Raising Your Sword to Battle an Illusion
Our nervous system is a miraculous and complex network of information and control mechanisms. Our SNS (sympathetic nervous system) readies us for action, to mobilize, to activate, charge, fight or flea..among many other things. Our PNS (parasympathetic nervous system) calms us down, soothes, relaxes, and regulates…also among many other things. So when we get stressed, […]
Are You Cross-Wired?
It’s proven we can wire neutral events to fearful responses. Ex: a dog barks each time you get a bit of bad news. Soon, you cringe at the dog bark, even if no bad news follows. The auditory cortex delivers the “dog bark” message at the same time as the “bad news” message enters the […]
Which Muscles are You Exercising?
Your cortices, like muscles, grow with use. So if you use your limbic brain to function mostly–in fear and threat–you strengthen that part of the brain so it dominates. If you use your prefrontal cortex mostly–for higher level thought like compassion, empathy and learning–that part of the brain gains dominance. What muscle are you exercising?
Taming the Fear Response
Our Amygdala is the cornerstone of our fight-or-flight and fear response. It keeps us safe in emergencies, action-oriented in crisis, and powerful when we have little reserves. It also happens to dominate with use and become our filter for the world over time. The more we exercise fear, the more we view the world through […]
Mindfulness Changing the Political Brain?
The time has come for politics to recognize the magic of both compassion and neuroplasticity! “The fact that our brain is always changing means we’re not locked in to having the stress superhighway built into our nervous system…The cutting-edge research today shows us how mindfulness can help us reshape our brain and nervous system…Now studies […]
Does Fear Define YOUR Comfort Zone?
In studies of the brain’s neurology, fMRIs show that when faced with uncertainty our brains decrease the blood flow to the reward center while increasing blood flow to our emotional circuitry — the limbic brain, priming us for fight-or-flight response. Conversely, in studies of those with lesions in their orbito prefrontal cortex who couldn’t feel […]
An Adolescent Approach to the World
The prefrontal cortex is involved with most of our higher order thought functions like patience, goal setting, motivation, empathy, problem solving and much more. The amygdala is involved in more reactive and quicker responses like fight-or-flight, emotional arousal, and survival needs. Studies done at Harvard on teens versus adults asked individuals to label emotional facial […]
