SOMEBODY ROBS MY THOUGHTS AT THE RIGHT TIME!!
People say “blame Amygdala for the hijack of your thoughts” “
What is it?
“ I was prepared for the interview so well, but, why did I start blabbering to make myself a fool in front of everyone”
“ In a rush why did I lose my cool and take that stupid decision?”
“ Why did I go blank in my favourite subject during the exam, which was otherwise a cakewalk for me”
“ Why couldn’t I remember the answers during my IIT JEE EXAM and fail to get a good ranking? For this, I had invested so much of my parent’s hard-earned money and my time”
” Though I don’t know as to how to swim, I dived into the river to save the child !! my goodness! why and how I could do that?!“
“ To date, I am not able to forget the stream of the study, which I was interested in taking up. I had to sacrifice for the circumstantial blank-out during the examination”
“ I found myself to be less worthy during the selection process and I didn’t do well in my campus interview”
Now, let us discuss the aforesaid conversation and the reason behind-
- Achieving something at each milestone is a turning point in the life of any layman. When you ask someone about the inability to perform, in a given situation, one will say, anxiety is the main cause of it. Perhaps, one may say that the under-preparation of the person himself /herself for the examination could be the reason.
- If you see this behavior in mature adults, can you see it in youngsters? Yes, you do see this kind of behavior in youngsters who can crack tests and answer subject-related questions in a jiffy. With this phenomenon, many times, students fall below the expected rank in the entrance tests.
- Look, if a brilliant student too can face this situation, reasoning it as his/ her under-preparation cannot be the valid reason.
- Then, what is the reason? Do you know one of the contributive reasons for this kind of performance? This is because, In our human brain, we have an organ called AMYGDALA and this holds the responsibility for this havoc.
- How does it create this unworthy scenario and why? Now, let us see what Amygdala is and HOW this phenomenon ‘Amygdala hijack’ happens to you. The term ‘Amygdala hijacking’ was first used by psychologist Daniel Goleman in his 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence. verywellmind.com
- The Amygdala is an organ of a cluster of cells that you find in pairs in the human brain.
- The paired organ is placed at the base of the brain, one in each hemisphere, and is equipped to regulate our emotions and store memories.
- These memories, in turn, get attached to different human emotions and are called emotional remembrances/ memories. shall we name this part as the emotional part of your brain? (agony aunt brain !).
- Coming to the frontal lobes, which are a part of the cerebral cortex, regulate your actions like reasoning, critical thinking/problem solving, planning, and decision making and we shall call this part an intelligent part of the brain.
- When a situation seems to be of less threat, the frontal lobes think rationally and behave. But, if the threat seems to be of greater intensity, AMYGDALA takes over, in action, and commands the brain to release the stress hormones.
- With this, when you feel anxious/ fearful, the hormones like Cortisol and Adrenaline get released into the bloodstream.
You will develop
- Rapid heartbeat
- Sweaty palms
- Rapid shallow breathing
And tend to show
- Forgetfulness with sweaty palms and sole
- Inability to comprehend and sleeplessness/ restlessness
- Stammering
- Abrupt body language
- Disrupted organizational skill
- Fight or flight mode
- pretention as to show unafftected
What ALARMING Consequences you can show / can become
- An aversion towards the subject or the task
- Avoidance of the subject or the task in future
- Frustration that might not get healed over a very long period
- More doubtful of your own worth
- Less positive with lowered self-esteem
- More conscious in a similar situation with a feeling of committing more and more errors
- Withdrawal symptoms with a feeling of everything- is -over
- Anger or aggression as a response when you cannot escape from a dangerous situation. www.healthline.com
- It makes you take the most challenging decision unmindfully and prepares you for Fight or Flight!
Please note that, in the event of anxiety/ fear, your emotional part of the brain takes over your intelligent, guiding part of the brain and clouds your reasoning ability / critical thinking ability of the frontal lobes of your brain, and CAUSES AN ‘AMYGDALA HIJACK’ !!
How can YOU get over this?
- Plan and practice well before the task
- Learn to identify the Trigger
- During the Trigger, do deep breathing and try to stay calm
- Set right the rhythm of your breath to supply more oxygen to ALLOW your intelligent brain to take over your emotional brain.
To sum up, Is it not SIMPLE??
How do you think the article has helped you?
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Thank You so much for your kind words!!