Story time or maybe its analogy time! Anyway I am going to tell you something about my chickens and compare this to humans.

Every morning I go to the chicken coop to use long handled tongs to pick up chicken poo from the floor under their perches. (the floor is covered in wood shavings). Some times there is a chicken in the nesting box at the same time. If that chicken is Silver, I carry on because she won’t be disturbed at all. She just continues to sit quietly.
If it is Iri (short for iridescent because she is black with iridescent feathers) or Sheeny (also black with iridescent feathers) then I stop and close the door. Because if I do carry on, it will upset them and they will get off the nest and get out of the coop, at top speed. Usually as soon as I open the door.
Are they scared of me? Are they scared of the tongs? How do they have any concept of what I might do?

I suggest that they have no concept of what I am doing but wired into their nervous system is a tight fear of any noise or visual. They even run from me if I wear my rain jacket out to their run. They are very visually alert. Whereas, if I am in normal clothes then they come towards me.

It might help for you to understand if you know that they have had 2 dog attacks in the last 3 years. During the last one Sheeny lost a lot of feathers and had a bare patch on her back. Iri escaped because she flies over the run fence any time she likes anyway, so she disappeared into my garden, hid and returned later the next day. Silver immediately went into the coop and stayed there. Twinnie also lost many feathers and had a bare patch on her back. She stopped laying and hasn't started again.

So from this story you can see that a nervous system can get wired into hyper-alert following a traumatic event. No knowing anything about potential happenings needed. Just something a bit different from expected. And each chicken is different.

And this happens for humans too. Traumatic happenings might be the big stuff but also can be simple stuff that takes place when we are young. Or something was needed and doesn’t take place. Our immature brains fire into alertness, on the watch for whatever might be unpredictable in our environment. A system is then in place – something different visually or auditorily and the hyper-alert alarm goes off. We become tense, our body becomes tight, we function on limited resources.

To support us, it helps to have a comfortable routine to the day, to have predictable job expectations, to avoid conflict and anger, to hide away on our own and to be vigilant.
But can we sustain these patterns? They might be supportive and protective but what do they do to our physical health?
It makes sense that our body eventually says “No” to the tightness and reacts with some part of the body not doing its job well. A health crisis takes place.

Then not only does the body needs specific care and treatment, but the rest of you does too. Because now you know that continuing on the same pattern, will likely result in more health crises. Which, I am sure, you don’t want.

So take the opportunity to, while you can, to address these old stuck patterns.

I’m not sure that I can do anything about the chickens to help them be more resilient, but I can support you.