How to Tame the Wild Brain 2 – Taming

This is the 2nd in the series of Taming the Wild Brain.  It should stand on it’s own, but here is the first for your perusal -

How to Tame the Wild Brain 1

Taming the Amygdala

We’ve all got this fiery little nut in our heads. It(actually, there are two) has a name – the amygdala (means ‘almond shaped’ out own inner nut) and it is relatively tiny for the power it wields.

On one side, the amygdala had evolved to recognize the face of danger.  When you are presented with an angry face, the right side – it works well at recognizing the whole – starts pumping out chemicals that quickly straighten the hairs on the back of our necks.  We are ready for action.  Again, naming helps.  Just putting the word ‘anger’ with the angry face tends to quench the amygdala’s flame.

This flash of emotion is not bad in and of itself, writes James Aubrey, author of Zen and the Brain. Emotions and feelings, even those we are not quite comfortable with are simply part of being human.  Mindfulness helps to tame our reaction to our inner nut.

Anger, fear, anxious feelings, all show up in meditation just as in other parts of our lives.  The physically settled state achieved in meditation allows us to observe these feelings like a curious scientist.  The key here is not to push them away, to just let them be where they are.  If anything, lean further into them.  It’s a safe place to do it.

We begin to tame our inner nut.

With practice, by understanding, we are able to begin acting against the brain’s default mode.  As Dr. Ellen Weber writes ..

“Simply act deliberately in the opposite direction of any volatile,  negative, or moody feelings.  If feeling fearful or if you are embarrassed, for instance, try disagreeing more with the brain in mind. In this way, the very act of using a skill to disagree well, begins to rewire your brain for healthier responses in similar situations.

Simply put, you can learn to bypass your amygdala’s automatic default operations, in much the same way you choose to tap different buttons on a computer, to enter a different screen.”

Art via cinafra