“I love this game.”

Neuroception, a term coined by scientist and professor Stephen Porges, refers to your autonomic nervous system’s threat detector – the one that determines situations & people as safe, dangerous, or life-threatening.

What’s fascinating and confusing about neuroception comes in twofold; each individual has a completely unique threat detector, and also, because of each individual’s unique threat detector, a large percentage of what is perceived to be a threat can, in actuality, turn out to not be one. As you can imagine, a misaligned calibration in perceiving safety from danger could certainly impede your ability to experience the people, places, and things in your life that could and would add incredible meaning… and, who wants that?

Now, this is not to suggest that your body’s natural impulse to do something like remove a hand from a burning stove, is a bad thing. This is, however, an invitation to reflect on the efficacy of things like excessively avoidant or confrontational conflict management styles, social or antisocial strategies, emotional or apathetic conduct, etc. Moreover, are these behaviors a result of a misdiagnosed threat, and how well – if at all – are they serving you?

I share this to encourage you to expand the way in which you frame things.

Yes, acknowledge and appreciate the beauty in how the embedded software in your brain works to protect you, but consider what might happen if you were to take on a more opportunistic (versus deterministic) approach.

The next time you experience agitation in something – for conceptualization’s sake – let’s call “it” any game, think about how your thoughts & behavior might change if you reframed frustration to appreciation…

In your next metaphorical at bat, rather than complain about what you don’t like, I urge you to say, “I love this game,” before your next swing. 

Might one simple reframe change everything?