Ashlie: (00:18)
Welcome back to another episode of Tactical Living by LEO Warriors. I'm your host, Ashlie Walton.
Clint: I'm your co-host Clint Walton.
Ashlie:
In today's episode, we're going to talk about the fight or flight response and why it's so difficult in today's modern world to break free from that and to be fully engaged with life. So just sit back, relax and enjoy today's content. Clint and recently went to Universal Studios Horror Nights. If you've never been there, I would highly recommend it. It's like the epitome of every haunted house that you've ever been to in your life or everyone that you've ever wanted to go to, to where you're paying money for people, people to deliberately scare you. And I'm making mention of this because we went with several friends and the reason that we like to go is not necessarily because we get scared, but it's because of that 'Oh crap' moment when someone spooks you and you didn't expect it.
Clint: (01:19)
And it's really funny when you see someone get spooked. It's hilarious to watch.
Ashlie: (01:26)
Yeah. And we set it up in a way that when you go through these different mazes, which essentially are like different haunted houses throughout the park…We went with one of Clint's partners and his girlfriend. There were times where we made him go in front of us deliberately so that we could watch him get scared before anybody else.
Clint: (01:48)
And this friend of mine, he's like the man's man. He's very stern. Very kept together. It's hilarious to see him get scared.
Ashlie: (02:00)
Yeah. Clint, I think you've talked about a lot of people who make comments about his resting bitch face. He works out a lot so he's this really buff guy that doesn't look like he would be fazed by anything. But I can attest to the fact that he definitely gets triggered when something comes his way that he wasn't expecting. And likewise for all of us. We all get into that space. But the cool thing with this is you're literally paying money so that you can either experience it yourself or in our case, watch people that you're with experience it right in front of you. By the end of the night, my jaw was hurting. I don't know if you've ever experienced that as you sit there to where you've just had a night where you can drive home and you're just smiling back at yourself just thinking about everything that transpired throughout the night.
Ashlie: (02:51)
But that was really what the entire evening was like for all of us. There was many times where Clint and I also got spooked and startled and people were just laughing at us because we shouldn't have been scared in that moment. We weren't expecting it. And the reason I bring this up is because in a situation like that, it was deliberate. It was intentional. We knew what we were getting ourselves into. But throughout the motions of our normal day to day, there are many times where our fight or flight response is triggered and we might not even know it. And I've read an article from www.verywellmind.com and they talk about how what this essentially is is just an acute stress response and when this happens and you're in that moment of 'Oh crap this scares me' or something that you weren't expecting, there's a release of hormones that take place.
Ashlie: (03:48)
And if you can think about that moment where you've experienced that yourself and you can think about the sort of flush that you feel, that's the hormones that are being released in such a quick amount that that's what's creating this inner instinct that's coming up in you. And it all relates back to this primitive nature of us being able to seek out pray, to hunt or seeking out a mate to procreate. And that's really what it boils down to. It's something far deeper and far more primitive than just going to an amusement park and being startled. And the problem that I see with that is when it comes to modern technology, we're constantly stimulated to some extent, dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of times throughout the day and throughout our week. And this could be something as simple as having notifications turned on on your phone. I know for me, that ping that you hear when you get a text message, there's something that's triggered.
Ashlie: (04:51)
I can feel those hormones being released inside of me and then even if we try to portray it as like, Oh, we'll just pass it up and check it later. It's not that important in the back of our mind. It still exists there and we feel like we have to tend to it and it's just the same as going on a hunt and turning around the corner to see what's on the other side of a tree and it's really hard to turn that off and without the full intention of it. We don't realize what it's doing to us on a subconscious level and also on a physical level when we're constantly disturbed that way. And it's a lot different than just being in a silent, dark, quiet room, which is nearly impossible in today's day and age. There's little led lights on everything nowadays, whether it's you know, the television or even having alerts that are on silent that are creating light inside of your bedroom when you're sleeping. It constantly puts us on alert and on edge. And I think it's important to point out how important it is to really tune that out as best as you can.
