Tricky brains
Have you ever wondered what is keeping your anxiety running when your life is seemingly safe?
It’s not you. You were born with a “tricky brain”
Like other mammals, our brains have evolved to learn what is dangerous to us and protect us from this as a priority. When our brain perceives a danger, most other focuses go out the window. This skill has kept us alive and safe for millenia.
However, our wonderful brains also have a new capacity to think in complex, abstract ways (e.g. imagine the future, prepare different scenarios, assess risk)
This means our imaginations (new brain) can trigger off our threat system (old brain) with risks that are not actually present...
This can magnify and multiply the number of risks our brain thinks it’s detecting. It makes sense that this can be an exhausting and catastrophic experience for us, creating stress, anxiety and a state of constant alertness.
This is not your fault.
You did not ask to be born with this brain and the capabilities it holds. You did not choose the dangers your life encountered, nor the moments encoded as risk in your mind. Whether your threat system is triggered is not of your making, it’s just your brain doing the best it can.
So, what can you do about it?
First, try to learn to spot when your threat system is activated.
What happens in your body?
Where do you first notice it?
Where does your mind go?
Next, you get to choose
Is this a danger to me, here, now?
Do I need to respond to this from a place of threat?
If you’re not sure, check in with yourself:
Can I take a moment to calm down my nervous system? To assess the risk with my whole mind, with what I know now?
Knowing you are just doing your best in a difficult situation with a brain set up to protect at all costs.
This theory is taken from Dr Paul Gilbert, who developed Compassion Focussed Therapy. For more information, you can go to
www. compassionatemind.co.uk