Michael Zeller explains how stress shuts down the prefrontal cortex and narrows your choices to one or two options, even if you're smart. Deep breathing costs nothing and restarts your brain fast enough to see you actually have choices.
Most of us, we can't see ourselves clearly when we're activated, because what happens is your prefrontal cortex, as you get in an activated sympathetic arousal type state, now you can't see. It's like you might have this many options, but in sympathetic arousal state, you see that many options. You see like one or two. Because what happens, your amygdala takes over and you have to shift focus to what is the most pressing, urgent matter. And literally what happens in your body when you're in sympathetic arousal state, your amygdala kicks on. Now you're laser focused on one or two things that you think those are the only options. And you can find people like when they're highly stressed, very busy, overwhelmed, they're losing options. They're not seeing the full field because they're narrowing their focus. And what happens there is now also parts of your body stop operating as efficiently because all the energy is going to getting you out of that fight or flight, like survival. Your body is an intelligent system. It says, okay, I'm under threat. I am in a fight or flight state. I have to focus my energy on surviving first. But lots of times people want to stay in that fight or flight mode for decades. I've seen people in sessions for the first time, they're like, Mike, I can't believe this is what deep breathing feels like, belly breathing. And then they're like, whoa, I can see these options. I can see I'm not under attack. The key is to bring yourself back in that calm state. Then you can see the field of options before you. And you realize, man, I can actually handle this. I've got more options available to me than I ever thought.
9 Powerful Tools to Regulate Your Nervous System (And Stop Living in Fight or Flight)
