Life Coaches Make Life Easier: Retrain Your Brain to Avoid Emotional Hijacks

Why hire a Fearless Living Life Coach? Because we make life easier.

Back in the old caveman days, there wasn’t much stress beyond basic survival. For survival, primitive humans relied on their amygdala. This primal part of the brain thinks in black-and-white; either the caveman was safe or in danger.

When a caveman was in danger, the amygdala would trigger the fight or flight response. When being chased by a wild animal, the amygdala would prompt the release of adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones boost energy supplies by increasing blood pressure, heart rate and glucose in the blood stream. At the same time, they temporarily shut down some of our other bodily functions like the immune system, digestion and the reproductive system.

The chase would be over within seconds or minutes, and if the caveman survived, his hormone levels would start to return to normal. He would spend the rest of the day blissfully gathering berries or looking for firewood.

MODERN HUMANS
In modern-day America, the amygdala is working overtime. We aren’t being chased by wild animals, but those same stress hormones are being released when we are frustrated, impatient, worried, overwhelmed, confused, exhausted or misunderstood.

Remember, the amygdala only thinks black-or-white, safe-or-danger. So when we live a stressful life, we are living with too much cortisol and adrenaline in our system 24/7.

According to the Mayo Clinic, “overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones — can disrupt almost all your body's processes. This puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems, including heart disease, sleep problems, digestive problems, depression, obesity, memory impairment and worsening of skin conditions such as eczema.”n?Unlike the caveman, modern humans have a well-developed frontal lobe that can bring logic to any situation. Yet we are hardwired to automatically respond to signals from the amygdala. That instantaneous response is called an Amygdala Hijacking.

HIJACKED BY FEAR
In a Hijacking, the frontal lobe doesn’t get a chance to put its two-cents in, so the reaction comes without the benefit of logic. We might lash out, isolate, yell, avoid, cry, or freeze -- all fight or flight responses. It’s only later, when the logic kicks in, that we often regret our behavior or wished that we’d done things differently.

So what does this have to do with life coaching? It has everything to do with it ... especially Fearless Living coaching.

Life coaches are in the business of helping people identify old patterns that don’t work and replacing them with new ones. People often hire life coaches to help them reach goals or develop new strategies.

Fearless Living is about recognizing the clues leading up to an Amygdala Hijack, i.e. those old patterns. As a Fearless Living Coach, I help my clients identify their own brand of fear and fear responses. We work together to replace old fear responses with new empowering behaviors. As a result, my clients learn the tools and skills that stop most Amygdala Hijacks.

RETRAINING THE BRAIN
Without those Hijacks, people can access the higher mental functions of the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is involved in planning, organizing, problem solving and long-term memory. It identifies possible consequences and can choose between good and bad actions. Plus, the frontal lobe is where our personality lives.

When my Fearless Living clients learn to interrupt the Hijacks, they gain more confidence and life balance. Their communication and time management skills improve. They often experience more wellness, because those stress hormones aren’t flooding their system. They begin to see a sweetness in their day-to-day life. Relationships thrive, and they experience more satisfaction and peace.

Those are the types of benefits that touch all areas of a client’s life. Fearless Living is not about learning one new strategy or meeting one specific goal. It’s about living life with a modern human’s brain instead of the brain of a caveman.

As a Fearless Living Coach, I get the privilege of helping people retrain their brain to move out of the fight-or-flight survival mode into a place of freedom, wellness and ease. I put my clients’ logical frontal lobe back in the driver’s seat, allowing their personality to shine through. And that’s the place where life just seems to get easier.