It takes 1/4 of a second-- the "secret" to stop anger in its tracks

I met some remarkable people working as a therapist in a hospital psychiatric ward. One of the most memorable was a Vietnam veteran who flew into rages. He'd lost his lower left leg in battle. But the war or being severely injured were not what made him rageful. He had always raged, even as a child. His father raged as well.

His wife was the main target of his rages. He would become uncontrollably angry at the smallest of things like forgetting where she left her keys, or spilling a beverage . . . until he learned the "1/4 second secret" to controlling unwanted anger.

To understand the 1/4 of a second secret you need to understand the fight or flight reaction.

We have an ever vigilant watchdog, a small almond shaped organ in our midbrain called the amygdala (amygdala from the Greek word for almond) that looks out for us 24/7 and alerts us to any POSSIBLE threat.

When our brain receives a threat-cue, sounds, sights, smells, touches or even our imagination, our brain wants FAST action. No waiting around for a sign of safety, no thinking things through just FLEE or stay and FIGHT (there is also a "freeze" response but that's another post).

Our amygdala floods the cells in our body with neurochemical signals to increase blood pressure, raise heart rate, send blood away from major organs to your muscles, constrict capillaries near the skin, increase breathing, and tamper down anything that isn't crucial to fight or flee for survival.

Unfortunately, our brain doesn't discriminate between real threats, imagined threats, conditioned or potential threats. That's why things that are, in reality, not threatening can become threat-cues.

Luckily, many people tend to go with flight more easily than fight. But for those whose brain directs them to fight here's the "1/4 second secret" that stopped the vet's rages:

The thinking part of our brain, the prefrontal cortex, can STOP the fight or flight response. We have 1/4 of a second to interrupt the signal from the threatening stimuli (sounds, sights, smells, touches or our imagination). In that 1/4 split second tell the amygdala "Stop" or "I'm safe" and take a deep breath.

If we don't "catch it" in 1/4 of a second a neurochemical cascade will flood our cells. Once the cells are flooded it takes 15 - 20 minutes for the neurochemicals to metabolize out of our body (provided no new information saying the threat continues to exist is received).

This is what the vet learned to do:

• First, he identified the triggers that sent him into a rage.

• Second, when he anticipated a trigger he used his pre-frontal cortex to say "stop" to the amygdala.

• Third, if he failed to anticipate the trigger and felt the stress response building he would take a 20 minute walk to speed up metabolizing out the stress response.

I admired his remarkable determination. It took him 1/4 of a minute at a time to stop his rage response, change his marriage and improve his life.

Do you have a "secret technique" to control your stress response?

(PA) #anger

Are we hard-wired to be lazy?

My earliest memory was my mother waking me up. It was dark outside and chilly inside. I don't remember how many times she came into my room to get me out of bed. I do remember pulling the covers over my head and refusing to get up in the dark and cold to get ready for pre-school . . .

Mom was the first to give up in our morning battle and I started kindergarten with "learning deficits". Decades later I continue to not want to greet the new day until it is DAYtime. Morning and me ain't buddies.

Furthermore, people, like my husband, who bound out of bed alert and cheerful are jarring at best and obnoxious at worst.

I take umbrage at being labeled "lazy" by you early-morning-worshipers who think those of us who understand that moving any extremity in increments larger than a few inches is not natural before 10 am.

NOW! FINALLY I'm vindicated!!! Read this excerpt!

"As anyone who struggles to get out of bed in the morning knows, fighting laziness is a losing battle. From beneath the covers, the world outside seems colder; the commute to work seems longer; the number of e-mails to answer unbearably high. Authority figures may chalk our lethargy to lack of self-discipline, but . . .

. . . new research suggests that we’re just being our true selves: Choosing the path of least resistance, scientists argue, is hard-wired into our brains." (What a relief. I thought my wiring was simply "lose")

"Outlining the results of their work in a new paper in eLife, the researchers conclude that human brains seem to be wired for laziness. “Our brain tricks us into believing the low-hanging fruit really is the ripest,” said lead author Nobuhiro Hagura, Ph.D.,. . . ”

"When we make decisions to act (or not), the brain thinks like an economist and runs a cost-benefit analysis. If the “cost to act,” as the researchers call it, is too high, it can bias our decision-making process, making us less likely to do things.

Applied cleverly, their findings can help us do things that we should be doing — and those that we should be avoiding. For example, going to the gym in the morning could seem more effortless if you sleep in your sweats, just as stashing your booze on a hard-to-reach shelf might make drinking it seem like more effort than its worth. There’s no guarantee that these hacks will work, but . . . "

". . . if there’s one thing we can count on, it’s that we’ll always take the easy route when it’s available — and becoming less lazy may simply come down to avoiding that option altogether."

If you don't believe us read the article:

: Neuroscientists Just Gave Lazy Humans a Free Pass

How doing art, (ANYTHING CREATIVE) helps your brain

Almost without exception, serious artists describe how they carry a sketchbook and draw - on public transportation, in doctor's offices, in the car, on land, sea and air . . . wherever they are, wherever they go. I've tried it and failed. Obviously, I'm not serious artist. I am, however a proponent of creative expression for health and well-being. (We have posted many tutorials on easy ways of doing "art" for the non-artist. Check the links below)

These artists often explain that when they create it clears their head, makes them feel calmer and more relaxed. Research supports their experience.

