According to this book, the amygdala has a 'backdoor' tripwire thing.
Where info is being sent from our senses to the thalamus,
then to our amygdala BEFORE it ever gets sent to the neocortex.
This accounts for our impulsive emotional reactions.
It takes a lot of work to override immediate, automatic things like this.
Some say that it's not even possible, but I think it could be.
Because when we are aware that it happens,
we can do something about it like
"F*ck off amygdala, let my logical brain handle it."
I can stop those immediate emotional responses. I've done it.
Granted, I haven't been able to do it EVERY time,
but I have done it. It has a lot to do with just watching the responses.
"Is that coming from my amygdala?"
"Or is that coming from my neocortex?"
If it's overly emotional, it's coming from the amygdala.
Since the path from the thalamus to the amygdala is shorter
than the path from the thalamus to the neocortex,
it has a greater chance of being sent to the amygdala first.
Which is where our emotional overreactions tend to come from.
And to start, it doesn't have to be EVERY time,
even if it's like 5% of the time, that's better than 0% of the time.
The 5% can increase over time. Becomes 6% and so on.
But when we're already having an emotional reaction,
it's really hard to realize it at the time
because we're so caught up with how we feel at the time.
That we don't realize that we don't actually have to feel any particular way.
About anything. For any reason.
The amygdala is always on standby,
but that doesn't mean that we have to let it take control.
Yes, it's natural to have feelings about things,
but we don't have to be consumed by those.
And they don't have to run us into the ground.
I've acted on impulse lots of times, based on how I felt at the time.
Then later regretted how I acted. Out of fear, out of anger, out of frustration etc.
We don't have to act based on how we feel about something.
I'd rather think it through before acting or reacting.
I'd rather act than react.
Because my reactions come from a place that isn't exactly rational.
Is anything but rational. Totally, and purely emotional.
And emotions don't have enough context for me to behave appropriately.
As I have learned by making countless mistakes over the years.
And running from things I didn't have to run from.
That I was actually stupid to run from.
I ran from a chance at redemption. How stupid is that?!
Obviously I wasn't thinking.
Now I want another chance at redemption that I probably will never get.
Because I did something stupid and foolish without thinking it through.
Well, a series of stupid things, actually. It wasn't just that one thing.
Yeah, the amygdala is great when there's actually something to fear,
but when it comes to emotional reactions of other sorts, it just needs to f*ck off.
Anyway, just something else I learned tonight.
Where info is being sent from our senses to the thalamus,
then to our amygdala BEFORE it ever gets sent to the neocortex.
This accounts for our impulsive emotional reactions.
It takes a lot of work to override immediate, automatic things like this.
Some say that it's not even possible, but I think it could be.
Because when we are aware that it happens,
we can do something about it like
"F*ck off amygdala, let my logical brain handle it."
I can stop those immediate emotional responses. I've done it.
Granted, I haven't been able to do it EVERY time,
but I have done it. It has a lot to do with just watching the responses.
"Is that coming from my amygdala?"
"Or is that coming from my neocortex?"
If it's overly emotional, it's coming from the amygdala.
Since the path from the thalamus to the amygdala is shorter
than the path from the thalamus to the neocortex,
it has a greater chance of being sent to the amygdala first.
Which is where our emotional overreactions tend to come from.
And to start, it doesn't have to be EVERY time,
even if it's like 5% of the time, that's better than 0% of the time.
The 5% can increase over time. Becomes 6% and so on.
But when we're already having an emotional reaction,
it's really hard to realize it at the time
because we're so caught up with how we feel at the time.
That we don't realize that we don't actually have to feel any particular way.
About anything. For any reason.
The amygdala is always on standby,
but that doesn't mean that we have to let it take control.
Yes, it's natural to have feelings about things,
but we don't have to be consumed by those.
And they don't have to run us into the ground.
I've acted on impulse lots of times, based on how I felt at the time.
Then later regretted how I acted. Out of fear, out of anger, out of frustration etc.
We don't have to act based on how we feel about something.
I'd rather think it through before acting or reacting.
I'd rather act than react.
Because my reactions come from a place that isn't exactly rational.
Is anything but rational. Totally, and purely emotional.
And emotions don't have enough context for me to behave appropriately.
As I have learned by making countless mistakes over the years.
And running from things I didn't have to run from.
That I was actually stupid to run from.
I ran from a chance at redemption. How stupid is that?!
Obviously I wasn't thinking.
Now I want another chance at redemption that I probably will never get.
Because I did something stupid and foolish without thinking it through.
Well, a series of stupid things, actually. It wasn't just that one thing.
Yeah, the amygdala is great when there's actually something to fear,
but when it comes to emotional reactions of other sorts, it just needs to f*ck off.
Anyway, just something else I learned tonight.
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