The Emergency Engine
- Debra Handler
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 6
“…the brain's automatic fear-response systems can unleash hidden mental and physical abilities.” ~ Jeff Wise
Our brain’s main job is to keep us safe. The brain limits our energy usage to ensure we neither run out of resources nor injure ourselves. Your brain allocates glucose, salt, oxygen, water and various nutrients and keeps track of these inventories. Sleeping and eating provide the resources. The brain manages the body’s resources and how they’re used as part of its job to keep us alive.
"Our brains are always trying to make sure we don't get pushed too far to where we actually damage something," says E Paul Zehr, a professor of neuroscience and kinesiology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. So our brains throttle the outlay of energy. A trained athlete accesses more of their natural power, but still not all of it.
You’ve probably heard of adrenaline, a hormone we produce when we’re scared. Adrenaline makes us stronger, faster and less aware of pain. We might get an adrenaline boost from a physical threat or even from public speaking. It’s our standard response to excitement, fear and stress. Adrenaline can increase our normal power by 10-20%.
In a crisis, the brain releases the brakes and ignites our secret motor
But in a life-threatening crisis, we may suddenly access 100% of our capability. The brain recognizes it’s a dire situation and permits us to give everything we’ve got. In these rare and extreme situations of danger, the brain releases the brakes and unleashes our reserve motor. Unless we needed it before, we probably didn’t even know about our untapped abilities. In a deadly emergency, we have more power, strength and speed than we ever knew.
I know this first-hand. When I was traveling in India many years ago, I was attacked at a beach party in Goa, a vacation spot on coast of the Arabian Sea. It was an international group at the party, mainly Europeans. I went to the edge of the party for a nature call, and I was attacked by a local 20-something man. Over and over he said, "Sex, sex, I want to make sex with you." I fought back. Normally, he would be much stronger than me but I prevailed. Finally, I pushed him away, and kept pushing him until I got away to safety. The next day, I was amazed to see new muscles on my arms and legs. The terrifying attack unleashed my hidden strength and made me stronger than I’d ever been.
We hear stories of incredible strength in an emergency, and wonder if the stories are true. In 1982, Angela Cavallo of Lawrenceville, Georgia, lifted a 3,730-pound 1964 Chevrolet Impala off her teenage son after a jack collapsed while he worked underneath. She held the car up while neighbours reset the jack and pulled him free. She couldn’t lift that car the day before, and she couldn’t lift it the day after. But in the moment of need, she suddenly had unbelievable strength and saved her son.
I’m interested in this topic because I teach self-defense. At my workshops, I recount Aesop’s fable about the rabbit and the hound, which goes like this. A young dog chases a rabbit across hill and dale, but the rabbit is too fast and wily and gets away. The pup eventually gives up and dejectedly tells his father, “I was running for my supper, but the rabbit was running for its life!” The moral of these stories is that our motivation is extraordinary when we are defending ourselves or a loved one. We access secret stores of power, strength and energy in that kind of situation.
Here’s the takeaway: When we have to be, when it's life and death, we are capable of far more than we think. We have hidden strength that we don’t see under normal circumstances. It’s only in real danger that our usual limits are overridden. We find hidden strength. Mother Nature endows us with this formidable secret power. We’re more than we seem.
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