Mental resilience doesn’t come from being strong but by being intelligent, i.e. emotionally intelligent (EI) and this short article gives you some simple tips of how to build a resilient mindset to crush fear.
One small but crucial element of EI entails becoming acutely aware of parts of the brain that are designed to protect us but unmanaged, can lead us down the road of fear, stress, anxiety and even into a deep depression.
The parts of the brain I refer to are called the amygdala, which forms part of the limbic system within the brain predominantly responsible for emotions, survival instincts and memory.
They act as the bridge between our psychological and physical world and I say ‘they’ because most people think there is just one amygdala but there are in fact two, located either side of the brain, just behind each ear and at the intersection of each eye.
Bearing in mind that we receive most information through sight and sound, the amygdala plays a critical role in controlling how we respond or react to threatening situations in particular and consequently, how we feel on a daily basis. They’re like our Sixth Sense, which keeps us aware of all kinds of dangers.
According to neuroscience, the amygdala are the brain’s emotional processors most commonly associated with fear. They’re like the private security guards of our mind in many ways because they raise the alarms to protect us.
For real danger (like avoiding a head-on collision in a car) this is good but for psychological danger, it may not be so. I say this because the fear I’m referring to is anything that conflicts, contradicts or threatens our conditioned way of thinking, which your brain will perceive as ‘danger’ or a psychological ‘threat’.
This danger and the associated fear or worry however, is based on the values and beliefs (our programming) that are held deep within our unconscious mind.
This fear reaction to what’s important to us and what we believe should be, can cause an emotional hijack or as neuroscientists would say, an amygdala hijack that kicks any sense of rational thought or reasoning into touch.
“An amygdala hijack can kick any sense of rational thought or reasoning into touch”.
The anxiety doesn’t stop there in the mind though because the central nucleus of the amygdala has direct correlations to the hypothalamus and brainstem, which controls the flow of messages between the brain and the rest of the body.
It also controls basic body functions such as breathing, swallowing, heart rate, blood pressure, consciousness, and whether one is awake or asleep.
In effect, these two small parts of the brain are in charge of the key functions that your body needs to stay alive, like breathing air, digesting food, and circulating blood.
The brain stem connects the rest of the brain to the spinal cord, which runs down your neck and back and if you think about the link with the amygdala, maybe this is where the saying ‘they’re spineless’ came to be recognised because the amygdala raises risk and highlights fear to the degree that it creates physical reactions in us.
For such small parts of the brain, they have immense power to help or hinder your psychological and physical wellbeing and can even account for things like ‘gut feelings’ or ‘matters of the heart’.
You can’t bypass or stop the amygdala from working the way they do BUT by being aware of how they work, you are offered a massively helpful Mind Hack that few others will know about, understand or use to their advantage.
By becoming more conscious of potential emotional hijacks raised by the amygdala, which are often perceived and not real danger, you can live in a world of acute awareness that puts you more in control of the emotions being sent up through your unconscious mind and filtered through the amygdala rather than your emotions managing you in autopilot.
Just by being aware of this, can help open the doors of your mind so you can escort any negatives thoughts out and invite new more productive ones in. In essence, you will come to understand that the problem isn’t you but simply your brain trying to protect you and hence, you can take conscious logical control over situations or circumstances that previously could have caused mental angst.
I share resources and techniques for stopping negative thoughts and emotions in their tracks and how to move to a better place in my Strong Minds E-Playbook which you can download here free and one of my Personal Mastery online course but just by knowing and understanding how the amygdala works and their intention to protect you, should significantly reduce the number of times you face a potential ‘emotional hijack’.
In essence, by becoming aware of this fact, you are able to notice and think about what you’re thinking about more often. Neuroscientists call this meta-thinking or meta-awareness, which forms a strong part of modern mindfulness training today.
Being more mindful begins with becoming aware of your thinking, how it impacts on your emotions, how you feel and consequently how you behave.
Understanding the role that the amygdala plays in this, helps you to notice this more and consciously take control of your fears to put you back in charge.
With such awareness, your mind will be clearer and your decisions about how to respond versus reacting automatically or impulsively, i.e fearfully without real need, will be sharper and wiser.
I hope this helps some people allay any fears that may be building up or taking control in these tough times.
Best,
Reece
Changing Mindsets — Changing Results
Reece is Author of Strong Minds© and teaches individuals how to retrain their brains and manage their minds better through 1–2–1 Private Sessions, Group Masterclasses & Online Courses
