We have three basic emotional systems that work together to keep us healthy and happy.
Our Defence System is designed to ensure our survival – it needs to be activated, going into alarm mode when we are in danger, for ‘fight, flight or freeze’. But often this system is activated when we’re simply imagining danger or feeling emotionally insecure; we don’t need to live all our lives in this state.
Our Drive System gives us the energy and motivation, the ‘get up and go’, to engage with the world around us, taking action, seizing opportunities and rising to challenges. In this state we derive a sense of pleasure and achievement from ‘doing’. But we can get caught up in too much ‘doing’ at times.
Our Soothing System enables us to access calm and healing. Now we can experience feelings of safeness, contentment and ease, and enjoy affection and connectedness with other people and the wider world. In this state, we can simply enjoy ‘being’ and we tend to be more insightful. The Soothing System is able to soothe and stand down the Drive and Defence Systems when they are overactive.
We experience resilient wellbeing when we move fluidly and easily between the three systems,
according to our need. Your Brains 3 Emotional Regulation Systems
