🧠 There Are No Tigers — So Why Is Your Brain Freaking Out?

Understanding Your Mammalian Brain and How to Calm the Hell Down

Ever feel like you’re constantly on edge?

Like your body’s revving in high alert over the smallest things — a message you haven’t answered, a look someone gave you, the idea of doing something new?

Welcome to the party.

Your brain still thinks you’re being chased by a bloody tiger.

🐅 The Tiger That Isn’t There

Here’s the deal:

Your mammalian brain (a.k.a. your emotional, reactive brain) was designed thousands of years ago to keep you alive.

It’s brilliant at:

• Noticing threats
• Reacting FAST (fight, flight, freeze, fawn)
• Keeping you hypervigilant

Back then? Useful.

Now? It’s sounding the alarm for stuff like:

• A passive-aggressive text
• A tight bank account
• Getting ghosted
• Your boss calling a “quick” meeting

There are no tigers.

But your nervous system didn’t get the memo.

💥 The Modern-Day “Tigers”

Your brain can’t tell the difference between:

• A lion in the wild
  vs.
• An Instagram comment that triggered childhood rejection wounds

It’s all danger.

So your heart races. You can’t sleep. Your jaw clenches. Your gut tightens.

You’re not weak.

You’re wired.

🧘‍♀️ So What the Hell Do We Do?

1. 

Name It, Then Calm It

Say to yourself:

“There are no tigers. This is just my mammalian brain reacting.”

Then:

• Breathe out for longer than you breathe in
• Place a hand on your chest
• Ground your feet
• Speak out loud: “I’m safe. I’m not under attack.”

2. 

Regulate Your Nervous System Like It’s a Baby Animal

Because it basically is.

Do things daily that tell your body: “We’re not in danger.”

• Nature walks
• Cold water on your face
• Calming music
• Smiling (yes, even fake smiling calms your vagus nerve)
• No caffeine before cortisol levels drop (aka wait an hour after waking)

3. 

Ditch the Faux Tigers (a.k.a. Bad Triggers)

Cut down on:

• Drama-stirring people
• Overstimulating media
• Constant phone checking
• Sugar/alcohol/caffeine overload

Your nervous system can’t heal in chaos.

It needs stillness, safety, slowness.

✨ Final Thought

You’re not broken.

You’re just reacting to a modern world with an ancient brain.

But the more you remind yourself there are no tigers — no one’s coming to attack you — the more your system learns to chill. To feel peace. To feel fucking amazing.