The Most Dangerous Storms

Despite all that I have done to learn the skills to improve my “Emotional Intelligence” my primitive chemistry doesn’t always want to stay in the cage where it belongs.  This is true for all of us to some extent and is part of our evolution as a species.  The limbic system which floods our bodies with Cortisol when confronted with a perceived threat responds in two hundredths of a second, while our thinking prefrontal cortex may take as long as two full seconds to respond.

  If we are being charged by a lion or about to be run over by a truck these milliseconds can make the difference between life and death.  But our limbic systems are not nearly so discerning.  They don’t differentiate between disemboweled and being disrespected.  Surges of adrenalin in the first case might very well save our lives, but in the second they destroy our ability to think and reason creatively.  The solutions to this primitive predisposition are twofold.

First is to have a plan in place when you are hit by these chemical storms.  Practice using it in the little upsets so you will be skilled at using it during the big ones.  The old adage of counting to ten is great medicine, but it has to be something you have trained yourself to do automatically. 

Imagine being in a car racing downhill on a curvy road and the brakes go out.  This is exactly what happens when you get ANGRY.  Your limbic system punches the gas while your prefrontal cortex climbs in the back seat.  Learn to step back and observe; it will not only reduce your stress but will also preserve your dignity.

The second step is to aid your body in flushing these toxins out of your system by refusing to re-experience the reruns.  Your body cannot tell the difference between something vividly imagined and something real.  Stop the cycle of stress by changing the channel. 

When your sympathetic system kicks in it takes less than ninety seconds for your fight-or-flight chemistry to be triggered, surge throughout the body, and then be completely flushed out of your system. 

If you stay angry after ninety seconds, it is because you’ve chosen to stay angry.