Where Is Your Red Flag?

There are lots of situations that make your spidey senses tingle. That foreboding feeling that alerts you that things are not right. Danger is imminent, stop, go back, this is a bad idea. When you have anxiety, this may happen all the time and you have to decide if the red flag is just at half mast, or there is a real concern. I remember going on a hike once and coming across some scat lined with berries, I became terrified that a bear must be around the next bend! I do not know enough about wildlife to determine bear poop size or freshness, so I turned back, convinced I would be consumed at any moment! Self preservation or paranoid, doesn’t matter I was done.

It’s good to have these filters, and hopefully they kick in when needed. As we age fear grows. Maybe because we know more or are more aware of possible outcomes. Red flags are not only raised with life or death situations. Sometimes the flag gets raised around certain people. People that don’t respect personal space, that follow you with their eyes too much, ones that seem to talk to you like they have a hidden agenda for a relationship. It might be just your interpretation, but getting crappy vibes from someone is unnerving. Lot’s of relationships, friendships and otherwise, actually start out great, and it’s not until you have been in it a bit that flags start to rise. It could be as simple as low key criticism and just joking insults. Then two months in,there is complete disrespect and control behaviour. When the honeymoon is over it is still okay to call it quits.

You really do have to trust your gut. It is more than okay to quash good beginnings when things start to go wrong. Everyone is on their best behaviour in the beginning and if true colours are skewed as time goes on, you best move on. I heard about bear sightings a couple of weeks after that hike. I was kind of glad because I was feeling kind of bad for bailing on a fabulous fall hike. It justified my decision, because sometimes,( don’t tell my husband) I am wrong?! It is better to be safe than sorry!