Don’t Fear Adrenalin

Everyone has been afraid or scared at one point in their lives, it is never a nice feeling or emotion to experience.

That is unless you are an adrenalin junkie (for want of a better term) who craves the natural buzz that your body produces when you feel afraid.

Why do some people love being scared and others hate it? Ultimately, it’s due to conditioning, most of us as a child/teenager have had a negative experience of being afraid of something or someone.
When you associate being afraid with bad experiences you naturally want to avoid them ‘I don’t want to do that because this will happen and it will suck…’.

Adrenalin junkies don’t let the possible consequences stop them, because to them the risk is worth the reward ‘I want to do that because this will happen, and it will be awesome’. This does not mean that they have never had a negative experience with fear. The difference is that they experienced fear and being afraid in a safe environment, e.g. going on a roller coaster, watching a horror movie or parachute jumping and enjoyed the experience.

Fear is usually your body and unconscious mind anticipating a dangerous situation, and to give you the best chance of survival it produces adrenalin. When fear hits you your heart beats faster, your breathing speeds up, you start sweating, time appears to slow down and, in some circumstances, you feel like you need to empty your bowels.

Which sounds unpleasant, but there is a good reason for all of this. Your body is making you superhuman (or making you more athletically capable). Your heart beats faster and your breathing becomes heavier in order to get more blood to your muscles, making you run faster or fight harder; time appears to slow down so you can react more quickly to threats, you sweat so your body can cool down and avoid over heating (because you don’t want to pass out when the proverbial poop hits the fan), and the bowel emptying feeling is lightening the load you have to carry (I have also heard that if you receive a stomach injury with empty bowels the risk of infection is reduced).
Fear is a practical emotion, and adrenalin is a tool you can use. Doctors and paramedics use adrenalin to help restart people’s hearts (it’s awesome!). Back in the day when cave men were hunting and gathering, if they saw a sabretooth tiger or woolly mammoth they needed adrenalin to either run away or kill the threat.
It can be a hindrance if you don’t know why you are feeling what you are feeling. The moment you feel your heart beat faster and you start to panic while your body is using more oxygen, the risk of passing out is greatly increased. So, you need to keep a level head as best you can.

The great thing about martial arts is that, through training, you learn how to control your body and emotions under pressure. Some of the most fun in martial arts is through sparring (controlled fighting), and self-defence training. If you are having fun while you’re training, and your adrenalin kicks in, it’s no longer fear you feel but excitement, you get the rush thrill-seekers pursue. It is positive reinforcement, and you no longer associate fear with the adrenalin rush, you can be level-headed in a dangerous situation. Which is ultimately what everyone needs to be.

Whether it be through the need for self-defence, confidence building, fitness, or anti bullying for children and adults, the training you receive in martial arts should (as long as you have a good instructor) be a benefit to your life.
So, the next time you feel the adrenalin rush don’t panic, keep your head and embrace it; you never know, maybe you will begin to like it…

By

Louis Tandoh
Chief Instructor at Family Martial Arts – Gravesend