The Mountain Is You

particular or narrow-minded.

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119
THE MOUNTAIN IS YOU
118
BRIANNA WIEST
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF ADJUSTMENT SHOCK?
Adjustment shock can manifest as simply an increase in 
anxiety or irritability. However, it is often more complex 
than that.
Adjustment shock often comes across as hypervigilance. 
If you make financial gains, your mind immediately shifts 
to what could potentially derail your progress, a big bill 
that could come up, or the loss of the job you just got. 
If you have a new, happy relationship, you could become 
paranoid about infidelity or lies.
Adjustment shock can bring to light unconscious attach-
ments and beliefs. If you are someone who was raised to 
think that wealthy people are morally corrupt, you are 
going to resist having more money. If you wanted to be 
famous to be more loved, you are going to resist public 
success, because “famous” people are often more criticized 
and disliked than the average person.
Adjustment shock can bring feelings of intense fear. This 
is because when we attain something we very much care 
about or have worked toward for a long time, our in-
stinct can be to shield ourselves from the potential loss 
of it by putting up walls and desensitizing ourselves to 
the experience.
We often resist most deeply the things that we want most.

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119
THE MOUNTAIN IS YOU
118
BRIANNA WIEST
This is because of adjustment shock, though we don’t al-
ways know that’s what’s causing the resistance.
It is scary to receive everything we want, because it forces 
us to shift out of a survivalist, fear-based mindset and into 
a more stabilized one. If all we are accustomed to is doing 
what we need to do to survive, we are then confronted 
with the next phases of our self-actualization.
If we are no longer worried about basic survival, our minds 
are free to turn to the bigger questions in life: What is our 
purpose? Have we lived meaningfully? Are we who we 
want to be?
We often think of big achievements as a “get out of life 
easier” card. They rarely are that. In fact, the opposite tends 
to happen. They level us up, force us into greater responsi-
bilities, to think more deeply about big issues, to question 
ourselves and what we previously knew to be true.
Big achievements actually pressure us to become increas-
ingly better versions of ourselves. This is a net positive for 
our lives but can be just as uncomfortable as struggling 
was, if not more so.