The Intelligence of Staying Alive
Explore the intelligence behind
your survival instincts.
These poetic cards honor
freeze, flight, fawn, fight,
and more as the brilliant ways
your body chose to live.
Honoring Shutdown
Sometimes, everything just stops.
Your words. Your energy. Your will to move forward.
It’s not failure.
It’s your nervous system saying: enough.
Shutdown isn’t weakness—
it’s the wisdom of your body
pausing what feels like too much.
Not to punish you.
To protect you.
Honoring Hypervigilance
Do you find yourself bracing,
even when nothing is wrong?
Rechecking, over-preparing,
staying one step ahead—
just in case?
That’s not paranoia.
It’s a body that remembers
what it took to stay safe.
But what if you didn’t have to
stay on guard forever?
What if rest was possible, even now?
Honoring Dissociation
Dissociation isn’t failure.
It’s a pause.
A wise retreat by a system that
learned how to protect us.
If you’ve ever felt like the world was far away,
like you were moving
but not inside your body—
this is for you.
Honoring Collapse
When the weight grows too heavy,
collapse isn’t failure —
it’s a signal.
Not weakness. Not giving up.
Just a body, finally refusing to hold
what was never sustainable.
Honoring Tend/Befriend
Maybe you weren’t being “too nice.”
Maybe you were surviving —
calming others to stay safe,
making peace to avoid harm.
Tend / Befriend isn’t weakness.
It’s wisdom from a nervous system
that learned:
connection can protect you.
But now, you get to ask:
What if that tenderness
could include you too?
Honoring Flopping/Submit
When resistance felt impossible,
your body chose surrender.
This card honors the Flop/Submit response
as a wise, wordless way
to survive overwhelming power.
Honoring Freeze
When you couldn’t run or fight,
your body chose stillness.
Not because you were broken —
but because you were brilliant.
This card honors freeze not as failure,
but as sacred resistance.
Honoring Flight
You didn’t run because you failed.
You ran because your body believed
there might still be somewhere safe.
This card honors the wisdom in motion —
and the hope behind the escape.
Honoring Fight
They told you anger made you dangerous.
But what if it made you real?
This card honors fight as sacred selfhood —
not destruction, but defense.
Honoring Fawning
You called it kindness.
You called it care.
But really, you disappeared
so they wouldn’t leave.
Fawning isn’t weakness —
it’s survival.
A way your nervous system said:
“If I stay soft enough, maybe I’ll stay safe enough.”
But now, safety doesn’t have to mean self-erasure.
Your no is sacred too.