In all likelihood, you have found yourself hijacked at school. You had plans, and something happened to derail them. Parents demand something that is unrealistic. Emotional stressed students have a melt down or create behavior challenges. You are overwhelmed with too many demands on your time, attention and abilities.
The result? Stress. Anger. A feeling of hopelessness or helplessness. You feel out of control.
Your brain gets hijacked and you start working from your amygdala, the part of the brain that deals with emotions. The amygdala, sometimes known as “the lizard brain,” isn’t capable of rational thought. It is reactive, and floods your body with adrenaline and stress hormones. The amygdala’s job is to keep you alive. It is sending signals to fight or flight. When our brains hit the panic button, reason goes out the window.
Walking around with all those stress hormones running through your body isn’t doing you any good. You need a mindset shift!
How do you get back to your rational, logical mind, the part controlled by your prefrontal cortex? How do you stop the lizard from driving the bus?
Todays mindset shift tip comes from Shawn Achor, author of the books The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential.
Draw two big circles. The first circle is our self -awareness circle. Identify all those negative feelings and write them in the circle. Brain scans show that getting negative feelings down in writing diminishes their effect- it takes logic and reasoning part of our brain to use words. This immediately diminishes the power of amygdala. It is the first step towards getting back in control.
The second circle is your circle of control. Look at your current situation. Identify which aspects of your situation you can control- and which you can’t. Then, let go of the stressors that you can’t control. Identify the areas that you can control – these are the places where your actions can have an impact.
Pick one small thing you can control and do it.
Concentrating your efforts on small things that you can control helps you to realize that you can make a difference. Positive action increases our positive mindset and gives us a greater confidence in our abilities.
This is one way to shift your mindset from negative, stressed and feeling ineffective to feeling positive and in control. If you need a mindset shift, why not give it a try?
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