What do you do in a crisis?

“If you get caught in a rip, don’t discard your surfboard!”

I was both amused and amazed at what my surfing instructor said.

“Who on earth would throw away their floaty device when they're being pulled out to sea?!” I asked

“Almost all beginners.” he said.

“They panic and in their panic the board is seen as a hindrance, something that‘s dragging them out to sea, so they ditch it, thinking without the board, they’ll be able to swim to shore faster, but instead they exhaust themselves and drown.”

In that moment, I had a startling epiphany!

Whenever I felt myself caught in a rip and being pulled out to sea in my life, I too discarded my floaty devices!

I’d get so fixated on getting through whatever crisis I was in, so fixated on making “it to shore and safety”, that I’d batten down the hatches and forget about everything else.

But as I’d swim against the current of my life I’d get tired, so I’d try harder and then my sleep would start to suffer, sleeping less and having more broken sleeps due to an over active mind.

The less rest I got, the more tired I became, and the more tired I became, the more I was reaching for pick me ups and snacks through the day and the more times I was choosing takeout food over cooking a meal.

It’d all spiral and I’d stop exercising due to lack of time and energy and, as an introvert, I’d need more time at home to try and recharge which meant spending less and less time with friends and family.

That was 14 years ago.

That epiphany took me on a quest to understand more about human behaviour in survival situations, how we think, how we feel, what we do, how we react and what we can do to stop ourselves being carried out to sea by our emotional brain so that we can take charge of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours and ride our mental, emotional and physical surfboards to shore and to safety.

What do you do when you feel yourself being pulled out to sea in your life?