Fighting fear

Fact: The amygdala hijack is your brain’s natural response to heightened emotions, often used to describe your fear response — aka fight or flight. The term hijack represents how the amygdala short circuits your brain before your rational / higher-thinking functions can logically process the input.
Result: You act emotionally and not logically. You think of every possible reason why it is a BAD idea. Sound familiar?
1) Realize what is happening. A number of physiological changes takes place in your body and you enter the fight or flight mode such as increased heart rate, sweat, stress. It will happen — no matter how severe / long in duration.
2) Active your neocortex by doing any of the executive ‘brain’ functions — e.g., plan, problem solve, diagnosis, evaluate, etc. My personal favourite is to label the emotions and responses taking place (what is the threat and what is my body doing?)
3) If possible — tackle your fears head on and enjoy the ride :)
Raphael is an adventurer, strategist and life-learner. Aside from building game-changing technologies in the healthcare space, he recently launched a podcast — The Canvas Project (www.thecanvasseries.com) — where he shares stories of how everyday leaders are designing their lives to enhance performance and drive results.

