Dear Reader,

Imagine for a moment the effects of a car crash. In an instant, you go from perfect health to broken wrist against the steering wheel, aching shoulder due to belt tension, a forehead concussion, and the objects in your car are in pretty bad shape too. You have no conscience of what happened in the middle: your senses does not register the transition, only the final effect.

Now try to visualise the crash in ultra-slow-motion, and track your perceptions as you go through the images. First, your wrist bends slightly. No pain is felt. Then it flexes more. A slight pain, but you can go on, it’s nothing really different from the previous state. Then it snaps, but your brain has not registered the transition yet. Everything is still pretty good.

Then your ribs undergo more or less the same treatment, then your forehead. Only after a while, after the car is completely halted, our brain processes the information, and you start to feel really bad. You have no idea how that happened.

I’ve been in a similar situation, and I remember clearly the objects flying through the car in slow motion. It’s incredible how adrenaline can enhance your perceptions. Believe me; I started feeling pain and taking consciousness of the situation well after the crash. Luckily, nothing dramatic happened, just minor wounds.

My point is that, sometimes, this kind of scenario plays out on a much larger time scale. Weeks, months, even years are typical.

Let’s consider an example: I’ve been quite a workaholic for years. Every hour of sleep lost was bearable at the moment. Every extra Saturday and Sunday was tolerable. Sometimes a little discomforting, but bearable. I had no idea how things would turn out in the end, and I had no way of measuring how other factors were piling up in the meantime (stress, fatigue, lack of physical activity…).

Yet, this time, during the slow-motion incident, I realised in time that I was about to complete the crash. I pulled back the foot from the accelerator, activated the handbrake, switched into rear gear.

What would have been of me if I hadn’t slowed down, I don’t know.

What still scares me is the possibility of living in a car crash and feeling like everything is perfectly fine.

Until next time, check your internal accelerometer to see what’s indeed happening, and not the narrative you are giving yourself…