Red flags

Now that we've discussed the green zone, let's take a look at its counterpart: the red zone.

We fall into the red zone when our brain perceives threat, loss, or rejection. It fires up stress responses, and we go from being reflective to being reactive.

Those of you who have been through "Self-Defeating Habits of Otherwise Brilliant People�" should already be familiar with this concept. When we flood with adrenaline, that's our body and brain entering the red zone. We lose our ability to reason and communicate effectively, and the body is flooded with chemicals like cortisol that can have serious effects on our health. But flooding is only one part of being in the red. If our bodies and brains constantly perceive threat, loss, or rejection, we may very well end up being in a mild, but still destructive, variant called the "pink zone." And because of the negativity bias, it's very easy to slip into that mental habit.

Even the pink zone can do severe damage to our health. It wears the immune system down, making us more vulnerable to disease. And the effects can accumulate over time. (If you want to learn more about that, look up the "allostatic load.") On the mental end of things, too much time in the red zone can lead to depression and anxiety disorders. Basically, if we stay in the red without letting ourselves de-stress, that psychological and physiological "wear and tear" continues to build, and the effects keep getting worse.

Of course, the red zone is there for a good reason. As explained before, sometimes we need the extra burst of speed or strength, or just that mental agitation, that our stress responses activate. But, our biological template was built around short bursts of red zone, followed by long periods of recuperation in the green zone. The pink zone is something almost entirely foreign, and as a result we're not adapted for it.

When it comes to navigating the red zone, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that we can't really choose how we react to the red zone. The stress responses are too hard-coded into our physiology.

However, it is in our power to influence which side of the fence we're on. It takes some presence of mind and motivation, but as we've seen through the course of this series, influence over our state of mind ultimately rests with us.