90 seconds

DeAnna Willman photo Veri Ivanova @unsplash

“…choose this day whom you will serve.” Joshua 24:15

We talked last week about the amygdala in the brain and how its main job is to detect danger to the body. We also touched on how the amygdala can become hypersensitive when our thought life is filled with fear (worry, anxiety, stress). The continued signals being sent out by the hypersensitive amygdala cause the brain and body to become toxic with negative chemicals and energy. This in turn causes dis-ease within the body as they repeatedly flood every cell in the body.

I challenged you last time to confront one of your fears. What is it that keeps you stressed? What causes anxiety? What is it that causes you to worry? Social situations? Finances? Relationships? Fear of rejection? Fear of failure? Fear of not being enough? Whatever it is that keeps you awake at night; that causes you dread during the day, that causes you to avoid certain things/situations or that sucks the joy out of your life- that is fear and it causes dis-ease. I hope you were able to confront and give over to our Savior at least one of those fears as you worked on capturing and taking that fear and surrounding thoughts captive to the obedience of Yeshua. Praise Yah!

The amygdala has second job within the brain. It assigns emotions to experiences. It will send this message to the hypothalamus which is responsible for signaling the release of energy and chemicals (hormones) in response to our thoughts. But that message is also sent to the hippocampus which is controlled by the conscious mind, and will connect the signal from the amygdala to past experiences and memories stored in the non-conscious, to determine whether the amygdala chose the correct emotion for the present experience. It is here that the conscious mind can decide to accept or reject the emotion the amygdala has assigned to the thought, belief, or experience. This happens so fast, it could have taken place multiple times in the time it took you to read how it works. But within 90 seconds you can choose how you will feel about something happening or about a memory or a thought or a person.

Let’s say that you are driving in the right-hand lane. Suddenly someone in the far left lane cuts across two lanes of traffic, directly in front of you, and rushes off the exit ramp just ahead of you. Your amygdala will have determined that you were not in danger, but it may send the signal to the hypothalamus that you are angry. Angry that someone so carelessly cut you off in traffic! The hypothalamus does not wait to send out the corresponding signal for anger to the rest of the body. The sympathetic nervous system kicks in and your heart rate goes up, your eyes and arteries dilate, your reproduction and digestion system shut down, and you feel blood rush to your extremities. You are ready to fight the person who cut you off in traffic!

But, within 90 seconds, you can literally choose not to be angry. You can decide instead to give the person the benefit of the doubt. You can refuse to let another person’s actions put you into anger and frustration. That decision, made within in the region of the hippocampus (in conscious mind), will tell the amygdala to reject that assignment. You will choose instead to let it go and enjoy the rest of your drive. If that is what you decide to do, that thought will correct the the amygdala which will then tell the hypothalamus, “forget that assignment… this is the emotion assigned to this experience/moment/etc. instead.” And the hypothalamus will stop the signals meant for preparing the body to go into fight or flight and will send out signals to engage the parasympathetic nervous system allowing the body to go into rest and recovery.

Let’s say that you have experienced rejection from several people in your life. You are at a relatively new job and you notice that your co-workers tend to eat together and make plans to hang out together after work. They haven’t yet asked you to join them. The conscious mind may decide “this is rejection.” The amygdala will tell the hypothalamus “we’re being rejected! I’m assigning sadness and resentment to this moment.” The hypothalamus will immediately send out the signal for chemicals and energy corresponding to sadness and pain to flood the body. The hippocampus (in conscious mind) receives the signal from the amygdala and compares this moment to other experiences in your life when you were truly rejected. It may say, “Yep! This is very similar to those other times!” You then consciously choose to accept the thought and emotion as true. “That’s right. It is similar to those other times. They have rejected me without even getting to know me. How will I work in a place where I am rejected? You then slink off into a corner of the office to eat alone and leave the office as soon as possible at the end of the day, avoiding your co-workers.

Within that 90 seconds, the conscious mind can decide from the external and internal information to believe and agree with the idea and emotions of being rejected. Or, the conscious mind can decide while the situation may seem similar, perhaps it is not the same. “Perhaps if I seek out their company and ask if they will include me, they will include me. They have worked together for several years it is only natural for them to want to be in each other’s company. I am new here and perhaps I have not done my part to come across as friendly and desirous of a relationship. I will not accept this sadness and pain without evidence that this thought is true.”

90 seconds. Feelings are real, but that doesn’t make them true. And God gave us the amazing ability to choose how we will ultimately feel about any thought, memory, experience, person, etc… Remember we talked about how we can choose to change or even get rid of the blueprint that came with the building materials.

This week practice taking captive every thought and emotion. Admit your emotion or thought. Ask yourself if that thought or emotion is true. What evidence do you have that it is or isn’t true? When you have a strong emotion, allow yourself 90 seconds to acknowledge and feel that emotion before acting. Then use the gift God gave you to decide whether you even want to feel that emotion, let alone act upon it. If not, then reject it! Find evidence that it isn’t true. You can choose to be in control of your emotions rather than letting them control you. All glory be to Yah!

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Messiah…” 2 Corinthians 10:5