Fear is a primal survival mechanism. Our reaction to fear is the same whether it's a physical threat (such as a bear chasing us) or an emotional threat, such as the fear of being rejected, judged, embarrassed, or ridiculed. The fear feels real and can prevent us from working toward achieving our goals.
Why Fear Feels Real
The hippocampus is the area of the brain that stores real or perceived threat signals. It stores the threat signals in our long-term memory and responds to potentially dangerous stimuli before it has all of the facts. This is typically based on our past history or past hurts. While it's important to keep ourselves safe from physical danger, responding to an emotional threat before taking time to discern if we're in real danger can cause us problems.
When we are feeling fear, our sympathetic nervous system is activated and causes our amygdala, located below the hippocampus, to initiate a Fight, Flight or Freeze response. When in the Fight/Flight/Freeze mode, blood rushes from our prefrontal cortex (the logical part of the brain) to our arms and legs and our thinking goes out the window. The stress hormone, cortisol increases. We don't feel a sense of safety, satisfaction, or connection.
We are most effective when our parasympathetic nervous system is activated which results in a calm response. We have an increase in the feel-good neurochemicals, dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin. This is when we feel a sense of safety, satisfaction, and connection. Our needs feel met, our body and brain default to its resting state allowing them to repair and refuel. We recover from stress easily and our problem-solving ability goes up. We want to be around other people, our health improves, and we become more resilient.
Face Fear and Rise
The challenge with fear is to identify whether something is a real threat or an imagined threat. We can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, calming our amygdala and become rewired for love, not fear using these neuro-tips:
- Practice gratitude - Write down 3 things that you're grateful for every day for 30 days. Expressing gratitude can get you out of your head, boost your happiness and increase your effectiveness, according to life coach and author, Mel Robbins. Gratitude boosts the neurotransmitter dopamine which is vital for both physical and mental wellbeing. Gratitude also boosts serotonin, the feel-good hormone and neurotransmitter. Can't think of anything to feel grateful for? Just the act of searching for something to feel grateful for produces the result.
- Catch your negative thinking - Be thoughtful about what you think about throughout the day because you're laying down neural wiring or strengthening neural pathways. Another technique when you catch yourself thinking negatively resulting in fear is Mel Robbins', "5 Second Rule." Simply count backward 5-4-3-2-1 to stop the amygdala from hijacking and kick your prefrontal cortex into action.
- Practice mindfulness - First, recognize when fear arises. Observe the feeling of it in your body. Describe verbally what you are feeling. Notice how the awareness which contains fear is really never fearful. Keep separating from the fear with your awareness and allow the fear to pass like a cloud.
Joan Runnheim Olson is passionate about learning and understanding how the brain works and uses that knowledge to empower and inspire her clients and students to transform their lives from stuck to unstoppable and live their best life ever. She also offers a course titled, "Introduction to Brain Based Coaching: Leveraging Neuroscience for Greater Impact with Your Coaching Clients." https://www.lifecoachtraining.com/programs/all_courses/introduction-to-brain-based-coaching This course is designed for those who want to understand how the brain works to facilitate positive change with their clients and themselves through improved thinking.
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