Clint: (06:01)
And something I've discovered recently and Dave Asprey said this in one of his blog posts talking about the fight or flight response and how it actually negatively affects your body in the aspect of on a daily basis. We're experiencing this fight or flight response throughout our body. And that's led to the ongoing issues of heart disease as well as heart attacks because your body has a chemical reaction when you actually are faced with that response. And we're training ourselves to really start going towards that fight response or that flight response. And it's amping us up every time and in our own bodies
Ashlie: (06:54)
For sure. And we're in our early thirties… closer to mid-thirties for one of us... But when we think back to just 10 years ago or even going back further to where we have a vivid understanding of how life looked 20 years ago, it was so different. Even in that short amount of time and going back even further hearing from our parents and you know people in our circle or even not when you're just conversing with people around you. People didn't have all of this stimulus that we do today. You drive down Main Street nearby where we live and there are constant lights. There are humans standing with signs, wiggling them to try to prompt you to go inside of shops. You know, the lights that we have…even to pump gas now. Everything's digitalized and of course we have social media. So even picking up our phone, it's not just to dial a phone number anymore.
Ashlie: (07:54)
It hasn't been that way for a long time and four years ago we took my dad to buy his first iPhone…he had a flip phone longer than anybody that I knew and we tried really hard to find him another flip phone because I thought it would be nearly impossible to try to gravitate him into something that was more than just a flip phone. That's all he needed to run his business. Everything he does is through word of mouth and referral and it wasn't useful for him. And when we got there, there was only one that was available, but it was, it was like some kind of walkie-talkie or something. It wasn't just a phone and it made things even more complex. And we finally got him to get an iPhone. Even doing that and seeing the constant struggle. Now, my dad would always have his flip phone just shoved into the shirt pocket and he has that thing in his hand nonstop now.
Ashlie: (08:55)
And the funny thing is that I don't even have his email or anything set up on it. He doesn't have any social media accounts. It's merely for the ability of internet access and being able to talk to Siri…which he does quite often. We also got him a couple of Echos and he talks to Alexa all the time too. But these are the things that have been implemented in our lives as evolution goes on and it just goes to show how difficult it is once you have that as a crutch to be able to just set it aside and I think that your cell phone is the biggest indicator when it comes to having that trigger of those hormones being released on a much more frequent basis than what would be deemed healthy. I think in the eyes of most health professionals, my biggest tip would really be to, of course, turn off the notifications on your phone if you don't already have them turned off.
Ashlie: (09:57)
The only thing that we have turned on on our cell phones is of course our text messages and we have surveillance cameras all around our property and we have that turned on just to make sure that there's nobody at our house when there shouldn't be. But apart from that, we've gotten in the habit of turning our phones upside down to where they're face down anytime that we shouldn't be looking at them. We typically have a two hour rule where we will stop using our phones altogether two hours before we go to bed. And that taps into some of Dr. Michael Breus' tips and techniques on being able to regulate your circadian rhythm and being able to tap into some of the REM sleep and getting into a more healthy sleep cycle overall.
Ashlie: (10:46)
And we try to keep things relatively quiet in our space when we're not supposed to be stimulated. And if that means keeping the TV off and not having that white noise. I know a lot of people really rely on that to go to sleep. I know when Clint's aunt stays at our house, whenever we travel, she has the television on all the time. And I understand that and I understand that because there was many, many years when Clint and I worked completely opposite schedules and I would have the TV on because I was scared. I was frightened to be in the home by myself and at the time, I lived right next door to my mom and dad. Like, there was essentially no reason for it. I lived in the home next door to the house that I grew up in and lived in until Clint and I got married when I was 20 years old. But by having that cognizant awareness and being able to decide that you want to take back some of your own physiological makeup and not allow any external forces to have that control over you, I think it's so important. As we continue forward, I only see it getting more and more difficult to be able to have that disconnect for yourself and to really just be able to identify when you're having those triggers. And if we stop and we're cognizant and we use intent to be able to identify when those triggers are happening, it's easier to identify them and then you'll see that they happen throughout the day. And as you listen to this, if that's the only takeaway that you get, is to be able to be aware of the fact that you can take control of that fight or flight response and essentially maybe add on some time to the years that you have here on this earth, then you're really able to enjoy your Tactical Living.
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