Fight, Flight or Freeze?
Fasting and Silence as a response.
December 5-7, 2025 I’ll be hosting and participating in a Fasting and Silence Encounter on Keats Island (just off the coast of Vancouver). One of my good friends, Aaron White (who will also be joining us), writes this post about how fasting and silence could be a strategic response to the raging noise and insatiable appetites of our time. You are most welcome to join us. Find the link here for more information and to register.
Fight, Flight, Freeze
Most people are familiar with the “fight, flight and freeze” response when it comes to fear. This is the result of a massive, automatic adrenaline dump called the Amygdala Hijack. This adrenaline boost comes in handy when dealing with a sudden bear attack, but it is less helpful when we are trying to navigate the modern world.
Fear can cause defensiveness, paralysis or avoidance. These reactions can keep us “safe” but also often prevent us from experiencing life in its fullness. They can also cause us to hide our fear or draw attention away from it by adopting a fake confidence. But if there are real dangers, pretending they aren’t there doesn’t make them go away. I remember talking about the practice of stillness and silence with a group of men in an addictions recovery centre. One man spoke up: “I can’t do silence. My mind is a dangerous neighbourhood.” I replied, “I believe you. But you’re walking around in that neighbourhood all the time anyways. Isn’t it better to see what’s there, even if it is scary, rather than stumbling through it blindly?”
Fear is part of the human condition, and not in itself sinful. We can feel afraid and still trust in God. But when shame, pain or fear take over this often leads to cover-ups and hiding. We use habits, addictions, and sins to comfort and distract us from the painful truths we don’t want to face or feel, and then we try to hide those habits as well. We don’t fully trust God to provide what we think we need, or to provide it in the time or the way that we want it, so we run to other things. We fight, hard, against acknowledging the reality of our condition, like a person who refuses to go to the doctor out of fear they might find something bad.
To make matters worse, our culture intentionally reinforces our fears, because people who are afraid and distracted are easier to control and manipulate. Fear creates great consumers of both material goods and political platforms. So, we are constantly sold on the latest distractions and comforts to keep us in a state of dependency and numbness. We are conditioned about who to fight, what to run away from, when to freeze, and how to solve all our problems through the latest purchase.
Why Fasting and Silence?
The perpetual, enslaving state of fear, both personal and societal, is the opposite of what Jesus wants for us. Instead of fight, flight or freeze, Jesus wants us to be free: free to trust God for our satisfaction, provision, hope and comfort; free to yield our attempts to control everything; free to be filled with God’s Spirit; free to join Jesus in the joy and the work of his kingdom here on earth.
The perpetual, enslaving state of fear, both personal and societal, is the opposite of what Jesus wants for us.
Choosing to fast and to be silent is a way of participating in this freedom. It is denying ourselves certain inputs (food, speech, noise) so that we can be freed from our unhealthy relationships with them. We intentionally empty ourselves of some of the things we have (mis)used to give us temporary comfort, and rely instead on the actual comfort God has for us.
Now, it is hard to do this. Of course it is. We have come to rely on food and noise (interior and exterior) to comfort us in all kinds of ways. So fasting and silence represent a kind of detox for most of us. Anyone who has gone through any kind of detox knows it is not an easy process. We often come face to face with things we have been hiding from ourselves, but without our drug of choice for comfort, numbing or distraction. But it is exactly this process that gives us the opportunity to see things clearly and to lean more fully on the comfort of God. And it is best to do this alongside others who are walking the journey with you.
What’s fascinating is that modern brain research seems to reinforce the power of this process. Neurologists have found a link between prayerful meditation and the ability to quell anxiety and develop impulse control that offsets emotional hijacking from the amygdala. It appears that learning silence, stillness, and freedom from an unhealthy reliance on certain things can be an actual body, soul and spirit tool for calming fear and anxiety.
(You can find a full talk on this here: Social Intelligence | Daniel Goleman | Talks at Google)
This is why many have said that when Jesus’ forty days of fasting and silence in the wilderness was his preparation for facing Satan’s temptations. All other possible comforts and distractions had been stripped away, while the last words he heard before entering the wilderness rang in his ears: “This is my Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”