Enter the Facing State-Move out of Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn

One of the things I teach in my 1-1 coaching and group work is shifting ourselves into the facing state, which is not the same as fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. These 4 I just mentioned are trauma or stress or protective states typically born out of childhood patterns we have learned and carried forward into today. They are are not the best states to live from as they limit our ability to handle life, stress, emotions, and our symptoms in a healthy, empowered way.

Facing is just as it sounds- challenging, confronting, standing up to, setting boundaries, speaking up, dealing with, etc. Facing is not attacking aggressively (fighting), or avoiding (flighting), or shutting down (freezing), or appeasing others (fawning) in the face of stress or what our brains see as dangerous or threatening.

Facing is a healthy empowered state we choose from our adult executive mind. It doesn’t mean we don’t have initial reactions of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. These reactions happen automatically from our patterns and limbic brains. The key is to be able to consciously switch out of these stress reactive protective states when they occur and learn to operate from a facing state.

Facing leads to the erasing of many things that ail us. Reach out for 1-1 coaching support or sign up for my weekly group classes to learn more about how to get into the facing state for healing.