Everyone does panic-zone differently so it’s a matter of really being aware of what your body’s and mind’s responses are when it feels unsafe. It’s definitely a practice – checking in with your body periodically until it becomes a habit to have it in your awareness. When you develop that, it becomes possible to be able to say in a conversation that is triggering things like “WOAH. I’m going fuzzy. I need a minute to get grounded.” instead of reacting. That feels *awesome*.

LOL, whereas I can still recall my music teacher in fourth grade saying “You know Emma, *louder* isn’t the same as *higher*. The point is to sing the right notes”. Sigh. I loved to sing loud! Nothing felt better than belting out “When The Saints Come Marching In…”. Lord, how I wanted to be in that number! (Don’t ask me why we were singing about saints and the Lord in public school).

Gentle feedback = awesome.

Learning about nuance = awesome (as long as someone doesn’t beat you over the head with it).

Singing is another matter–uh, comfort tyme! I can sing in public because singing was one of the cornerstones of the religion I grew up in. To please my grandmother, as well as the Lord, I made it my goal to sing as *loud* as possible. Later, Grandma Janie gently informed that volume wasn’t a virtue. Such a sweetie, the first to teach me about nuance in art.

@Mark
Awww man. You beat me too it. I was going to fix that this morning.
I wrote the post right before bed and as I was drifting off to sleep my mind said “Hey, you forget to link to Lashelle’s site!”. Yeah, Lashelle. That’s where I learned it too of course. I’ll go add it to the article now….

Very clear.

Now, let’s get a-fearful about something really miserable, and test out all these different approaches.

I totally agree with the concentric circles idea. I’m trying to find a way to balance myself in the learning zone because the comfort zone tends to leave me bored and restless after any length of time, and the panic zone just leaves me panicked!