This is why more thinking or rational self-talk doesn’t always work when you’re triggered or under pressure. If your lid is ‘flipped’ then the rational cortex isn’t integrating and balancing out the messages coming from the limbic and brain stem regions. What is needed are ways to integrate the higher regions of the brain with our ‘emotional’ centers, finding ways for both of these to work together and come back into sync rather than be in battle with one another.

Mindfulness has been shown to increase the thickness of the pre-frontal cortex, including areas related to emotional regulation. The practice has also been shown to decrease the grey matter in the amygdala (one of the key parts of the limbic system, functioning like a ‘smoke alarm’ in our brain), suggestive of the downregulation of our alarm and stress mechanisms.

At times like these, it’s helpful to understand the Biological mechanisms behind stress and learn how to work with them rather than against them. Our brains and bodies are doing their job by sounding the alarm and responding accordingly. There is an evolutionary purpose to flipping the lid – it helps ensure our survival if we are in bodily danger (thinking doesn’t help very much then, you just need to run!). But in our modern times, we learn that while we cannot bypass our biological brains, we can help ourselves by learning to regulate our thoughts and emotions so they stay healthy and in balance.

Mindfulness becomes a way of brain training – to restore balance and integration, to regulate the evolutionary alarm mechanisms and bypasses that are over-activated by our stressful, but rarely life-threatening, ways of life.