This is the audio experience for Reactive Reptiles.
James sits with his butthole clenched, teeth gritting and eye balls twitching. That stupid gorilla meme Sandy shared is the most xenophobic, misogynist, bigoted, racist thing since ET the Extra-Terrestrial.
Sandy is obviously a supporter of Hitler. And she definitely loves Trump and doesn’t think black lives matter. James hates Sandy.
James gets his ticket puncher out, because she just booked a one way ticket to Troll Town. James stretches his fingers. It’s time to PwnD0z3 this bih.
This is primitive, reactive James. The reptilian brain says, “Fight.”
Triggered by a meme, his mind and body tense up and reject the entire essence of Sandy’s being.
There’s a lot of reactive James characters in the world today. It’s natural, and it’s within all of us.
How can we not be so triggered by a meme of a gorilla, or by a sentence that indicates an opinion different from our own world view?
As James showed, it’s a physical and mental defensive reaction.
Like stepping on a rattlesnake after being deaf to its warning rattle. The warning signs are there, you just have to be receptive to them.
Stop Being a Reptile
How much of your day is spent reacting to something said, seen or heard?
How many times per day are you dropping your flow to respond to an email, text message or notification?
Notification whistles, buzzes and chirps are designed to capture our attention. They remove us from the world and pull our attention down the digital drain. Being reactive has never been easier.
Being receptive, mindful of your mind and body is sexy. Once you’re there, you’re going to notice how many on-edge, twitchy, knee-jerk friends you have. They sound smart, but aren’t anchored to anything deeper than their digital projection of self.
So what can you do to be more receptive and less reptile-like? Here’s a few ideas:
- Turn off Facebook and meditate for 10 minutes with the Headspace app. If 10 minutes sounds like too much, then you are in dire need of meditation.
- Turn off the news and read a book.
- Look out the window for a few minutes.
- Leave the phone in the car while you’re out to dinner.
- Do more yoga.
- Run without your phone.
Unplug for a few minutes and, for crying out, loud stop name calling.
Do whatever you need to do to be less of a fighting jesus christ lizard and be more Christ-like. And be receptive to your human friends.
We need you.
