Worry involves negative habitual thought patterns and negative imagination. We create worry, which often then creates fear. Are you stressed about the ACTUAL EVENT or are you stressed by the constant wishing, hoping, mulling and projecting into the future? Worry is NEGATIVE goal setting.
How high stress impedes thinking
While a certain amount of stress can focus our attention and help us think more efficiently, too much stress interferes with learning and memory. In one experiment, when a group of students thought they were doing a practice test, they performed ten percent better than when they were told that the test was the real one. In this so-called real test, the students believed that they were part of a team that relied on their score to win a cash prize. The added social pressure impeded their working memory.
Quite likely an emotional hijacking caused this to happen. I’m not sure whether Daniel Goleman coined this term, but he uses it often when he reviews, in Emotional Intelligence, the above study and others about the effects of worry and other forms of anxiety.
The hijacking occurs when the part of our brain that specializes in emotions and passion–the small, almond-shaped amygdala in the center–detects a high level of stress. To the amygdala, this is the equivalent of an electronic sign flashing “Life in danger.” It quickly shuts down the slower-acting thinking mind, takes over decision making, and sends emergency messages over a different neural route. These messages trigger a torrent of stress hormones that raise our heart rate and blood pressure and prime our major muscles for action.
This is exactly what we want to happen when we see a small child fall into a rushing river or we’re facing down a mountain lion. Depending on the situation, we want to be catapulted into instinctive action or frozen in protective non-action. This classic fight/flight/freeze reaction is not helpful, however, when we need to come up with smart solutions to the enormously complex and pressing problems we face today.
I don’t want our lawmakers and our captains of industry to fight, flee, or freeze as the global economy worsens, cheap oil runs out, and climate change threatens the natural and human systems on which we rely. Nor do I want my neighbors, co-workers, or loved ones to go into this kind of unthinking panic mode when they need to find a job after being laid off, or sell their house to avoid foreclosure, or figure out fast how to live with water rationing. And I certainly don’t want my brain clouded with stress hormones when I’m in a bind that requires clear thinking.
One thing you can do about it:
The next time you want to think clearly but your heart is racing or your gut is tied in a knot, try this simple, three-part practice:
•Take a deep breath in through your nose and hold it for a moment
•Feel your heartbeat or the sensation in your gut, whichever is stronger
•When you breathe out, send your breath down through the center of your body to your feet and into the earth.
Repeat this until you’ve calmed a bit, then ask yourself: What do I most want to do right now? Be sure to listen for the answer. (It might surprise you.)
By Carolyn Shaffer
