“50 yrs of moon landing: When the world paused to watch Armstrong’s moonwalk” (AFP)- When was the last time you “paused”?
The last blog spoke about the role the amygdala plays in our emotions and how it can hijack us! This can result in poor decision making, overwhelm, stress, the list goes on.
A great way to calm down this ‘amygdala hijack’! as well as emotional labelling, is to simply pause and give our brain space to think clearly. Have clarity.
Pausing and slowing down, even for a moment, engages what Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking Fast and Slow calls System 2 thinking. This is the slower, more rational and reflective part of our brain. It engages our Pre-frontal Cortex (PFC), to way up various options and helps us think clearer. This is in contrast to our System 1 thinking, which is fast and intuitive, however prone to bias and poor decision making.
We can help our brains to tap into System 2 thinking by slowing down and pausing. This can be as simple as;
· Noticing – notice when we are feeling overwhelmed, can’t think clearly, take a breath, literally. This helps bring much needed physiological resources to our PFC.
· Pause/stop – Step away from the problem, go outside, look up, this engages System 2 more.
· Labelling – Label the emotion, which calms down the limbic system so your PFC is not hijacked.
