Fleet MaullThe Entrepreneur’s Zen Master

States of Chronic Threat, with Dr. Stephen Porges

11 Feb 2023 · 1 min

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Dr. Stephen Porges (speaking in an interview/video) argues for treating the self non-evaluatively—focusing on optimizing current capacities rather than framing oneself as "broken" or deficient. He connects traits often labeled as temperament or genetic to physiological states of chronic threat, suggesting that bodily threat states can produce those appearances.

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We do have certain limitations but our job is to optimize what we have. Not to say that we're deficient but to say what can I do with what I have and to treat the self again in almost a non evaluative model. Say I have been given this even if I were injured or had some disruption in my early development. This is where I am really proud and grateful for who I am now. My job is how do I optimize it not how do I fix it. It's not I'm broken, I need to be fixed. It's a smile and say this is who I am. How can I make it the best that it could be? How can I have a successful journey of being in my own body? And when we start looking at it that way we realize the first thing is to understand that what appears to be a temperament or genetic thing is often really a reflection of bodies being in states of chronic threat.