{"id":328,"date":"2021-09-29T03:52:41","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T03:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/?p=328"},"modified":"2021-09-29T07:19:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T07:19:36","slug":"why-you-freeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/why-you-freeze\/","title":{"rendered":"WHY YOU FREEZE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I was a kid, we used to play a game called \u201cFreeze Tag.\u201d Whoever was declared \u201cIt\u201d would run around making every effort to \u201cTag\u201d or make physical contact with the rest of us. If we were touched, we had to \u201cfreeze\u201d in place until the \u201cIt\u201d person \u201cfroze\u201d all of us or until an unfrozen friend managed to touch us (without getting caught) and set us free from being \u201cfrozen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our professional and personal lives, we play a form of \u201cFreeze Tag\u201d as well. But this one is not as much fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have psychological or emotional triggers which \u201cfreeze\u201d us in our mental or emotional tracks until our emotions eventually pass and we are released from being frozen. The contexts for our \u201cfreezes\u201d tend to vary from person to person. For some, we freeze when we have to present to extremely senior people. For others, it\u2019s the personality type (e.g., aggressive) of the audience. And yet for others, it\u2019s the number of people in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many times, these triggers are polychromatic. We do not freeze when singular variables present themselves in isolation, but we find ourselves \u201ctouched\u201d when a specific array hits us all at the same time. For example, a person might be fine with extremely senior people, but when they face an extremely senior person (variable 1) who is highly aggressive (variable 2) and who has greater subject matter knowledge than they do (variable 3), they become unravelled and \u201cfreeze.\u201d The possibilities are endless. I coached one leader who only froze when he faced senior leaders (variable 1) of a specific ethnicity (variable 2) who spoke either with an American or British accent (variable 3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What in the world is going on when we freeze?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a high level, we know from the field of emotional intelligence that whenever we face extraordinary spikes in emotion, the logical part of our brain (frontal cortex) can be \u201chijacked\u201d by the emotional part of our brain (amygdala) creating what some call an \u201camygdala hijack<\/strong>.\u201d In general, whenever we experience moderate to high levels of emotion, we progressively transition from functioning more rationally towards functionally more emotionally. Sometimes, the emotional impetus is so great that it seems like the logical part of our brain goes completely blank. I call these moments \u201cbrain freeze<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What types of things cause that level of emotional spike?<\/strong> There are at least two to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first place these extraordinary emotions come from traces back to the unique origins of our individualised confidence<\/strong>. In my book Confidence at the Core<\/a>, I explain how the roots of confidence are highly individualistic. When we face a trigger context that drills to the very centre(s) from which we derive our confidence, it\u2019s like an emotional root canal! So, when we perceive (consciously or subconsciously) that our self-esteem itself is at risk, it can cause such an extreme flood of emotion that we experience a brain freeze-inducing hijack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second place such exceptionally strong emotions originate is trauma from our past<\/strong>. Think of your trauma (whether remembered or not) as a wound that, while partially healed, is still sensitive. It makes sense, then, that when these wounds are \u201ctouched\u201d by situations, personalities, or contexts that remind us of the things which originally hurt us, those wounds can be subconsciously triggered. Many times, without our permission, we find ourselves frozen \u201cfor no good reason\u201d because we are unable to connect the dots between our present context and the trauma from our past which is being triggered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever experienced a \u201cbrain freeze?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If so, what do you think could have been or could be your specific trigger(s)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for the next instalment of The Wire<\/strong> to learn more about what to do when brain freeze hits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get to the root of the reasons why you sometimes freeze. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotional-intelligence","category-performance"],"yoast_head":"\nWHY YOU FREEZE - The Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/why-you-freeze\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WHY YOU FREEZE - The Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Get to the root of the reasons why you sometimes freeze.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/why-you-freeze\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-29T03:52:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-29T07:19:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Freeze-tag-Thumbnail-WEBP-Tone-Change-15-REWORK.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mf_resource_P8xC\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Wire\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/why-you-freeze\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Freeze-tag-Thumbnail-WEBP-Tone-Change-15-REWORK.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Freeze-tag-Thumbnail-WEBP-Tone-Change-15-REWORK.webp\",\"width\":400,\"height\":259},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/why-you-freeze\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mikefisher.co\/blog\/why-you-freeze\/\",\"name\":\"WHY YOU FREEZE - 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