I discussed in my previous blog how the amygdala is located in one of the oldest parts of the brain, the limbic system (our unconscious brain). The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is located in the frontal cortex (conscious awareness) which develops last and is able to inhibit the old brain. If you think about it, when we’re born all we need is to be fed and watered, changed and loved, and we need to sleep. That is all that matters, we don’t want to reason, we don’t want to negotiate, we simply need all those things to happen at our beck and call and if they don’t our emotional brain instinctively responds and lets rip until our need is met.

Now the PFC is like the CEO of our brain, i.e. higher level functioning. It helps us to reason, to make decisions and it provides context allowing us to behave appropriately. It basically helps us to take a step back and not react so instinctively, and when we’re exhibiting strong emotions, i.e. scared or desire, how do we react? With instinct, on impulse and often without consideration.

The amygdala is very powerful, of course it is, our emotions are powerful. How many times do you feel controlled by your emotions? Desire, fear, love, hate, anger, frustration, elation. When we’re in the grip of some of our most compelling emotions it’s hard to see the wood for the trees which is what the PFC helps us to do. It helps to override those all encompassing feelings and navigate our path with more awareness and clarity.

Why does the amygdala get to go first? Well all our sensory data goes to our processing centre first (thalamus) which blends it all up and sends on to the amygdala to make sense of this, sometimes heady mix, based on previous experiences, and milliseconds later it travels up to the PFC. The benefit of this is for our survival. It enables our body to respond to threat (fight or flight) before we have time to think, literally. Unconscious action (amygdala) vs conscious action (PFC). I discussed the body’s response to threat in the previous blog so refer back if you need a reminder! 

Now, if we’re not too upset the PFC gets involved and can rationally make sense of the threat, i.e. a loved one is running late home from work and you can’t get through to them on the phone. Your rational brain considers that maybe their battery has run out and you know they will arrive home as soon as possible but your emotional brain thinks they have been involved in an accident and are on death's door. The former option allows you to continue about your day without worry, the latter keeps you on high alert with that horrible feeling in the pit of your belly. 

I often veer towards the latter. Anyone else with an overactive imagination? Interestingly I know why my brain defaults to that based on previous experience and can track it back to my later teen years, not that that specifically happened but certainly waiting and worrying as part of a rather tumultuous relationship which has lent itself to unhelpful and often disproportionate ways of thinking. And that was 25 years ago.

Truly, we are fascinating creatures.

Pray tell Lindsey, what can we do to get our sensible friend, the PFC, more involved?

Well there are many ways, we simply need to be open to trying them and putting time aside to try them. Time aside? For me? What on earth do you mean? Strange concept but of the utmost importance.

We can work from both top down and bottom up approaches. Top down is brain to body, i.e. meditation/mindfulness and bottom up is body to brain, i.e. breathing and asana (posture). The importance is doing what you do with awareness, such as bringing attention to your breathing (see below) and observing/tracking your body’s sensations (temperature, itching, pulsing, buzzing…..) whether through movement or stillness.

By paying attention during body scans for example, however brief, allows us some respite from the monkey mind giving us space to manage our emotions.

Slow breathing not only helps to take us into our parasympathetic state allowing more space for the PFC to get involved and downgrade amygdala activity but slow breathing mindfully, i.e. observing the breath’s location (abdominal breathing), the rate (counting), sensation of the breath in the nostrils (warm/cool), the smoothness/depth/length etc all encourage greater PFC activity. The key word here is practicing with ‘mindfulness’ as it helps to decrease the stress response and access more effectively, the frontal lobe.

Also important to note: challenging the body to move differently and to try new things such as balances, postures, activities all helps to improve PFC function. Keep learning!

So that my friends, is your sensible friend, the PFC. Don’t allow it to become distant, nurture it by understanding it and taking time to practice mindfulness.

The above recommendations are not exhaustive and I would love to hear any ideas you have for practicing mindfulness. Let’s share the love!