What is fear reactivity?

[BanzaiBonnie]

I keep hearing this term but I don't know what it means.

[Scott Sonnon]

Fear-Reactivity is a term I coined about a decade ago to refer to the conditioned behavioral patterns in movement, breathing and structure (and how they are dis-integrated) due to fear. It's the subject of my book, Body-Flow: Freedom From Fear-Reactivity.

[Mike]

You got the answer straight from the horse's mouth (Scott, you don't look like a horse :D )

Superficially for me, Fear-Reactivity is that rusted old suit of armour I wear from time to time, sometimes it's really heavy and tight, sometimes it's lighter and looser, sometimes it falls right off. Mentially/Emotionally, Fear-Reactivity is a combination of beer-goggles and that little voice in my head feeding me falsehoods about the environment/people.

[JasonE]

BanzaiBonnie -

CST practice enables you to specifically identify and address the specific patterns that are negatively impacting your personal performance and realized potential. It starts with the principles and movements presented in Intu-Flow. (Prior to Intu-Flow, I'd have said "Warrior Wellness.") Uncovering and overcoming Fear-Reactivity is a process, not a goal... enjoy the journey and the many discoveries you make along the way. :)

PS - Per forum rules, please click "Profile" below the RMAX logo at the top of this page, then type your first and last name into the "Signature" box. It helps keep these forums vibrant and troll-free. :D Thanks!

[amilcarkabral]

This is an off-the-cuff explanation, but i hope that it points you in the right direction.

When you stretch those aching muscles, do you ever feel tension? If you play a sport, have you ever avoided doing some move because of an oldinjury. For example, would you get up from your computer right now and do a back flip? If not, that's fear reactivity.

What happens through the course of life is that our bodies get stretched, twisted and turned in ways that it doesn't like. So what it does is create responses to certain movements so that it doesn't repeat that stretch, twist or movement that pains. That's fear-reactivity.

Fear reactivity is a set of warning signs and/or preventative movements that your body builds up over your lifetime to prevent further injury. So perhaps you turned a knee, and you can't move it much with as much ease and fluidity. Your body built up tenstion to prevent it from stretching that far again.

The CST/RMAX way is to incrementally, meaning slowly but surely, working with your body to decrease its fear reactivity and regain the natural fluidity, flexibility and strength that your body possessed in your early years . . or moving up to what your body could handle.

So, instead of your body reacting to the fear of a movement, through biomechanical exercise your body learns to pay attention to what is happening with itself in the current moment: awareness.

B

[peterng25]

a memory long submerged resurfaced: of an article I read, long before I became aware of coach Sonnon's work.
In the article, this supposedly happened during the French Revolution. Whether it's a true medical story or purely apocryphal, is, I think, irrelevant. I think it only matters that people have been very aware of the fear- reactivity phenomenon, just that nobody has done anything to fight (read defeat it, :D ), before Mr. Sonnon came on the scene.
What happened was they grabbed a French aristocrat, and instead on lopping his head off on the guillotine, they tied him down in bed, pulled an arm outside of a curtain hanging on the side of the bed, so he couldn't see what was going on. They made a small incision on the arm and then dripped body warm water on the wound, which soon closed up. But the poor fellow, after half an hour, of course was under the conviction he was losing all his blood, and up and died.
So, fear reactivity has always been something we were aware of, ('we have nothing to fear but fear itself'), and we have the expression: died of fright.
I think we are all agree that Scott did come along and whupped this physical phenomenon's b***. My life has changed, for the immeasurably better, for his ideas and inventions.
I am just curious, Scott, if this has been kicked around for so long, how did you choose to tackle it, and chosing to defeat it, how did you know how to proceed?
Also, I can verify that the neuro-immuno-endocrine response from Flow-Fit is a reality. For me, one 15 minutes session of Flow-Fit is equivalent to (at least) 2 weeks of endurance training (running, treadmill...). But, where did you research such a revolutionary idea? Our greatest universities do not seem to have heard of it, but you came up with a program that, in 15 minutes, is so revolutionary for the whole physique.
(My way of asking, is the man a superhuman, a space alien, or... :shock: :lol: )

[Scott Sonnon]

Peter,

The unfortunate survivor of terror, trauma and bleak hopelessness will cultivate the most ingenius of coping skills. What s/he does with those skills makes the difference, lest s/he become the beast itself.

I'm not sure why I was given the opportunity to endure the trials I did, but that unique experience compelled me forward from once "temporary excursion" to another, until the mosaic came into view.

Because it resonates instantly with people regardless of culture means that it's a universal experience. And if you follow Steve Barnes' work, he'll be the first to tell you that it's a perennial, pancultural phenomenon: the Hero's Journey.

At any point along my development, if I did have a "choice" I would have chosen a life much easier than the one I led; a much more quiet, "naturally hard" life, like a farmer or rancher. But now, having come through the other side of fear's gauntlet, I wouldn't trade one moment's trepidation.

[peterng25]

Yep, Scott, the hero's journey. I get it.
I have read the Cestus conspiracy by SB BTW.
I also do computer game mods and machinima (little movies shot inside game engines). Guess what the hero of the my next movie is going to be named? (hint: S... S.....).
Would I have permission to post a link to it, after vetting it through you first?

Peter

[Scott Sonnon]

Sweet. 8) You know how much of a geek I am and love that stuff.