A way to cope with all that’s going on
There’s so much going on. Too much going on. A pandemic, political and social unrest, climate change and uncertainty everywhere. But to be in the world, to be engaged, active and trying to make the world a better place, we need to pay attention, observe and absorb a lot of pain. It’s hard.
All of those topics create stress. While a little stress can get us moving, too much stress damages our memory and our ability to learn. It harms our ability to think clearly; it reduces our capacity to focus, to innovate, and to stay calm and grounded . And we have less tolerance for others and a lower ability to collaborate. Stress also reduces our ability to think through and consciously plan our new normal.
We are worn out and running on auto-pilot, or rather running on emotions – more than usual.
Our emotional brain makes most of our decisions (even though we don’t really want to admit that) and even more of them when we’re stressed.
The problem is that the most advanced part of our brain – the executive (adult) function that makes us uniquely human – is relatively fragile; it is weak in comparison to the emotional brain. It gets tired and gives up. Then our needy emotional brain takes charge.
It’s a pretty simple equation: we take care of this more advanced, adult brain, or the more primal, teenage emotional brain will make all of our decisions for us. And we will continue to create more unrest personally and interpersonally.
Here is a short (4½ minute) video which will give you an experience and help you tap into your more evolved brain so you can make better choices. It follows the ABC model: be Aware, Breathe and Choose.