Learn the 90-Second Rule for Inner Peace
Close the loop on emotional reactivity with Dr Jill Bolte Taylor’s 90-Second Rule.
We have the power to choose who and how we want to be in the world each and every moment, regardless of what external circumstances we find ourselves in.
— Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
The first 90 seconds after an upsetting event are crucial for choosing who we want to be and how we present ourselves.
If we pay attention, we can feel a distinct physical response in our bodies when stress hits: an elevated heart rate, flushed cheeks, our pulse pounding in our ears. This is because of chemicals released by our brains, prompting us to fight, flee, or freeze — a reaction that goes way back to a time when predators were a real and constant threat, and biological instincts offered us our best chance at survival.
Now, the high-stress situations we experience in our modern world are more about arguments with our loved ones, frustration at traffic and long lines, or bad news that turns an otherwise peaceful day sideways.
With our highly-developed brains, we can also choose a response other than freezing, fighting or running away.
In this post, I want to share with you a powerful tool that comes from the work of Harvard-educated neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor. She calls it the 90-Second Rule, and here’s why it’s so effective.
The 90-Second Rule
As Dr. Taylor explains: it takes no longer than 90 seconds for stress hormones to flood and clear your system. When you feel outrage as a reaction to a situation, for example, adrenaline rushes through your body for up to 90 seconds, and then it’s gone.
If that sounds like a remarkably short period of time, that’s because for most of us, the emotional reaction continues long after. Due to the connection between our thoughts, emotions and brain chemistry, our bodies stop producing stress hormones after 90 seconds only if we are able to pull our thoughts away from what stimulated the emotion to begin with.
As long as we keep stewing over the situation, our emotions keep churning and our brains keep flooding our bodies with adrenaline.
So, according to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, each time we have an emotional reaction, we choose whether to keep the emotional feedback loop going after 90 seconds and let our stress hormones continue flooding in—or whether to stop our emotional reactivity.
But how do we simply not think about something that just happened, especially if it tripped a particularly touchy trigger?
In her work, Taylor points out that if we can observe this response rather than engage with it, we have a lot more power over what we express in the world when we’re under pressure.
How to Observe Instead of Engage
When your emotions are surging, 90 seconds can feel like a long time. So, one trick Dr. Taylor suggests is to look at the hand of a clock as soon as you feel your emotional reaction rise. (I’ll add that if there’s no dial nearby, you can try grabbing your phone and pulling up the stopwatch function.)
The act of looking at the elapsed time alone may be enough to remind you to observe rather than engage. If you can wait out the reaction, then you will feel less stressed. If you continue engaging in the same thoughts, leading to the same reactive emotions, then you’ll stay in the loop.
These are the same concepts I talk about mastering with the simple practice of posture, breath and mind. When we allow ourselves to pause and breathe, we create space for that same 90-second emotional de-escalation Dr. Taylor discusses — where we can clearly assess what we’re feeling and allow those emotions to diminish in intensity before we even begin to formulate a response.
And even when you can’t manage to calm yourself in 90 seconds, breathing and relaxing your shoulders will always keep you aimed at that goal. Getting there just might take longer than you’d like.
Whether you find you’re able to practice even one full 90-second “Pause” this week or not, I hope you’ll leave a comment and let me know how it went for you.
Take good care : )
Meg
If you’d like to learn more about my approach to inner peace, sign up for my free Practical Pathways to Inner Peace videos here.
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