C: Today someone told me things that were a different person’s version of a story we had both experienced. The person sharing this is going to render an expert opinion which will probably be followed.
T: ???
F: Shock
A: Frozen, talking too much, too much detail, things not relevant, not needing to be shared, or not helpful to be shared
R: Probably hurt my standing/position in this dispute.

C: Person asked me after telling me info, “do you want to reschedule the rest of our meeting”
T: We planned on this time already, so better to just do it now. (maybe also: I’m fine. I should respond to these things while I can.)
F: Neutral – but probably also the shock from above
A: Said I was good to respond to some of what was said
R: Ended up continuing meeting and probably hurt my position in this case

I got off the call and felt the shock or disillusionment/sadness/fear. The feeling felt strong, but the thought wasn’t at the forefront. I just felt bad – kind of wide-eyed bad looking around like, “what just happened?” “how is this happening?” or something like that.

Maybe “this is bad,” was in my mind.

At the time I couldn’t find that conscious thought – maybe I could have talked myself down if I had.

I was feeling this dumbfounded shock and was like… “Okay, I can work through this, what am I thinking?”

But I couldn’t figure out what I was thinking at the time.

I’m wondering what to do when you are in a moment and can’t find your thought – but are overcome by an emotion such as shock or fear?