Todays journey So how can we keep our thinking in perspective ..... - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Today’s journey

So how can we keep our thinking in perspective ..... more often? Today we’ll look at insights from the world of neuroscience !

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Our busy mind

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

“Scientists have demonstrated that the brain processes about 400 billion bits of information every second. Usually, however we are only conscious of only about 2,000 of those bits of data.

Rehearsal... Anticipation... Creating certainty... Based on past experience

Out of those 2,000 bits, the inputs the brain processes pertain

• nly to our awareness of the body, our awareness of the

environment, and our awareness of time.”

What causes stress?

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Physical ‐ accidents, injuries, health Chemicals, toxins, foods, drink, cigarettes, drugs Psychological stress – thoughts.

Thinking and feeling

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

“Each thought has its own chemical signature. The result is that

• ur thinking becomes our feeling – actually, our every thought

is a feeling. We do this constantly and unconsciously.”

Dispenza, 2007

Our powerful minds

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

“What determines our reactions to people

reactions to people or events often has far less to do

with actual people or events than it has to do with all sorts of thought

houghts and and feelings about them feelings about them.

When we see that we can stand back from thoughts and feelings and let go

let go of the o

• f the ones that are of little use

nes that are of little use,

then we begin to develop self determination,

develop self determination, purposeful action and freedom purposeful action and freedom in our lives. This, in a

manner of speaking, is where real self-control or autonomy begins.”

Dr Craig Hassed

Many of these are quite habitual, mechanical, imaginary or unreasonable and we hardly EVER stop to examine

we hardly EVER stop to examine their reasonableness or validity their reasonableness or validity, let alone consider

discarding them.

We are wired to min threat and max reward

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Threat Reward

• Narrow focus – visual and auditory
• Looking for more danger
• Interpreting neutral events as

threat

• Defence mechanisms for self

protection

• Reliance on old habits
• Problem solving
• Increase in negative thinking
• Physiological changes
• Fear and anxiety
• Distortion of reality
• Broad focus – visual and

auditory

• Innovation/ creative

thinking

• Perspective
• Open to change
• Self management
• Collaboration
• Trust, joy, laughter,

playfulness

• Realistic/ optimistic

How do we distort reality?

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Magnifying (exaggerating) ‐ Permanent and pervasive ‐ All or nothing thinking Minimising (underplaying) ‐ Tunnel feedback ‐ Dismissal of positive or negative Making up (fabricating) ‐ Personalisation of blame

Our powerful minds

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

“Sometimes we elaborate negative events in ways “Sometimes we elaborate negative events in ways that amplify our feelings about them, adding that amplify our feelings about them, adding cognitive insult to perceived injury.” cognitive insult to perceived injury.”

Oschner, 2008

What does thing look like?

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

PFC vs limbic system balancing act!

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

The neuroscience

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Threat Reward

• PFC activation
• RVL PFC activation
• Ventral striatum
• Dopamine
• Parasympathetic

nervous system

• Oxcytocin, seratonin,

vassopressin

• Building of immune

system

• Limbic activation
• Amygdala activation
• Orbitofrontal cortex – error

detection

• Sympathetic nervous system –

breathing, heart rate, sweat

• Atrophy of hippocampus
• Epinephrine and

norepinephrine

• Inhibiting of immune system

Importance of regulating your feelings

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

‘I feel what I feel I can’t help that... ‘ I feel what I feel I can’t help that... ‘

Regulating your emotions can help increase:

• your sense of well being –

subjective experience

• the quality of your relationships
• your cognitive abilities including: decision making, problem solving,

listening to others’ perspectives etc

• your ability to deploy your attention
• your levels of health

Ways we regulate our emotions

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Suppression: increases amgydala

and insula activation. Quite simply it amplifies your feelings.

Overly Expressive: limbic

arousal driven, highly reactive, allostatic load, increase in adrenalin and cortisol levels. Quite simply it will lead to ill health.

Training for emotional regulation

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Exercise Cognitive Strategies Mindfulness Nutrition

Emotional regulation

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Exercise

“The brain, especially, relies on a healthy vascular system to efficiently deliver oxygen and key nutrients and remove waste. In fact, the brain uses approximately 20% of the oxygen we breathe to satisfy its high-energy

• demands. Given that the brain only weighs about 2% of the body, we can

consider it an energy hog and we must cater to its needs very carefully.”

Evans, 2008

• General health – longer life, disease fighter
• Reduction in obesity
• Oxygenating your brain
• Increasing subjectivity of positivity and

well being – endorphin, seratonin

Emotional regulation

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Nutrition

‘We are – at least our bodies are- what we eat.’

Dr Craig Hassed

• Glucose
• Water
• Frequency – small and often

Emotional regulation

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Cognitive Strategies

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose

• ne thought over another."

William James

• Labelling
• Reappraisal
• Curiosity
• Lower cognitive loading

Emotional regulation

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Cognitive Strategies

Saying how you feel activates the RVLPFC and that interrupts the amygdala response. Practice “I feel” statements Write your feelings down in a journal... This activates the same part of the brain.

Labelling

Emotional regulation

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Cognitive Strategies

How do you regulate emotions?

Situation Attention Appraisal Response

Kevin Oschner

Change the situation

i.e. If it is a presentation don’t present

Use attentional deployment:

Focus on something to distract you

Reappraise the situation by:

Reinterpreting it Accepting that the feelings are just fleeting. Distancing yourself by imagining yourself in the 3rd person

Response modulation:

Suppress your emotional response Modify the situation

Emotional regulation

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Cognitive Strategies

Reappraisal

• Once the emotion emerges, this is the ability to change how

you see the situation in order to change the emotional significance

• Can be applied to internal as well as external situations
• Reappraisal strategies (cognitive habits) generated early in life

Thinking ----- Feeling ----- Behaving

Emotional regulation

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Mindfulness

• Narrative vs direct experience (in the present moment)
• Meditation – body scan
• Spot meditations – 3 breaths, sighs

“Mindfulness in its most general sense is about waking up from a life on automatic pilot, and being sensitive to novelty in our everyday experiences.”

Dr Daniel Siegel

Default vs direct network

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

Default network ‐

also called rumination – includes memory retrieval, inner speech, mental images, emotions and planning of the future. AKA spending time in past or future.

Direct experience network: experiencing sensations in

real time. Focus on bodily sensations such as breathing or becoming aware of tension. Activation of insula. AKA being in the now

Meditation: switches between default and direct network

Stress and work

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

“You stop using your “You stop using your discretionary effort, you stop discretionary effort, you stop looking at creative things you looking at creative things you can do. can do. If you want people coming to If you want people coming to work with only half their work with only half their brain, put them under stress.” brain, put them under stress.”

Richard Boyatzis

And there’s more…

Clare Goodman – www.lifteffect.com.au

www.lifteffect.com.au