What signals safety to you?
If you’re a resident of Los Angeles, alerts from the app Watch Duty might be drawing your attention lately. You might find yourself orienting towards it when you’re trying to focus on a task, only to be sidetracked by the increasingly frequent alerts about the size and containment of each fire. Your mind runs the well-worn grooves of what you would do “just in case” the fire reaches an alarming level. You might find yourself breathing a sigh of relief when you finally get the notification that the fire is contained or deactivated, your mind now free to return to business as usual. You might chuckle at yourself for getting so worked up.
I assure you–your reactions aren’t coming from nowhere. You’ve experienced these neural pathways before, perhaps last year, when you were in hypervigilant mode. Your body was literally getting ready to flee. You saw fires popping up all around LA, and your mind was racing. What level was this particular fire–relative to its proximity to you, wind direction, significant structural barriers in between? Did you stop everything and grab your bag and loved ones and flee? When did you know to orient to the alerts and when to turn back to your activities?
Fast forward to the present. Your phone is buzzing with Watch Duty alerts, and you immediately tense up. You remind yourself it’s 2026, not 2025, and that your city isn’t aflame. What other everyday happenings signal danger to you? The latest government decision? Gas prices rising? Disrupted plans due to closures of a certain strait? What signals safety to you? That subtle smile from a stranger? The cool breeze when you step outside after a particularly heated discussion? The warmth in your partner’s eyes when you catch their gaze?
I invite you to slow down and pay attention to those signals of safety. What do you take in through your 5 senses? What shifts does your posture make as you return to homeostasis? What positive effects do you notice on the inside? Can you stay with that shift a little bit longer?
