Emotional HyperVigilance - A feeling of treading on eggshells without knowing why. It can cause intense emotions, anxiety, and impulsive patterns of behavior. It is often the result of trauma. People who have been in combat, have survived abuse, or have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can exhibit hyper-vigilance.
Trauma doesn’t have to be an outwardly visible result of a violent event that may have happened in our lives. More often than not, our trauma stems from unresolved conflicts of the emotional kind.
Having an unpredictable explosive parent can do that to a child, or a verbally abusive spouse/partner can do that to a person. Schools can be another source if a child is being bullied or being singled out by a teacher too!
The immediate response to this would be to remove yourself from such an environment/situation - yes. But what about how it has changed you as a person? How to overcome that and learn to be carefree?
Learn your trigger. It may no longer be that person but it could be what had happened, that could be your trigger - then it doesn’t matter who is doing it, it could be anyone.
Anticipate when you might find yourself in that situation again and instead of copping out, cope with it.
Breathe. Take a sip of water. These two steps together will give us 5-10 seconds to regain our composure and activate our brains to think.
Now, you are better prepared to handle the situation. If you think you can and want to walk away, do that. If you think there might be a chance to get through to the other side with a conversation, do that.
Ideally, if all relationships are equal and fair and fun, then, there is no need to be vigilant. But that’s not the truth. That’s not how it works for most of us. So instead of walking on eggshells, forever worried when one misstep will break it... we could employ reasoning and logic to the situation and work with that.
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Sweta Shah Sakhpara is a pranic energy therapist and a pranic psychotherapist. She also teaches mindfulness and meditation to kids, adults and families. When she is not doing any of the above, she actively practices being a mindful parent to two kids.
Having learned and practiced pranic healing for ~fifteen years, Sweta has been blessed with the trust of many clients for ailments as simple as a headache to complex ones like Tourette’s syndrome, from depression and anxiety to finding ways to embrace the idea of a new normal with a child being diagnosed on the spectrum. You could read more about her HERE.
