What are “Survival Strategies?”

Survival strategies are unhealthy behavior patterns, usually created in childhood as a way to stay safe

These can include:

People pleasing 

Perfectionism

Avoidance 

Creating drama 

Overachieving 

Isolating 

Repressing your voice 

Aggressiveness 

While these behaviors may be labeled by society as “negative,” they actually served a purpose in our childhood- to keep us safe. 

For example, if we lived in a household where there was conflict, we may have people-pleased in order to try to keep the peace. If we lived in a household where we did not get enough attention, we may have learned to get attention in unhealthy ways such as aggression or creating drama. 

As we become more self-aware, we may start to notice some of these patterns showing up within ourselves.

And while the first instinct may be to “fix them” or “get rid of them,” it can be a process to notice where we store these patterns (and underlying emotions) in our bodies, how they are serving us, what they need from us in order to let go, and then take small doable action steps to create new, healthier patterns.