fear

The First Signs of Fear

Tonight was my children’s first Christmas (they are 6-months old). What they really saw was the Christmas dinner with family. What makes this noteworthy in a business blog is the way that the kids reacted upon being brought into the house with well over thirty people milling about, talking, eating, and laughing. They were scared.

I held my boy in my arms, and it was immediately clear that this was more than just being uncomfortable or over-stimulated. My boy was literally shaking and breathing in short spurts. Even though I knew that there was no danger, he did not. He had no idea what was going on, he had no way of processing it properly, and so his body went into fight or flight, except that he doesn’t even have that mastered yet either. I took him into another room that had far fewer people, was a bit quieter, and where he could just nuzzle himself into my chest to calm down.

So as adults, do we really respond to fear any better than my little boy did this evening?