For a moment, imagine you are ten years old and you are going to the zoo with your family. You have heard all about the lion habitat and you are anxious to see the lions for the first time. The habitat has real lions separated from you by a tall black iron fence so the lions cannot get to you. The habitat has boulders and bushes for the lions to provide shade for them on hot days. You press against the fence to better see the lions. It is feeding time so you can see the hungry lions milling about, some of them are close to the fence waiting for the zoo keeper to feed them. The zoo keeper has a white bucket filled with big chunks of red raw meat. You watch him set the bucket down and he begins to throw the meat over the iron fence. One particular lion is close enough to you, that you can smell the musky smell that many wild animals have. His mane is matted and you notice he shakes his head and mane every so often to scare the flies off. You can hear a low growl from him to tell the zoo keeper to throw a big chunk of red meat his way. As you press against the fence, the lion is now an arm’s length away.
You don’t realize you are leaning against the gate the zoo keeper uses to access the habitat. The latch is unlocked and when you push against it, it opens and in a split second, the lion is out and you scream and run as fast as can, with the lion right behind you. You are barely in front, running as hard as you, past the concession stand, dodging a trash can, frantically opening the door to the monkey house 30 yards away, diving in and, slamming the door behind you. As you lay on the ground panting the lion growling and scratching at the door, you are amazed at how fast you could run.
The next week the zoo contacts you by registered mail. They express how sorry that are about the unfortunate accident, and assure you that it will never happen again. They further describe the enormous effort they have gone through to assure that is not possible for the gate to ever be unlocked again. They have installed an additional gate so that if in the unlikely event the first gate should open, there is an additional gate that will be locked at all time. The second gate has an alarm that activates any time it is open. Before every feeding session, an addition zoo keeper will be stationed at the gate. The zoo has enclosed a seasonal pass for you and your family and offered to show all of the new precautions when you come. What are the chances that you will be back at the lion’s cage with your family any time in the near future? Logically you know it is safe (Adult), but emotionally (Child), you cannot seem to let go of the fear.
Although most of us don’t have to worry now about getting eaten by or chased by lion, there are still dangers out in the world. Our survival skills are still helpful, even though we are not called on
to use them in same way as thousands of years ago. Just because the dangers have changed, doesn’t mean that our brain has evolved as quickly as our world. In fact, the fight, flight, or freeze part of our brain is still alive and well. It exists in the feeling part of our brain (see the Brain Handout) called the Amygdales. When something feels like a lion to you, the fight, flight, or freeze system automatically activates. You cannot stop it. The chemical dump is real and caustic. The physical symptoms of panic attacks are often the direct result of that chemical dump.
What does this have to do with imaginary lions? In psychology, there is a term referred to as “generalization”. Generalization means that we take one or two instances and apply them more broadly to a larger set of circumstances. For example, if you were unlucky enough to be jumped by a lion that was hiding behind a green bush, next to a bolder, you may begin to be afraid of bushes, boulders and even the color green. Unfortunately, you may never fully understand the connections as they are subconscious. Your friends and even you may determine that you are “crazy” for being afraid of such harmless things as rocks, bushes, and the color green.
In the zoo example, above, it is likely that generalization occurred for everything you experienced, everything you saw, smelled, heard, and touched, from the lion cage until you were safely inside the monkey house. The things that you experienced are not real lions, but they have the same effect. They have become your imaginary lions. Most of us have some level of imaginary lions at work, maybe not necessarily from a life-or-death situation, but one that for you may have been emotionally, or physically threatening.
Take a moment and think about those things that trigger heightened emotions in your life. Things that trigger the feeling part of your brain and feel like a real lion, but they are not a matter of life or death. Could these emotions be tied to past trips to the zoo? What imaginary lions could you have that are preventing you from having a full and valuable life? If you can begin to notice these imaginary lions, you will make the subconscious thoughts, conscious. Once they are conscious, we can begin the process of putting your imaginary lions, back into their cages where they belong.
