The amygdala, an almond-sized danger detector, triggers stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline when it senses threat. The prefrontal cortex handles memory and planning. Together they shape how we react to danger with fight, flight, or fawn responses.
When we— okay, so just to give you a tiny bit of brain science, and I won't bore you all, but in your brain you have an amygdala. It's the size of an almond. It is your primitive part of your brain. It was the part that's been around for millions of years more than our rational, logical brain, which scientists call the prefrontal cortex. That's the part of you that can live in stories, hold memories, remember that this is fun and I wanna celebrate this, and ideas, dreaming, planning. That's your rational, logical mind. How However, your amygdala was around longer and it is only primarily caring about keeping you safe and keeping you alive. And so it's a danger detector. Now in modern day stress, like back in the day, the danger protector, you're roaming the bush or the plain and you're hunting and gathering, and then you come across a tiger, your amygdala is gonna be like predator. And it's gonna then signal somewhere in your body, your limbic system, I believe, to release cortisol and adrenaline. Those are your main stress hormones. And the idea behind that is we're gonna juice up Dallas to give him enough energy to either fight the tiger or get the fuck away or play dead or befriend it, fawn mode.
