“Can’t think clearly”, “Can’t see the wood for the trees” “…. all things people might say if they feel a bit overwhelmed. It’s not your fault, you are part of an ‘amygdala hijack’!
The amygdala forms part of the limbic system and has shown to play a key role in the processing of emotions. From evolution it is primed to sense danger (lion in the cave) and can send us into a “fight, flight or freeze (& new one “flock”). The down side, is that in order to do this, it takes resources away from our Pre-frontal cortex (PFC), which is the area of the brain where we do our best thinking and problem solving. So helpful if there is lion, however not so helpful if you feel overwhelmed and need to think clearly!
One way to calm down the limbic system and this emotional brain, is to use Cognitive Change Strategies such as Emotional Labelling. This increases arousal in the PFC and can dampen down the arousal in the limbic system.
One study that illustrates this is a 2005 study done by Matthew Lieberman and some colleagues. They asked thirty participants to view pictures of angry, scared, or happy looking faces. The fMRI scans showed that when the participants labelled the emotional faces using words, less activity occurred in the amygdala—so a reduced threat response—and at the same time the right ventrolateral PFC lit up. 1REFERENCE: Lieberman, M (2009) The brain’s braking system (and how to “use your words” to tap into it). NeuroLeadership Journal Issue Two.
In essence, it follows 3 steps (it works best with low-level threat and low-level emotional states, so emotions like “anxious” as opposed to “terrified”);
- Pause, stand still, take a breath!
- Describe the emotion in one or two words
- Consciously chose to put that emotion to the side.
You are not ignoring the emotion, you are dampening down the arousal in the limbic system and increasing arousal in the PFC, so you can think clearer!
You can read more detail about it here; https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sweet-emotion/201408/why-labeling-emotions-matters
