The Power of choice.

Posted by Veronica van Nierop on March 21 2022

Have you ever had regrets over anything? There are many occasions when acting on impulse is a GOOD thing: like buying your loved one a little surprise on the way home from work.

However, for those ruled by impulse something as simple as shopping can be a dangerous activity: leaving both the shopping basket and the credit card overloaded.

Impulsive people can find difficulty making long term plans even for pleasure. It can become challenging to control the emotions, either good or bad. In this mode thinking logically and carefully about decisions is nearly impossible.

We have in our brain two major brain pathways to help us cope with stress. We have the

1. Our reflex impulse pathway operated by the amygdala and

2. Our higher brain pathway managed by the hippocampus.

THE AMYGDALA

The reflex pathway is the one that can save our own, or someone else’s life. Because it is a reflex, it means that it is automatic , unconscious and outside of our conscious control. This pathway is for a situation where our survival instincts mean everything, it means that we can act fast, much faster than our conscious thought.

Think of the father jumping into a foaming river to rescue his son from drowning. Or on the more lighter side, do you have the ability to snap up a good buy when you see it without missing it due to over thinking. It also comes in pretty handy if you are goal keeper for your soccer team.

THE HIPPOCAMPUS

When the urgency is not that great and we have the luxury of time, we use our higher brain pathway called the hippocampus to make decisions about our welfare. This type of intelligence is for careful planning: when we want to think things over in a logical and sequential way, because if we get it wrong, the price is going to be high: Decisions like; Am I marrying the right person, buying the right house, taking the right very expensive course at university?

EXERCISING THE POWER OF CHOICE

This higher brain pathway also has another job.

Using its’ better judgment, it must at times take control of our impulses and instincts. Our instinct pathway (amygdala) is very powerful, because it is survival orientated, and always on the ready, but it can also be prone to misjudgement and overreaction if it has been over stimulated or triggered too often.

E.g. You are heavily invested in stocks that are plummeting and your instinct is to get out, sell your stocks in a hurry. But your broker says, ‘No, wait, don’t panic, the market will correct itself, hang in there. Go for the long haul.’ If you listen to your broker, you are using your higher brain pathway, also called your hippocampus, to override and calm down your instinct pathway, operated by the amygdala. Only time will tell whether you should have listened to your gut instincts, or to your broker!

However in the majority of cases it is the rational mind which makes the wisest choice.

Be that as it may, what is important here is that we have two brain pathways for coping with stress. Every time we get stressed it’s a judgment call as to which one we will be using. The ideal state of being for everyday living is that our higher brain pathway is in charge, controlling the instinct pathway. If this is the state of play, we have good coping skills, we feel resilient, our emotions are under control and our confidence rides high.

Burnout, the stresses and strains of life, traumatic experiences, aging and ill health can all upset this delicate neurological balance between our two stress pathways, tipping the balance in favour of impulsive overreaction. This can cause us to feel stuck in an agitated, anxious, on edge and overwhelmed state of mind.

The answer lies in a brain body technique that quickly re-establishes order and balance in our brain pathways and returns us to the more desirable and pleasant thriving state of natural resilience…….. Applied Neuroscience programmes.

I run these programmes either in person or one to one online, no matter where you are.

Gain control and achieve your outcomes........coaching with Applied Neuroscience.

For a FREE stress assessment of your stress state OR to discuss the effects of stress in your life and how the my programmes can reduce stress permanently..

Contact me on v@veronicavannierop.com