Emotional Responses

We wanted to give you some basic information on how the mind is wired to look for threats or rewards in our environment, and what this means for your healthy eating plans.

Anxiety, worry and stress are emotional responses to a threat.  This threat can be real (ie. A tiger about to pounce on us) or imagined/perceived (i.e. we feel we might starve, or might never be able to eat our favourite food again).

These threat responses are designed to keep us out of danger.  When the alert systems are triggered, cortisol and adrenalin are secreted as a warning for us to take protective measures.

We have a tendency to over-estimate any threats, as this gives us a guarantee that actual risks are never missed.  Unfortunately for us, this same process is given to ambiguous threats.  Negative thinking and negative self-talk also send the same alarm messages, interfering with our ability to make rational decisions (especially about ourselves).

When we are in a negative emotion, we go into Fight or Flight mode.  When we’re in this threat mode, we also tend to see more negatives and this spirals out of control (and this happened…. And then this …. And then this etc).  So when we worry, our worries seem a lot bigger to us than they might ever be in reality.

And during times of stress, we’re likely to put on more weight, as the body’s response is to store calories in preparation for the threat.

The answer lies in a positive state of mind.

Before we give you an exercise to get you to start “training” the positivity muscle of your brain, let’s give you some information on what your brain is doing and needs helps with.

Part of our brain (the Amygdala) monitors for threats (physical or imagined), checking against similar experiences that you need to be wary of and/or setting us up to take action.  When active, examples include anxiety, negative memories, fight or flight response.  When this is inactive, you feel safe and secure.

Another part (the Ventral Striatum) is looking out for rewards/pleasure, what you want to do more of, safety and security.  When this is inactive, you don’t feel very rewarded or motivated.

Both these are regulated up and down in relation to one another, depending on the situation.  Sometimes you need the threat response to be high (eg. if there’s an oncoming lorry and you need to get out of the way), sometimes you need a balance between the two (eg. going on a scary ride, where there’s fear and exhilaration) and sometimes you need feel safer and secure in your situation (to be more creative and to get your mind and body working in harmony for health).

Getting the right balance of emotions appropriate for the occasion is important, taking control of the regulation between the two parts of the brain.  When I discuss this with my clients, I often use the analogy of a see-saw.  To reduce anxiety/worry (i.e. threat mode) down, you need to increase the reward/pleasure mode.

For example, if you are feeling threatened and your mind has gone blank, heart racing, anxiety overwhelm, then you need to adjust the measures: lower the “threat” measures and increase “reward”. 

If you find that concerns over health are resulting in a psychologically threatening time (eg when you’re feeling  angry, insecure, uncertain, anxious, demotivated etc), then there are a few ways to increase the “reward” (simultaneously reducing the “threat”) to adjust the see-saw.

One of the best ways is to think of the positives the situation is giving you.  There are always positive ways of thinking about every situation – you just have to find them.

Whenever you are suffering negativity, and need a boost – think of the positives.

Train your brain in preparation by doing the following exercise:

• On a daily basis (this can be first thing in the morning, last thing at night, or any other suitable time you prefer) – set an alarm if that helps you remember to do it.
• Write out 6 positives from that day.
• The positives don’t have to be significant. They can be major or minor positives, as long as they’re positive eg. The sun was shining, I saw a robin, I won a new client at work etc etc.
• Remember that the mind hears the actual words you are saying eg. Don’t think of a blue elephant – you think of a blue elephant. Therefore the positives need to be what you want your mind to really think about.
• Doing this every day helps you filter more positives, see more positives, and keep you in a better frame of mind for changing your health for the better.

In addition to your daily positives, you may need instant resolution to negative thinking.  For this, you could try the following techniques as and when required:

• Calm yourself with deep breathing.
• Identify and label the emotions that you are feeling in the situation. This helps to stop the emotion escalating and going into overwhelm.
• Reframe – what other way can I look at this? Very important step, this one.*
• Focus on the positive, what could you get out of this situation, what are the rewards?
• Utilise other people as positive resource by thinking about how they might behave in this situation.
• After the event, write down a description of the situation that triggered the negative thoughts. Then review again and identify fair, balanced thoughts about the situation.  Discuss with others if it helps.
• What might you want to do differently next time? Can you identify patterns of behaviour from particular individuals you are working with which you can be better prepared for next time?

*”Reframing” is a term we use to describe the process of highlighting the good in every situation and thinking of challenges as opportunities.  Reframing how you view what causes your anxiety can help you overcome it and enables you to build resistance, cope better and succeed with your health targets.

Have fun, and let us know how you get on.