Stress can be related to the fear of the unknown. Neuroscience is really making significant headway (yes!) in the study of the mind and brain. Let's talk about stress due to change and the fear factor.
Fear plays a major role in hindering personal growth. Fear is an emotion that has impacted humankind for a very long time. It may show up in different ways, and it may be called different things, but it is one of the greatest controllers of your behavior. Fear is the polar opposite of love. It is even hardwired into our neurophysiology (the way your brain and nervous system works). So, get used to it. It is not going away anytime soon.
The key to an empowered life, though, is to learn to feel the fear, but do what you need to do anyway! It is our fear of change that contributes to the stress and inner turmoil that is so rampant in our lives today. There is literally a place in your brain, the amygdala, known as a fear center. It's nature's way of ensuring our survival; however, for the mass majority, it works overtime! Even simply getting out of your comfort zone can trigger it, if you are not aware of what is going on.
It is true that at one point in our history we had to run for cover from all kinds of physical threats. Only now, we allow ourselves to get suck into "what if" worries all too easily. We focus too much on what is perceived as wrong instead of looking for what is optimistic in the situation. We expect the worse and focus on what we DON'T want, instead of what we do. This is partially why most people have no idea what their life purpose is, or what they are searching for. This is a major cause of stress and anxiety.
I had fallen into this trap at one time in my life, but I found the courage - and this is the key- to say "ENOUGH"! If all I have to look forward to was death, there would be no point to living. Courage is the ability to "feel the fear and do it anyway". The fear factor is not going anywhere, but I have the choice to not allow it to run my life.
Neuroscience is revealing more every day about how our brain is wired by our mind. Change your mind and train it, and you will be able to change your brain. Once your brain is "re-wired" with new thought habit patterns, you can automatically live out a different version, or story, for your life. Then your fear center buttons cannot be pushed so easily.
I have learned strategies and processes from my training, from personal experience, coaching, NLP and other methods to accelerate this process. The more I learn, the more creative I become. Neuroscience helps to explain to a great degree the science behind these processes. Research shows that as your logical brain understands the reaction coming via the amygdala, this understanding is helpful for your conscious ability to stay calm and become aware of your thoughts so that you can re-focus your mind on what you want to think about.
I believe that the time has come for us to wake up to our True Nature and our own inner resources and stop this automatic stress response. Neuroscience appears to be an important key in the progress toward reaching our full potential.
Valencia Ray MD ©2009
The Confidence Doc
www.valenciaray.com |
