Transcript excerpt from a YouTube video by Dr. Nicole Cain describing a "Stoplight Strategies" framework for anxiety: three color-coded zones. Green zone: calm and grounded ("upper bird" awareness). Yellow zone: increased activation—early warning signs like butterflies or faster heartbeat. Red zone: crisis state (panic attacks, rage attacks) with loss of control. The clip is conversational and explanatory.
In the book, you have levels of anxiety using colors to spotlight. Green light zone anxiety.
What is that? So green light zone is when we feel good and calm and grounded, even if stressful things are happening in our lives. And I use the metaphor of the upper bird and the lower bird in the green light zone. And so when you're in your upper bird, you're able to just notice everything that's happening around you, notice all of these factors that are coming to play, and you're able to stay in your green zone, in your calm.
Okay, now you have the yellow light zone. What is that?
This is when you're starting to get a little activated. So something has tripped your brain or your body, and it's starting to say, ooh, we need to pay attention here. Some people notice that with a feeling of knowing in their gut, is.
That butterflies?
Butterflies, and they're stuck, or like, ooh, my heart's beating a little faster. It's starting to ramp up. So that's the yellow light zone, red.
Light zone.
This is crisis. This is what we were seeing in the videos. I'm having a panic attack, a rage attack. And this is when we're in just sheer crisis and we don't feel like we have control.