Page 24 - Whispering Squirrels

PARENTS NOTES
THE WHISPERING SQUIRRELS
TOPIC: Learning that your thinking determines your emotions and behaviors.
You should learn that Stinky (irrational) Thinking will lead to Not OK (inappropriate or too intense) emotions and Thumbs Down (not in your best self-interest) behaviors. If your thinking is Good (rational), then you will be able to evaluate options when confronted with a threatening situation because your emotions are OK and your behaviors are Thumbs Up.
A threatening situation or as it is in the story, a Whispering Squirrel situation, is any situation, which typically evokes a strong negative emotion. These emotions can range from anger to fear and from guilt to sadness. When confronted with one of these situations, we usually react in our typical imprinted style of fight or flight.
These two options may have been all that was needed in an environment that was less sophisticated, when the physically strong ruled and confrontations with wild animals were common. But in today’s society, Whispering Squirrels situations usually don’t involve an attacking tribe or a saber tooth tiger. It will involve conflicts with coworkers, 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.
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