Train your brain to stop stress

We’re all under stress right now. And the stress-reactive circuits in our brain guide us to respond ineffectively to stress and cause chronic stress and rising rates of emotional, behavioral, social, and physical health problems.

• The neural circuits in our emotional brain - the limbic system and subconscious memory systems - control our emotional responses in daily life.
• When a stimulus arrives in the brain, it activates either stress-resilient circuits, the internal calmers and healers, or stress-reactive circuits.
• The brain activates the strongest circuit, which controls our responses.
• If the strongest circuit is the reactive circuit, our strong emotions get the upper hand, and the stress interferes with the part of our brain responsible for higher-level thinking and planning.
• The longer the stress-reactive circuit is activated, the more likely they are to activate other stress-reactive wires, which can cause an emotional meltdown of anxiety, numbness, depression, and hostility.

The brain learns to be resilient by being resilient. It takes becoming stressed, then use emotional techniques to change the unreasonable expectations stored in that circuit.

• One technique is to complain briefly. It activates the reactive wire that has encoded an incorrect response.
• Then rapidly express emotions, starting with a burst of anger (which decreases stress). You can then stay present to your strong, negative emotions. Talk to yourself through finishing phrases like " I feel afraid that..." or "I feel sad that..."

• Stress as a social response: We can spread stress to others that can eventually become large-scale group emotions.
• Treating stress: The current model of treating stress symptoms with medications and procedures will require detox.

A long-term solution is to train the emotional brain for stress resiliency.