Your brain on stress

Difficult emotions are easier to manage when you understand what’s going on in your head. Take stress and anxiety (please!). It’s created in the part of the brain dedicated to keeping us safe; a part of the brain that hasn't developed since we were cave dwellers.

In those days, threats tended to be caused by single, lethal things that needed an instant response – wild animals, rival tribes, and such. The part our brain which developed back then is therefore vigilant, obsessive, and always on the alert. It served us well in those times, but not so much now. We’ll always want to jump out of the way of the speeding drunk driver or deal with the stroppy so-and-so on the bus, but these days worries usually come from less immediate sources – a dodgy bank statement, relationship problems, a public speaking engagement, or doom scrolling, to name but a few.

Trouble is, our prehistoric brain reacts in the same way as it always has; it recognises our growing discomfort and immediately assumes there's a lurking leopard somewhere. It checks on its whereabouts all the time, shuts our curiosity down and keeps our lives small, keeps us ‘safe’, and encourages us to maintain survival rituals, however unhelpful we know they are deep down (‘I wore my lucky pants yesterday and I’m still alive, I’ll wear two pairs today.’). This part of our brain can shout very loudly, because it thinks it's keeping us alive, and it’s difficult to hear any other thoughts.

As it is hard wired to shut down any feelings of discomfort as quickly as possible, it cares not one jot about your hopes, dreams, career, relationships or anything else. This approach may remove immediate unease, but doesn't resolve any modern-day issues in a modern-day way (see my article, Fight or Flight, or Freeze, Flop, or Fawn). This stifles our growth, as it frequently misreads signs of excitement with the similar signs of anxiety, and jumps on them fast. Learning to sit with anxiety mindfully until it passes will help remove that 'knee-jerk' response and give us space to find what works better for us in the long term. If we don't, we stay in our comfort zone, which gets progressively smaller, and smaller, and smaller.

So if you've ever agreed to something because it seemed a great idea, then spent the intervening days or weeks feeling stressed and anxious, berating yourself for saying yes, and contemplating how to wriggle out of it, then pushed through, felt great and wondered why you got yourself in such a state, now you know!

If you’re stressed or overwhelmed, and begin obsessing about your health, or the state of the planet, or the endless doom on the news, just remember that FEAR NEEDS A FOCUS. You can do what you can to make the world a better place, talk to the bank manager, or consider the best way to deal with a fractious relationship, but knowing that your brain is dealing with these issues by trying to find a leopard in the wardrobe might help you gain perspective.

Hypnotherapy can help in two ways. Firstly, trance is a relaxed focused state which can calm your inner alarm system for a while, giving you a break. Secondly, we can work on building more helpful neural pathways in your mind, letting the unhelpful ones grow over. You can enjoy instant relief and look forward to being less driven by mental leopard-hunting in the future. What would you prefer to go looking for?! If you’d like to know more just send me a message.

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