Be More Zebra

You rarely see a stressed out zebra do you?

They spend much of their time out there in the grasslands of Africa, grazing and looking after their herd.

It takes a very specific and immediate set of circumstances to panic a zebra. When they're suddenly confronted by a predator, like a lion or a hyena, a zebra's defence mechanisms go into overdrive. It triggers the 'fight or flight' response, their body temporarily shuts down all unnecessary functions, and floods their system with the stress chemicals to put all their effort into survival.

In this situation, their physiological response to a threat is just like a human. The difference is that as soon as that situation goes away, they are straight back to normality.

Zebras aren't big reflectors you see.

They're not worriers. They don't dwell on what happened, unpicking details, wondering how other zebras would have dealt with it, what the lion is thinking.

So they just graze, and look after their herd again.

As humans we're currently dealing with some of the most unique and unusual challenges we're likely to face in our lifetime. It's really easy to obsess over what's gone before and work ourselves into a state about what's to come.

We can't control where and when our own lions will appear. It's more important than ever to be present and focus on the here and now, for the good of our emotional and mental state.

If there's learning to be had from what's gone before, we should take it. If there are things we can control, let's do our best to have a plan. But don't let the whys, whats and whens of the past and the future become too influential. We've got enough on our plate.

We should try to focus on the present more.

Graze and look after our herd.

Be more zebra.