Don't Limit Your Identity

My dog is very ill at the moment, he is 14.5 years old (the little cutie) He can barely use his two back legs but whenever he sees the cat outside he makes a run for him.

Why does my dog do this when he is so unable and after is in such pain ?

Because unlike us humans, he doesn't have a neocortex region in his brain to break down the information in front of him to make better decisions. He uses his amygdala (the emotional brain)

The Amygdala:

This part of the brain keeps us alive, all information we see in front of us, goes straight to the amygdala and we can react as quickly as possible to keep us safe.

Now lets learn how to deal with anger using this information

How we deal with anger comes down to our emotional intelligence, when we see something we immediately react with emotion. If someone pulls out in front of us in traffic we immediately react in anger, maybe we go crazy and start beeping, maybe we curse or maybe you try to get revenge ?

But how do we get out of the anger emotion?

We must bring the emotion to the front of our brains (the neocortex) . All you simply must do is say ‘this is anger’ it will immediately make you aware of the emotion and you can bring that into your neocortex to be rationalized in order to make a better decision. Even though you are enraged. In terms of neural mechanics of awareness, this subtle shift in mental activity presumably signals that neocortical circuits are actively monitoring the emotion, a first step in gaining control.

The neocortex is our rational mind it will say ‘maybe he was in a rush’ or ‘maybe it was an emergency’ in fact we could realize this person has the same goal as us maybe he too wants to just get to work, he didn't have the intention today to annoy me.

Here your anger will rationalise and you will slip out of the emotional reaction. If you didn't bring anger to your awareness you could be triggered all day, maybe you go home and lash out at your child because you never truly cooled off.

So i'm asking you to use your brain and start noticing your emotions. We are lucky to have a neocortex so let's learn how to use it.The same process works for other emotions such as sadness, loneliness and worry. Once you make yourself aware of the emotion you can now take control.

We have the ability to not chase the cat and end up hurt so...

Use your brain, don't let your brain use you.

Also want to say a massive thank you if you have bought my Relationships Ebook yesterday it also teaches you how to recognise your own emotions and take control so if you would like to know more please purchase it here. :)

Sinead ‘still trying to not chase cat’ Hegarty