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The "Zoom Out" Theory for Family Building

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Fertility treatment is stressful, but so is decision making in fertility treatment.

The decisions we make in fertility treatment can affect our future family for years to come.

Regulating your nervous system may help you think more clearly than you imagine.

Feeling good about family building is important but should not drive decision making.

Many people on their family building journey are making some of the most significant decisions of their lives while living with stress and enourmous pressure. The Zoom Out Theory was created to help people take a step back from this stress so they can approach these important decisions with greater clarity and make the more informed decisions that their future self will feel grateful for.

Underlying this theory is something most of us have experienced. Stress narrows our field of vision, and we often don't even realize it.

You have probably had moments when you were nervous and said something embarrassing, snapped when you shouldn't have, or made yourself small so others could have center stage. Much of how we feel affects how we react and the decisions we make.

How Attention Shifts Under Stress

Most of us know that when our bodies feel threatened, our attention narrows to whatever seems like the immediate danger. Thousands of years ago, that might have been a lion. Today, your nervous system can't tell the difference between a lion and the threat of "I might never have a family" or "What if I make the wrong decision about a donor, an agency, or a surrogate?" Our bodies often react very quickly so we........

© Psychology Today