Emotional Self-Control: A Primer (Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence Book 2) by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: More Than Sound, LLC
Published: 2017-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

What we know from the neuroscientific research is that there’s a critical circuit that involves the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. 21 The amygdala is an area in the limbic system below the highest part of the brain, below the cerebral cortex. It’s a part of the brain that is very involved in emotion. It detects threats in our environment. So, if there’s a threat to the self the amygdala gets activated.

Some workplace settings are rich opportunities to activate the amygdala. For example, threats to the self in the workplace can take the form of “I didn’t get credit for what I did,” or “They aren’t treating me fairly,” or “I got unfair criticism.” The amygdala reacts to these kinds of threats or to the general stressful reality of too much to do, too little time to do it, and too little support. Cultivating the ability to recover quickly is helpful in dealing with that stress.

There is a major pathway between the prefrontal cortex (a thinking/rational part of our brain) and the amygdala. That pathway, known as the uncinate fasciculus, connects the prefrontal cortex to the amygdala. These are the major neural “wires” between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. This connection is the basis for how we can damp down the amygdala and use the perspective-taking kinds of cognitive strategies that we’ve been considering in helping to modulate activity in the amygdala.

The integrity of that pathway is essential for emotional regulation. People who have a compromised pathway can have an impaired ability to regulate their emotions.

Daniel Goleman’s concept of an amygdala hijack 22 is when the amygdala overreacts and takes over and drives the prefrontal cortex. Here, I’m talking about the reverse of that process. There is good evidence 23 that these connections between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala are bidirectional, they go both ways. The amygdala can hijack the prefrontal cortex and jangle it, which disrupts our ability to plan or to guide our behavior effectively. 24 We also know that the prefrontal cortex can modulate the amygdala. 25 That’s the other direction. Using cognitive strategies like perspective-taking can help modulate the amygdala, which reduces our fear-based responses. There are also other strategies that can be deployed. We have recent evidence 26 to suggest that with long-term mindfulness meditation practice, the rate at which the amygdala recovers from an adverse event gets shorter. It recovers more quickly, but it only does that after a fair amount of practice.

By mindfulness meditation practice, the actual tactic I’m referring to is acknowledging thoughts and feelings but not overly identifying with them—observing that they’re present and not being carried away by them, acknowledging them for what they are. This is a thought. This is a feeling. But not treating them particularly in any kind of special way, meaning to avoid the element of self-judgment that can sometimes happen when undesirable thoughts or feelings emerge. This kind of observation practice helps you to recover more quickly.

There’s a maxim from cognitive therapy: “You don’t have to believe your thoughts.

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