Page 25 - Take Me Out To The Ball Game

TOPIC: Learning that your thinking determines your emo ons and behaviors. That S nky Thinking will lead to Not OK emo ons and Thumbs Down behaviors. If your thinking is Good, then you will be able to evaluate op ons when confronted with a “threatening” situa on because your emo ons are OK and your behaviors are Thumbs Up.
A “threatening” situa on or as it is in the story, a “Missed Ball” situa on is any situa on, which typically evokes a strong nega ve emo on. These can range from anger to fear or from guilt to sadness. When confronted with one of these situa ons, most of us react in our typical imprinted style of “ ght or ight”.
These two op ons may have been all that was needed in an environment that was less sophisticated than our modern society. In those olden days the physically strong ruled and confrontations with wild animals and other dangers were common.
But in today’s society, “Missed Ball” situations usually don’t involve an attacking tribe or a saber tooth tiger. It will involve
a classroom test, conflicts on the playground and for adults, conflicts with co‐workers, traffic tickets and sales presentations.
Success in dealing with these varieties of life situations will depend on our ability to override our evolutionarily designed predisposition to engage in either a fight or flight. This is not to say that those two reactions are not occasionally appropriate but the ability to hold our emotions and behaviors at bay until we can rationally assess the situation is a learned skill.
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