14 Jan First Response Animal Defenses. Then Comes Human Response.
The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson has shocked and scared many that I’ve talked to. Amidst a lot of the discussion I’m also hearing a lot of deep appreciation for those people who responded by disarming the shooter.
Those that were there responded in the natural rhythm. Their animal defenses took over. Some fled the scene (flight), some dropped down (submit) and froze (freeze). The natural flight-flight-freeze system operates at such a deep neural network. It’s what takes over first in traumatic situations.
What we witnessed within moments after the shooting was the flow of grace into a situation. Those not wounded could have stayed passive, lying on the group, pretending to be shot, or they could do something.
What we learned is that they didn’t stay frozen, they didn’t stay passive. The primitive body response prevailed and then their hearts rose to meet this challenge. They moved toward the distress, they didn’t crawl away, avoiding, protecting themselves.
Many of the people there had relationships with Congresswoman Giffords. They liked her. They were going to help. Their attachment system took over. In those seconds when they perceived an opportunity they did something. They responded and moved as a team even without a supervisor directing the movements.
The press has heralded these people as heroes. They were.
As one of my clients said, “They were good people doing the right thing at the right time.” I believe we all have that capacity within us — to move toward rather than away, to support rather than to break down, to care for rather than to disregard.
The beauty in life is in celebrating these moments when we do move and respond in exactly the right way without any prompting or without any for getting the heroes welcome when it’s over. May we continue to see many of those moments and meet many of those people through our days.