Fear And Your State Of Mind

Here is brief description of fear, neurophysiology and how we can create stored emotional reactions.

Our brain is wired to non consciously create a "self fulfilling prophecy." An area of the brain known as the amygdala plays a crucial role in the fight or flight response (stress response). If the amygdala is excessively sensitive and fires off a "danger" signal, it will automatically alter ongoing perceptions so that they appear threatening. This may be a basis for phobias and other anxiety disorders.

The fear may appear from an incident in childhood. Take for example a child encountering and growling dog which lunges at the youngster. The amygdala directly activates arousal centres. This results in an increase of excitability through the release of substances such as noradrenaline in the brain and adrenaline in the body. This results in the soma or whole being of the child becoming hyper alert and ready to deal with the "danger." This results in the child being in a state of flight or flight (fear). This creates a learned feedback loop in their body - any future dog that child encounters will trigger the amygdala. The body becomes hyper vigilant, fear is triggered and avoidance behaviour results. This fear becomes stored in the subconscious emotional memory.

Mindfulness is a fantastic skill to develop to help reduce the actions of the amygdala in any stressful setting. When mindfulness is combined with somatic education, you learn to release long held muscular tension and tightness. We have all endured stress and trauma in our life. We know that it can impact on our physical health. So when we combine gentle somatic movement sequences with mindfulness techniques, we are retraining the brain to work more efficiently and effectively with our body.

The Total Somatics programme is available online. You can learn and practise mindfulness with Total Somatics in the comfort of your own home.

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