When I ride my bike, I take a particular pathway often where I am off the road and on a trail with grass on either side. This means that sometimes, I happen to startle a squirrel or chipmunk that was already in the grass.
And suddenly startled, these critters immediately begin to run, but… not away from me. They run precisely in my direction. Now I’m in a video game I’ve never wanted. Move over, Frogger. I am trying to dodge freaked out chipmunks.
I’ve never hit one, very thankfully.
But I’ve found myself reflecting on this. The flight response is a strong one. All mammals have it. And it’s strong enough that it can kick in without the wisdom of knowing precisely where and how we’re running. After all, it isn’t wise to run toward my wheels. But they’re in a particular response, and they will go where they will go.
And, of course, I think of humans too. We don’t always literally sprint away, but we have flight responses too. We can distract ourselves. We can overscroll on our phones. We can overwork. We can leave conversations. We can leave places. We can leave relationships.
And sometimes, we absolutely need to do these things. The flight response can be a good, instinctual response.
But we don’t want it to become maladaptive or so automatic that we run in the wrong direction. We just need to watch where we’re going.
— Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 