The Flight Response
a.k.a. Mouse mode
You’re always “on.” Always moving. Always planning. Always scrolling. Always one step ahead.
People say you’re ambitious, proactive, productive. But you feel exhausted. And if you stop for too long, something inside you starts to panic.
You’re not just ‘naturally driven’. You’re in flight mode.
The Flight Response is your nervous system’s way of saying: “I can’t fix this… but maybe if I move fast enough, I can outrun it.”
And it’s tricky — because society rewards flight. Especially if your urgency makes you useful.
But constantly running isn’t the same as living. And you didn’t survive all that shit just to spend your life in a panic loop.
You deserve to slow down. To enjoy things. To feel safe enough to just be. Peace and pleasure aren’t rewards — they’re your birthright.
What is the Flight Response?
Flight is a sympathetic nervous system response — same system as fight, but instead of turning toward the threat with aggression, it turns away. It fills you fear, urgency, and the need to escape.
And escape doesn’t always mean leaving the room. You can be in full-blown flight mode while sitting at your desk, deep-cleaning your silverware drawer, or mentally rehearsing a confrontation that’ll never happen.
Flight Mode often feels like:
Restlessness
Obsessive thoughts
Impatience
Dread
Emotional claustrophobia
Feeling like you’ll crawl out of your skin if you have to sit still
It’s your system flooding with energy and saying: “GO. GO. GO. Get the fuck out! You’re not safe here.”
Sometimes it is a literal escape — hanging up the phone, leaving a room, quitting a job, ghosting someone. But more often? It’s a subtle, relentless running from discomfort, intimacy, grief, stillness, or even joy.
How the Flight Response Shows Up
Flight mode doesn’t always look like ‘fleeing’. You’re not necessarily running away and screaming (though that does happen). More often, it’s subtle, socially sanctioned, and looks suspiciously like “success.”
Some common signs of Mouse mode:
Hyper-productivity — overworking, over-achieving, never idle
Overthinking everything — ruminating, future-tripping, planning for every scenario
Productive procrastination — deep-cleaning instead of dealing with a hard convo
Time panic — dread around being late, behind, or “wasting time”
Endless scrolling — too overstimulated to engage, too anxious to stop
Over-scheduling — filling your calendar to avoid being alone with yourself
Panic when still — feeling edgy, tearful, or useless when not “doing something”
Rest that doesn’t restore — laying down while your brain spins at 100mph
Flight mode is a sign that body’s trying to get away… So if it’s happening when you’re ‘where you want to be’ — what are you escaping?
What’s Actually Going On (Somatically)
Flight mode isn’t a personality trait. It’s a sympathetic nervous system response — the part of your system that prepares you to run like hell.
Your body detects threat or overwhelm, prepares for survival by filling your body with energy, and instead of using it to lash out (fight), it funnels that survival energy into vigilance, urgency, and motion.
Here’s what that looks like under the hood:
Your heart rate increases
Breathing speeds up and becomes shallow
Focus narrows (hyperfixation, obsession, tunnel vision)
Adrenaline dumps into your bloodstream
Your body floods with “go-go-go” chemicals (even if there’s nowhere to go!)
This is your system trying to escape a perceived threat — even if the ‘threat’ is just an emotion, a deadline, or someone expecting closeness.
You might not even know what you’re running from — just that if you stop moving, something awful might catch up to you. So you keep moving to stay ahead of it.
Flight mode feels like being in control. But it’s actually your fear controlling you.
How to Work With Your System
That endless movement? It’s your body saying: “I am desperate to get away from something”. And sometimes its important to listen to that!
For those of us who fawned or froze our way through life, flight is an upgrade. It means your body has enough energy to finally move.
Maybe now you can:
Walk away from harmful people
Quit the job that’s draining you
Stop trying to be liked and start getting the fuck out
That’s taking control. That’s progress. That’s creating safety.
But sometimes — especially if we grew up in an unhealthy or unstable environment — we might feel the urge to flee from something good for us. Security might read to your system as boring. Joy might feel like selfishness or betrayal.
In these instances, we need to signal to our system there are other options available. Here’s how:
👁️ Notice what you’re fleeing from
What emotion, memory, or need are you avoiding by staying “busy”?
(Grab the Feelings + Needs Wheel to start decoding.)
🍁 Offer your body safe stillness
Stillness can be terrifying. Start with moments, not hours.
A slow sip of tea. A breath with your hand on your chest.
(Driving Your Meat Car is a great place to begin.)
🔋 Reframe rest as ‘restoration’
You’re not wasting time — you’re creating capacity. Rest isn’t the reward. It’s the requirement.
⚖️ Re-introduce choice
Ask yourself: “Do I need to move… or am I safe enough to pause?”
Every time you choose instead of react, your nervous system learns to consider other possibilities, rather than defaulting to ‘run!’
You don’t need to trap the mouse. You just need to shfow it it’s not being chased anymore.
💡Pro Tip:
If pausing feels scarier than doing the thing — you’re not regulated, you’re running.
Start by pausing for 5 seconds. Put your hand on your chest. And ask your body: “Is this an urge… or a choice?”
That’s the beginning of real power.
Want more ways to take back your power?
I’ve got a whole library of mind-body magic waiting for you✨