It turns out there's a lot happening in our minds and bodies when we make art or engage in any form of creative expression: drawing, painting, collaging, sculpting clay, writing poetry, cake decorating, knitting, scrapbooking — the sky's the limit.

Judy doing art

"Anything that engages your creative mind — the ability to make connections between unrelated things and imagine new ways to communicate — is good for you," says Girija Kaimal. She's a professor at Drexel University and a researcher in art therapy, leading art sessions with members of the military suffering from traumatic brain injury and caregivers of cancer patients.

Everybody, no matter what your skill level, is something you should try to do on a regular basis. Here's 5 reasons why:

1. Creative expression helps you imagine a more hopeful future

Our brain is a predictive machine.

Art's ability to flex our imaginations may be one of the reasons why we've been making art since we were cave-dwellers and might serve an evolutionary purpose. Girija Kaimal,art therapists holds the theory that art-making helps us navigate problems that might arise in the future.

Her theory builds off of an idea developed in the last few years — that our brain is a predictive machine. The brain uses "information to make predictions about we might do next — and more importantly what we need to do next to survive and thrive.

"When you make art, you're making a series of decisions — what kind of drawing utensil to use, what color, how to translate what you're seeing onto the paper. And ultimately, interpreting the images — figuring out what it means."

"So what our brain is doing every day, every moment, consciously and unconsciously, is trying to imagine what is going to come and preparing yourself to face that," she says.

"Kaimal has seen this play out at her clinical practice as an art therapist with a student who was severely depressed. "She was despairing. Her grades were really poor and she had a sense of hopelessness," she recalls."

The student took out a piece of paper and colored the whole sheet with thick black marker. Kaimal didn't say anything.

"She looked at that black sheet of paper and stared at it for some time," says Kaimal. "And then she said, 'Wow. That looks really dark and bleak.' "

And then something amazing happened, says Kaimal. The student looked around and grabbed some pink sculpting clay. And she started making ... flowers: "She said, you know what? I think maybe this reminds me of spring."

Through that session and through creating art, says Kaimal, the student was able to imagine possibilities and see a future beyond the present moment in which she was despairing and depressed.

"This act of imagination is actually an act of survival," she says. "It is preparing us to imagine possibilities and hopefully survive those possibilities."

2. Creativity activates the reward center of our brain

For some people, making art can be intimidating - I'm not an artist. What would I make? What if it sucks? Studies show that despite those fears, "engaging in any sort of visual expression results in the reward pathway in the brain being activated," says Kaimal. "Which means that you feel good and it's perceived as a pleasurable experience."

She and a team of researchers measured blood flow to the brain's reward center, the medial prefrontal cortex. In 26 participants as they completed three art activities: coloring in a mandala, doodling and drawing freely on a blank sheet of paper. there was an increase in blood flow to this part of the brain when the participants were making art.

This research suggests making art may have benefit for people dealing with health conditions that activate the reward pathways in the brain, like addictive behaviors, eating disorders or mood disorders.

3. Creative expression lowers stress

There's evidence that making art can lower stress and anxiety. Researchers measured cortisol levels of 39 healthy adults. Cortisol is a hormone that helps the body respond to stress.

They found that 45 minutes of creating art in a studio setting with an art therapist significant lowered cortisol levels.

The research also showed that there were no differences in health outcomes between people who identify as experienced artists and people who don't. So no matter your skill level, you'll be able to feel all the good things that come with doing creative expression.

4. Creativity lets you focus deeply - creates a meditative state

"Ultimately, says Kaimal, making art should induce what the scientific community calls "flow" — the wonderful thing that happens when you're in the zone. "It's that sense of losing yourself, losing all awareness. You're so in the moment and fully present that you forget all sense of time and space,"

And what's happening in your brain when you're in flow state? "It activates several networks including relaxed reflective state, focused attention to task and sense of pleasure," she says. Kaimal points to a 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, which found that flow was characterized by increased theta wave activity in the frontal areas of the brain — and moderate alpha wave activities in the frontal and central areas.

What kind of "art" should you try?

Not into painting or knitting? There are types of art appear to yield greater health benefits than others.

CLAY: Kaimal says modeling clay, for example, is wonderful to play around with. "It engages both your hands and many parts of your brain in sensory experiences," she says. "Your sense of touch, your sense of three-dimensional space, sight, maybe a little bit of sound — all of these are engaged in using several parts of yourself for self-expression, and likely to be more beneficial."

COLORING: A number of studies have shown that coloring inside a shape — specifically a pre-drawn geometric mandala design — is more effective in boosting mood than coloring on a blank paper or even coloring inside a square shape.

There's no one medium or art activity that's "better" than another.

5. Creativity helps process your emotions

It's important to note: if you're going through serious mental health distress, you should seek the guidance of a professional art therapist.

However, if you're making art to connect with your own creativity, decrease anxiety and hone your coping skills, creative expression can help. For example:

Draw or scribble lines, shapes and colors translate your emotional experience.

Focus on feelings or sensations that you feel in your body, your memories.

Pick magazine pictures that intuitively catch your attention for a collage.

"Creativity in and of itself is important for remaining healthy, remaining connected to yourself and connected to the world," * Read for further suggestions:

*Christianne Strang, professor of neuroscience at the University of Alabama Birmingham and the former president of the American Art Therapy Association.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/11/795010044/feeling-artsy-heres-how-making-art-helps-your-brain