CALCULATED RESPONSE UNDER STRESS

Fight, Flight, or Freeze

Under stress, we are inundated with various emotions. Our brain triggers the activation of the body’s sympathetic nervous system due to the sudden release of hormones and chemicals. This happens via two almond-shaped nuclei on the sides of our brain called the amygdala and is our body’s physiological response to stress.

The main symptoms of this stress response are an elevated heart rate and increased rate of breathing, we become flooded with various emotions, our peripheral vision closes in, and our situational awareness diminishes. Tasks and priorities seem to mount, and we appear to lose our anchor point and feel as though we are being tossed about in a raging sea of chaos and problems that seem too difficult to solve in the current moment.

In these high-stakes situations, whether personal, professional, or recreational we feel pressured to make a decision and are tempted to succumb to the experience and emotionally react to the current situation. This reaction could be the difference between catastrophic failure and loss of life or a near miss depending upon the circumstance.

Lessons Learned

Early in my career as a special operator, I learned the value of being in control of my emotions and was given plenty of opportunities to succeed and fail through a myriad of situations, both in training and while deployed downrange in combat.

We were taught that to be effective, we must possess the ability to dial up the aggression (controlled aggression) to meet the demands of the situation and then immediately dial down our intensity to a place of calm as we move to the next problem. This takes skill and experience under stress. It also requires us to be emotionally detached from the current situation.

I learned the value of exercising tactical patience and how allowing the situation to develop oftentimes leads to more critical information needed to make an informed decision. Sometimes all we have is a few seconds to act, but we must utilize every available second we have to process the current situation and then decide how to respond.

Shoot, Move, and Communicate

As a tactical leader in combat, making good decisions under stress requires you to maintain present-moment awareness and control of your thoughts and emotions. Before you can maneuver, you must understand the blue force picture (where friendly forces are positioned and how they are postured), and the red force picture (where the enemy is and what they are doing), identify key terrain and quickly assess how to gain the tactical advantage. The last thing you want to do is move into a compromised position in the blind under fire.

Thinking ahead of the developing situation and being postured to respond effectively is the key to executing in this type of environment.

One must effectively make the right tactical calls and communicate the intent in a clear and concise fashion. Lastly, your maneuver elements must move in an efficient manner to close with and engage the enemy or break contact away from the enemy depending on the situation, terrain, and ultimately the mission.

To effectively shoot, move, and communicate as a team is dependent upon each member's ability to manage emotions and process information when time feels like an eternity and when the stress is mounting. Any missed step could lead to mission failure and loss of life.

Train Your Mind

Neuroscience tells us that we need to strengthen our frontal cortex in order to effectively control our emotions under stress. This can be done in a variety of ways. We can do this through present-moment awareness (practicing situational awareness) and through the act of focusing and refocusing.

Present moment awareness or situation awareness can be achieved when contemplating the next immediate step or action in your current situation. If what you are thinking about doesn't relate to what you are doing right here and now, you aren't being present in the moment. Strengthening our frontal cortex can also be done through mental rehearsal and thinking through the finest details of a plan or process step by step.

Being in control of your emotions is a strength that is mastered like any other skill. It takes time, patience, and repetition.

Know Yourself

It is important that we understand how our body responds to stress and recognize the emotions we experience in these intense moments. This is a vital step in maintaining control of our emotions and staying focused on the current task/objective. Mastering this skill will help us remain calm, cool, and composed during a stressful encounter.

Our ability to remain calm when the stress is mounting is critical to performance because being hijacked by emotions can lead to mistakes with potentially devastating consequences (depending upon the situation).

When we experience a loss of momentum due to our emotions in a particular circumstance, it is essential to possess the ability to reset, refocus, and regain control of the situation and perform. A trained systematic process will help us to maintain our composure and perform to our potential.

Build Your Process

When experience stress and pressure, the first thing I personally do is immediately fall back to my faith in Christ and say a quick prayer.

After this, I have found the actionable steps below very helpful:

1. Take Control of Your Breathing

You must first possess the desire to make this skill a reality. You have to want the ability to remain calm, cool, and composed in stressful situations and work to improve upon this skill in a variety of situations and circumstances. Without a desire to control your emotions, it isn’t going to be a reality.

Slow your breathing down by relaxing your stomach and deeply inhaling through your nose (diaphragmatic breathing).

Pause for two seconds and then slowly exhale through your mouth emptying the air in your lungs. Hold your breath again for two seconds and repeat for two to three full breath cycles. This breathing cycle will slow down your heart rate and help curb your physiological response to stress.

2. Recognize Your Emotions

You must first understand what triggers you and the emotions you are experiencing in the current moment and why. Understand that you are going to experience fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, etc. due to whatever circumstance you find yourself in. Accept what you are feeling, effectively compartmentalize these emotions, and then get to work.

This useful information about what causes you to respond the way that you do and why is paramount to training your ability to overcome this response so that you can stay in the fight come future events.

The act of controlling your emotions takes a conscious effort. Simply put, you need to be intentional about harnessing your emotions through a variety of situations and circumstances, not just during high-stakes/critical moments. Take the opportunities presented each day to harness your emotions when feeling pressured, anxious, angry, or stressed.

3. Exercise Tactical Patience

Consciously remind yourself to slow down and be mindfully aware of the environment/developing situation around you (this is situational awareness).

Next, orient yourself to the point of friction and decide how to respond appropriately. Sometimes you have to take a mental step back in order to widen your aperture (peripheral vision) to see the big picture and take in more information. Avoid initially becoming target-fixated or "mud-sucked" into a problem.

4. Avoid Negative Thoughts

Stay focused on what you have control over in the present moment. Learn how to effectively reign in your thoughts through the mental skill of Self-Talk (more on this later) to pull your attention away from your emotions, and the consequences of a bad outcome and effectively redirect your focus on an achievable process within your control.

5. Maintain Focus on the Current Achievable Objective

Ask yourself “What needs to happen right now and how do I make this a reality?” Know your duty and responsibility and do your job!

Experience

Battling through difficult circumstances and applying the first five steps in this actionable process will enable you the confidence needed to meet future stressful situations head-on.

Do not skip any steps in this process. The more time and repetition you have under your belt in successfully performing under pressure, the more seasoned and competent you will be in this arena.

From this point forward use every opportunity to consciously focus on controlling your emotions. The more experience you gain in this process the better you will become at harnessing your emotions. The next time you feel triggered, angry, fearful, or anxious, take a couple of deep diaphragmatic breaths, count to five in your head, and give yourself some time to think about your next step and how to respond appropriately.

Get Ready! Stay Ready!