Self-Leadership: Meet Your Inner Team — Why Your Emotions Make Perfect Sense | NowShift August 06, 2025

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What if your strongest emotional reactions weren’t random at all — but perfectly logical once you understood their origins?

In this episode of Antifragilient OS – NowShift Daily Transmissions, Dr. Abhimanyou Raathore (Clinical Psychologist & Functional Medicine Practitioner) reveals the Internal Family System — the three core parts that work together inside all of us:

• Managers – Proactive protectors, shaping our behavior to prevent emotional pain, often echoing authority figures from our past.
• Firefighters – Reactive defenders, stepping in when pain breaks through, using distraction or intense action to douse emotional flames.
• Exiles – The most vulnerable parts, carrying the shame, fear, loneliness, and powerlessness from our earliest wounds.

These parts aren’t your enemies — they’re your lifelong protectors, each with positive intentions. They don’t need you to obey them; they need you to see them, hear them, and appreciate their service.

By understanding how Managers, Firefighters, and Exiles interact, you’ll begin to see why you respond the way you do — and how to approach your emotions with compassion instead of judgment.

This episode is just the beginning. In upcoming transmissions, Dr. Raathore will explore each part in depth and share practical tools to work with them. Until then, reflect on your own inner team:

• Who’s been speaking the loudest?
• Who’s been waiting the longest to be heard?

🎧 Listen now, and start leading your team with clarity, curiosity, and care.

A podcast by Dr. Abhimanyou Raathore
Thank you for tuning in.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Today is August 6th 2025.
My name is Dr Abhimanyu Rathore.
I'm the founder of theAnti-Fragilient Operating System
.
Here's the anti-fragilienttransmission for the day.
Yesterday, we talked about beingself-led, that is, self-based

(00:27):
leadership of your internalfamily system.
Now, what parts does thisfamily really comprise of?
Let's understand that a littlebit better and I promise you, by
the end of today, suddenlythings would start making a lot
more sense to you about thoseemotions, about those triggers,

(00:49):
about those sudden behaviors foryourself or others that you
never understood so far.
So, as per internal familysystems, there are basically
three types of parts that makeup every internal system, and
these three types of parts aremanagers, firefighters and

(01:12):
exiles.
Okay, so these are three kindsof parts you have in your
internal family system as selfto manage and lead.
Now let's understand managersand firefighters a little bit.
They are both there becausethey actually seek to protect

(01:33):
you from emotional pain, okay,and, as I told you, the
intention is always right, butthey use different strategies.
To do so is always right, butthey use different strategies to
do so.
Okay, and what is thedifference in their strategy?
As far as the managers areconcerned, managers are

(01:55):
proactive, just like any managerthat you would see, very
proactive, while firefightersare reactive, and usually these

(02:18):
managers actually all the timealmost these managers and
firefighters are often modeledafter authority figures, whether
it was a teacher, whether itwas your parents or whoever.
Okay, these are the ones thatthey are usually modeled after,
and they work hard to protectyou and also to protect another
part that we will talk about insome time, which is called the
exile, and both of them oftenget exhausted and burnt out.

(02:40):
They're also much youngergenerally than they appear and,
as I've talked to you rightthroughout, they have absolutely
positive intentions for you, atleast from their perspective,
and what they want from you asself is they want to be heard,

(03:01):
they want to be understood andthey also like to have their
efforts appreciated.
Now, notice I did not say thatthey want you to go ahead and do
what they say, but I did saythey want to be heard, they want
to be understood and they wanttheir efforts appreciated.

(03:24):
Now let's talk about the thirdtype of part which is there,
which is called the exiles.
These exiles are the vulnerableparts of the system, and these
are the ones that firefightersand managers seek to protect or
seek to protect us from.
Now these are parts thatactually rooted in the past and

(03:49):
they carry the burden of shame,terror, loneliness and
powerlessness from childhood.
And these are the ones who holdon to those beliefs such as I
am unlovable, I am worthless, Idon't matter and even I am never

(04:12):
safe.
So they actually want to telltheir stories, be witnessed with
compassion and helped in termsof releasing their burden.
That's primarily your internalfamily system.
In the days to come, we will goahead and talk about each one of

(04:36):
these three parts in a littlemore detail, so that you are
able to know them better,understand them better and work
with them better.
That's all I have for you todayand I will see you tomorrow.
Thank you very much.

(04:59):
Do let me know how you'reliking these sessions, these
transmissions, and how are theyhelping you.
I would love to hear that.
I'll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.