2020 was like lifting a car off your kids
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Imagine your teenage son is working underneath his car. Now imagine the car falls off the jacks that were holding it up. What would you do in a situation like that? Would you stay calm and call 911? Not very likely. Patience usually goes out the window at that point. And it’s all thanks to the hypothalamus region of our brains and our adrenal glands.
This is exactly what happened to Angela Cavallo in 1982. A Chevvy Impala fell off its jacks and onto her son Tony. What did she do? She simply lifted the car high enough – and long enough – for a couple of neighbors to replace the jacks and pull Tony out.
Here is what happened: Her brain sensed danger and sent a chemical signal to her adrenal glands. This activated her sympathetic system which sent her body into an excited state. Adrenaline and noradrenaline were now coursing through her. It raised her heart rate, increased her respiration, dilated her pupils, slowed down her digestion and – very importantly in this situation -- allowed her muscles to contract.
This raises interesting questions. Why do we only possess such “super human” strength in short bursts? Why does it require us to be confronted with danger? Wouldn’t we be more capable and equipped to deal with life’s challenges if we could walk around in a constant state of heightened readiness?
I love how Josh Clark addresses this idea in his howstuffworks.com article. He says the short answer is… it would kill us. Indeed, scary things happens to a body that stays in an excited state for prolonged periods.
Your body enters what is called a “state of exhaustion”. Your immune system begins to wear down. You become more susceptible to infections and other medical problems. You will more easily catch a cold and may have a higher chance of suffering a heart attack. A “state of exhaustion” is seen most often in cases of prolonged stress. A prime example is workplace stress.
Which brings me to the real point of today’s article. Sure, it is possible for a mom to lift a car off a child. But prolonged or intense stressors will not leave you the way it found you. You can seriously damage your body when lifting a car. Betsey Stevenson is an economist at the University of Michigan. She recently noted that the year 2020 was like lifting a car off your kids.
The last 12 months were stressful as hell, but many people rose to the challenge. But super human efforts come at a steep cost. One of the most important questions we must answer in 2021 is therefore “How are we going to heal after lifting the pandemic off ourselves, our families and our businesses?”