Yellow, red... and green.

When you wake up, which is the thought you wake up with?

"I am in trouble. I need to do something about it."

OR

"I am not in trouble."

Our culture forces us to start our day and live most of it with the first thought, whether we are in trouble or not.

There's always something that's pending, something that if not given attention to will break everything.

These are the yellow and red zones.

Yellow is fight, flight, fawn (let's do something about it). Red is freeze, flop (let's not do anything). One is ACTION in the face of trouble. The other is INACTION to escape from it.

Most days, we oscillate between yellow and red. When there is too much yellow, we shift to red. And if it gets too much red, we bring the yellow out.

But, what about green? The times when we are not in trouble.

We have felt it at times. Maybe it happened to you when you were sitting with friends and feeling joy and happiness. Or seeing the sea and experiencing the vastness and the calm. Or watching a movie that made you feel seen.

These moments seem few and rare. They feel like an escape from life rather than life itself. But, are they?

Green is what we were born with. Our default state, our nature, is green.

A toddler smiles by default as if nothing is wrong. And if something is, maybe she's hungry or needs attention, she cries. She gets the attention she needs and then she is back to smiling. Green is the default. Yellow helps solve the trouble. Once it's solved, we are back to green.

The default to yellow/red is driven by culture. A culture that never has enough. A culture that's always comparing. A culture that itself oscillates between yellow and red.

Right now, in this very moment, as you read this... take a deep breathe and observe where you are. Are you in trouble? In this moment? In the next 5 seconds? Can you spend the next 5 seconds in green? How does that feel?

What can you do to be in more green, to make green your default, just like the toddler?

Can you allow yellow and red to happen when you are in trouble and go back to green once you come out of it?

What would that look like? What would that feel like?

You can start by asking, "Am I in trouble?"

And follow it up with, "Am I sure?"