Checking in with your "safety percentage"

I have a diagnostic I use. What percentage safe do I feel? *

Actually give a number between 0% and 100%. And then, figure out what needs to be done and (not done).

The overview: (below)

• 0-30% safe: You need more safety. As skillfully as you can, get more safety ASAP. Don't think too much about why you feel unsafe or analyze or try to do buddhist awareness exercises. Let your instincts take over and get more safety.
• 30%-69.9% safe: You are safety deficient, but okay. Approach it more rationally and less instinctually. That is, try to figure out why you feel unsafe (e.g., the main triggers) and how you feel unsafe (e.g., where is the tension in the body, what thoughts are racing). Use and develop awareness and insight. Specifically, don't get more safety ASAP. Make a plan, take some notes, and be more deliberate. But, by all means, do try to get more safety.
• 70-100% safe: 70% safe is the sweet spot of safety. Once you are here, your focus isn't to get more safety: it is to grow and understand. When you do that, you will naturally get more safe because you are incorporating those practices into your emotional-muscle-memory.

Also, look at the off-diagonal in the chart. Your action needs to be matched with your situation. If it isn't, you'll be "taking the wrong medicine"; e.g., chemotherapy is helpful for cancer patients, terrible for everyone else.

NOTES:
* For safe, don't restrict to physical not safety, though that does count. Think emotional not safety. Think social not safety (i.e., rejection).
*Think Amygdala for unsafe, i.e. activated in an anxious or fearful way.

---

TAG: safety matrix