Making our Survival Instinct Intentional
This is how I adjusted my instinct to serve me automatically.
Making Survival a Strategy with Intention
There was a time I moved through life like a cornered animal—darting, bracing, improvising. When survival-mode took hold, there were no "options," only exits. Every decision was a gamble, not because I didn’t value integrity or foresight, but because pain didn’t give me the luxury of planning. I was trying to outrun pain and suffering.
I’ve made choices I wasn’t proud of. Not because I lacked values—but because the landscape stripped away my access to them. You don’t choose desperation. You fall into it when the scaffolding collapses. When every system you’re supposed to trust makes your life smaller.
There were moments when I couldn’t see anything but pain. No way forward that didn’t cost me part of my integrity. And so, I chose movement over stillness. I gambled. Not because I wanted to, but because waiting felt like a death sentence.
It’s easy to say “honor your morals” when you’re not locked out of housing. When you’re not navigating services designed to be mazes. When you're not punished for needing care. People talk about values like they’re fixed. But values need room to breathe, and desperation steals your oxygen.
After I created a solid base for myself to operate from rather than operating out of desperation, a shift occurred - I was able to look slightly forward for issues. I may discover opportunity or information that would provide options and ways to access resources or different ways to approach a possible problem. This gave me a framework that allowed me to approach things from a measured and intentional way. It is amazing what happens when you inject safety into things being able to feel safe allows you to provide the calmness you need to consider different things.
My Description of the Desperation Trap
This is in reference to when I operated out of desperation, where all options have been removed, and I cannot see another way forward. I may choose a riskier and more urgent way that could create consequences that I may not have foreseen or even considered, because I felt I needed to get out of the pain and suffering right now! This frame of mind creates sort of a trapped reactive response because of a narrowed view of what is available. The necessity to escape even though it may feel risky and violate my values and morals supersedes all else because the desperation will create that mentality and our automatic way of solving things will take over. (our survival instinct).
Desperation will narrow our vision until the only thing we can see is escape, not resolution. The shift from survival-mode thinking to strategic autonomy, is not just about calming the noise; it’s about reclaiming enough cognitive space to imagine options and act in alignment with your deeper values. That shift changes everything.
A few key points:
Operating from a solid base can give you not just stability but foresight. When grounded, you're no longer reacting—you’re anticipating.
Options are oxygen. When you're backed into a corner, having even a single alternative can restore a sense of agency and shine the light onto the path out.
Values can get distorted in desperation, not because they're lost, but because the suffering demands something immediate.
Risk isn’t always reckless, but when taken from a place of emotional depletion, it rarely feels like a choice—it feels like a necessity.
The Shift
The shift began when I built a base—a solid foundation that felt like mine. It wasn’t elaborate. It wasn’t perfect. But it was stable enough to let me breathe and it softened the panic. Which allowed me to start forecasting and start framing options as resistance.
From that space, a subtle shift happened:
I started seeing slightly forward.
I stopped reacting and started forecasting.
I stopped grasping and started designing.
When options appear, autonomy blossoms. Options reminded me I'm not trapped. And having even a single alternative—no matter how small—can become a lifeline. It’s not just logistical; it’s philosophical. Safety isn’t just about physical or financial security. It’s about creating psychological room to think.
Because every sliver of choice is an act of defiance.
I don’t vilify the past decisions I made in that darkness. I honor them. I honor the version of me who clawed her way out with nothing but exhaustion and gut instinct. I honor her for surviving when the world offered no softness, no clarity, no invitation.
Now I architect safety on my terms. I scan ahead—not because I'm healed or fearless—but because every inch of foresight is power. I also consider the current events and how I am handling them.
In a world that wants you reactionary, desperate, dependent, powerless… reclaiming the ability to think and move with calmness and intentionality is revolutionary.
Providing myself that space also gives me permission to be measured—to weigh risks, to reframe urgency, to hold decisions up against my values and ask, “Does this honor me?”
Now I try to build my scaffolding before the storm hits. I give myself ways to climb, ways to pause, ways to pivot. I architect grace into my life wherever I can.
The Base
The base I am referring to are the simple needs:
Shelter someplace I can feel safe
Access to food and water
A way to stabilize these things to provide security
Removing even one of these things would be enough for me to land right back where I was 13 years ago - operating from that place of desperation. I am aware that these changes can happen swiftly and that—the instability—always lurks just beyond my control. I am also aware that it can take a long time to regain that mental clarity required to operate with intention depending upon how far and how long I fall into that trap of desperation.
((((This knowledge gives me power over how I want to proceed.))))
Please Share my post —- I chose the following for our uplifting moment because this is a critter just being a critter….doing what critters do…. to take care of themselves….
Video: Chipmunk eating berries – Pexels
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