Stop running in circles
Otto runs in circles. He is an anxious dog. When his anxiety is triggered, he runs clockwise circles. He has lots of triggers – any delivery driver, the neighbors, particularly their dog, trash bins, the beep from a vehicle backing up regardless of the driveway it is in, the sizzle of food on the stove. He does circles for other occasions that include being excited to go for a walk, needing to do his business, or watching people prepare to the leave the house. His circles have resulted in an 18-inch banked track in our yard from unbridled anxiety anytime a trigger occurs.
He is always circling and always clockwise.
The challenge with Otto’s circles is that they do not stop when the trigger is gone. He continues to run circles for a long period of time after the event is over. His anxiety takes hold, and he cannot be stopped. His cycle needs to be broken and calling or approaching him does not break the circle running. He is hypnotized; his emotions have taken hold and he cannot stop running circles.
We all get there from time to time as we run our business. We start running in circles overwhelmed by emotions. The circles may not be literal, but they keep us stuck in whatever form our circles may take. The triggers can be any number of events or activities from challenging feedback from a client to general stress, or a bad morning with your kid. When my emotions take hold, I find myself doing mundane tasks like shredding paper, or rearranging the books on my bookshelf.
As we run our circles, we tend to get hypnotized by our emotions. We get stuck in the stress, anger, confusion, overwhelm, or whatever emotion that has caused the reaction. For many the running of circles creates an environment that allows us to avoid dealing with our emotions or the situation that caused the emotions. The circles prevent us from moving forward.
If we do not break the cycle and work through the emotions or situation, we will find ourselves doing the same thing repeatedly with no change in outcome or feelings. We need to break the cycle.
Breaking the cycle is not easy.
For Otto we have found that squirting him with water or loudly pulling a treat out of the treat jar will break his cycle. Then he will shake his head and move on as if nothing ever happened. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) we do not have people sitting by us daily to squirt us with water when we find ourselves going in circles.
There are, however, steps you can take to stop the circle running in your day.
Leave your space. Even if only for a few minutes to take a walk or clean up the kitchen, or perhaps you need to go to a coffee shop for fresh scenery. The act of leaving where you were stuck in a circle will force you to regroup and decide what would be a better to focus on.
Write down what caused your state of circles. Identifying the emotion that is behind you getting stuck and/or the situation that triggered your circles will give you a frame of reference for what needs to change. Whether it is a professional challenge or a personal interaction, documenting what caused the situation will allow you to break the cycle and assess what needs to be done to move forward.
Compare your priority list with what caused you to run circles. Confirm if there is alignment or if you have been hypnotized by something that is not on your list. Determine which items on your list are the best use of your time and switch your focus there.
When we rescued Otto six years ago his circling was much more intense than it is now. We take pride in his reduced anxiety and the fact that we’ve provided him a more stable, loving home than he had for the first three years of his life. As we have learned techniques to help him break his cycle, we have seen additional improvements in his anxiety and lessen his intense reactions to his triggers.
Breaking the cycle of running circles is not a one-and-done situation. We will all have times when we find ourselves hypnotized by our emotions and unable to move forward. Taking steps to break your cycle will allow you to see trends in what triggers your responses and create mechanisms to start moving forward sooner.