The belligerent man in the quiet cinema

Last weekend I went to the cinema and shortly before the film started there was a man somewhere behind me who was having a conversation on the phone.  He wasn’t trying to be quiet, but the noise picked up considerably when he was asked to end his phone conversation.  I turned round to see a diminutive woman, perhaps 5’4’’, standing to the side and leaning forward in a polite manner using a low voice asking him to be quiet.  Perhaps she worked there, perhaps she sat nearby. 

What I heard from the man was, 

“Are you threatening me?”

She answered in a calm voice ‘No, I’m not threatening you, I’m asking you to end your phone conversation or step outside to finish it’. 

What struck me was:

How can a fit adult male feel threatened by someone who is significantly smaller in height and girth?

And also:

How can he be threatening by such an innocuous request?

But he was threatened at some level.  Even if it was his ego that was dented, or he was saving face with the person at the other end of the phone; that unsolicited encounter threatened his status quo. 

My chiropractic mind kicked in as I saw this incident plays out exactly what our nervous system does when it’s ‘stuck’ in fight/flight mode.  All new information is viewed as a potential threat.  The perspective of the nervous system is that any challenge could be life-threatening so be ready to hunker down or come out fighting.  No wonder our nervous system responds in an over-the-topfashion to quite innocuous stimuli.

As had this man…

Certainly he would benefit from access to the part of his nervous system that allows growth and repair.  That’s when we can access the prefrontal cortex where lateral thinking and creative problem solving is available.  Network Spinal Analysis helps the nervous system to access that more resourceful mode and perspective. 

In which case his response might have been more like, ‘Sorry to disturb you, I’ll take the call outside’. 

If you know your nervous system is being belligerent like the man in the cinema: an over-the-top inappropriate response to normal everyday life, then it’s time to get some NSA care for yourself.