Yesterday, we talked about how there are risks in life and acknowledging that there are risks, and then choosing to live your life, even with those risks existing. And Mama’s Daily Dose is… what really makes a risk, risky? Let’s get movin before we get interrupted.
Okay, let’s say you’re watching the news. And first there’s a story about a house fire. Then there’s a story about someone with leukemia. And then there’s a story about someone that got murdered. Now, which one do you deem as the most risky, or riskiest? Not sure which one it is…but which one is the riskiest? there was actually a study done on this at Stanford University on students. And they found that the fire story, raised the risk estimate by 14%, the Leukemia story by 73%, and the murder story by 144%. Now, do you think it is more likely to have a house fire or to get murdered? It doesn’t actually have to do with the likelihood of a situation that makes us gauge it as a risky or not.
This study found that it is largely due to your emotions, and murder strikes people’s emotions in a way that fire and cancer, just do not. And that emotional resonance that you have with that story, makes it riskier, because it stirs up these feelings. It’s that wiring in our brain that stamps this emotion, to a situation. And that gets in the way of our intelligent thinking. We think that we’re making all these decisions, and we deem this as risky, because that’s the intelligent way to think about it. In fact, it’s really your emotions, and what that risk or that situation or that story really stirs up in you, if it has that emotional resonance, you are going to find it far riskier than something else that is probably much more likely to happen to you.
Mama, your action today is to think of something that you might be a bit afraid of. What’s a risk? What’s something that’s super risky out there, that you are afraid of? And what is the emotion attached to it? Not like the reasonable thinking like what are the statistics that this is going to happen? But what is the emotion that you have assigned to that? Why is it so emotionally pulling? Why is that emotion drawing you in there that you are so afraid of it? And if you don’t already give me a follow on Instagram @MeghanQBarrett, and have a great day free mama guilt because you deserve it.
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Meghan Q Barrett is Mom Success Coach and Connector who helps mamas create a life they love as “mom” AND an individual without the mom guilt. She connects mamas from all around the world so you can share your stories in a safe, supportive space.
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