Let’s zoom in on the COLD STRESS wedge of the mandala. Autonomic temperature here is characterized by feeling severe (and possibly life-threatening) danger. This sense of extreme danger is SHUTTING US DOWN.

These states are IMMOBILIZED (we shift towards stuckness) and dissociated (we start to go away).

If these are our GO-TO stress responses, it is possible that the present moment threat is not actually so great, but that the body has simply etched these responses deeply, and accumulated COLD STRESS. If we have accumulated enough COLD STRESS, and this is our default stress response pattern, we can go directly here under pressure even if there is not a lifethreat.

If this happens in a way that the body becomes rigid and frozen, we are in the territory of FREEZE (4). (For example, dreams of trying to get away from a threat and being able to run would be characteristic of this state.)

If this happens in a way that we find ourselves complying with something that feels DEEPLY NOT OKAY to us, we are in the territory of PLACATE (5).

If this happens in a way that we find ourselves collapsing, moving into states that feel dreamlike, surreal, feeling like we might faint, we are in the territory of SHUTDOWN (6).