or chest. We typically ignore how we breathe unless we do yoga, the many types of martial arts, dance, swimming, singing, meditation or some other activity that requires us to be aware of and control our breathing.
“Slow” means you want to extend the inhales and exhales to a count of 4, 5, or 6. This could mean seconds or just counting slowly. So, when you inhale, count to 4, 5, or 6, and then exhale for a count of 4, 5, or 6. “Even flow” means that the inhale and exhale are the same length, without a pause between breaths. So, to put it all together, we need to breathe low into our belly, slow to a count of 4, 5, or 6, and with an even flow by breathing in and out without a pause between the inhale and exhale. Ideally, you would be breathing through your nose, which boosts the amount of oxygen distributed as it humidifies and filters/warms the air entering your body.
It took me a few minutes to start breathing this way. When I did, things shifted. I relaxed and could think again. I was on my way from fight flight back to rest and digest.
Back to the bear. I did remember my neighbour’s phone number and called him. He got in his car and drove over. When the bear saw him approaching the barn and heard the neighbour calling out, that big black bear stood up and ran off.
We all face situations where our body kicks into gear to respond to an acute stressor. It’s designed for the acute stress response. We can support our normal functioning by employing strategies that shift our nervous system back to rest, digest, and behave as the horses do. They alert, assess, and respond quickly when they notice something amiss in their environment. After the threat passes, they return to grazing. They quickly get back to normal.
Learning how to manage acute stress in a healthy way helps prevent the onset of chronic stress.
Working with horses in equine-facilitated coaching provides an excellent way to learn about ourselves and how to manage our emotions, energy and stress. Once we learn about ourselves, it becomes easier to understand and embody the strategies that will help us metaphorically, ‘get back to grazing.’
For more information, please reach out to Next Stage Coaching at https://nextstagecoaching.ca or to gailboone@ns.sympatico.ca
I wish I had the picture….. the circle shows you where he was standing……
