Stimulus / Response Gap

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Viktor Frankl.

Neuroscience tells us there are a few hundredths of a second between an incoming stimulus and our response. If it is something strange and threatening, we “choose” fight, flight or freeze and if it’s familiar we categorise and choose the most familiar available response that uses the lowest amount of mental energy. The more training and practice we have, the greater number of potential responses available to us, the less we have to think, and the less energy we use. All very efficient..

Except when we find ourselves in deeply unfamiliar territory.

“In the middle of the road of my life… I awoke in a dark wood… where the true way was wholly lost…

John Kuzava included this quote from Danté’s Divine Comedy in one of his many excellent and provocative posts earlier today, and it led me to wondering – when does our training make us b…