Rewiring the Traumatized, Triune (3 Part) Brain during this pandemic
COVID-19 is scary, it’s strange, it’s changed our world, our patterns of behaviors and taken away our perception of power and control in our daily lives. I’ve recently done a Facebook LIVE presentation on “The Animal inside- Feeling Trapped.” Embarrassingly, this presentation was themed from Netflix’s Tiger King, but I related something the Nemesis, Carole Baskin said about big cats to how we are experiencing COVID-19. We are feeling trapped! Big cats pace when they are feeling stressed, we, as humans have lost our freedom of choice and movement and we are feeling stressed and trapped. What do animals do when they feel they are trapped? FIGHT for survival! How do you, as a person, feeling trapped in your home show your stress?
When we perceive a situation in our environment to be threatening (trapped) we automatically respond from the survival, lizard part of our brain. The Lizard Brain is great for keeping us alive but it is not very smart. The smart part of our brain is the Neocortex, The Human Brain. The Human Brain is responsible for predicting that we will be okay (we are safe). In the middle, we have the Mammal Brain responsible for our emotions and memories. We are all feeling intense, big emotions right now, produced from the Mammal Brain. It is likely that we are mostly functioning from the survival and emotional parts of our brain during this pandemic. In order to be functioning at a higher level our goal is to be functioning from the rational, Human Brain.
Imprisonment and feeling trapped can be a traumatic experience. Trauma and stress lie along the same continuum; stress becomes traumatic when we perceive ourselves to be powerless, helpless or lacking control. Trauma has a significant impact on the triune brain. Executive functioning of the Human Brain is degraded, less effective during chronic stress and trauma. The Amygdala, which is a part of the Limbic System of the Mammal Brain is where stress lives and is the alarm center, warning our body of danger. The Amygdala increases when exposed to prolonged stress which causes our body to be in an alarmed state of arousal. The Reptilian Brain is very active when we perceive threat, we go into a “Fight, Flight Freeze” state of being which can cause us to behave and respond in atypical manners. We might find it difficult to calm down, act rationally, relax or think clearly when our body is in this survival state.
In order to calm our body, mind and feel safe we need to work on rewiring our brain from responding from the Reptilian Brain to the Human Brain. Remember, the Human Brain is responsible for cognition and prediction; if we can correctly understand a situation and predict that we will be okay, our body, our nervous system and our mind will then be able to calm down. We can then change our patterns of behaviors from survival to preserving and enjoying safety. Rewiring the brain takes a lot of practice so please be patient when you begin practicing these skills.
If you are experiencing significant distress, please call and seek professional advice. Many therapists are trained in specific techniques like Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Eye Motion Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help you overcome a traumatic experience. Below I have listed some activities you can practice at home that will help rewire your traumatized brain during this challenging time:
1. Breathing activities: My favorite breathing activity goes like this- Breathe in your nose for 3, Breathe out your mouth for 5, Say, “I will be okay.” (Or say a different mantra you like). Counting and speaking activates the Neocortex and exhaling longer than your inhale activates the parasympathetic part of your nervous system- which calms the body.
2. Mindfulness: Research shows 3 hours of mindfulness or meditative practice improves brain function. With mindfulness practice, the white matter and gray matter in the brain increase, improving the functioning of the Neocortex. The white matter is responsible for connection and communication. If the white matter increases than communication is faster- therefore better. The gray matter is like the “muscle of the brain” if this is more dense than it can function more easily.
3. Meditation: Meditation improves the work of the hippocampus, our memory recall and storage system in the Limbic System. Meditation can shrink the Amygdala allowing you to stay less alarmed and calm when you experience stress triggers.
4. Cross-Lateral Movement: Any time your arms or legs cross the midline of your body, the right and left brain hemispheres communicate. If both hemispheres of your brain are communicating, you will have more power and ability to manage stressful situations. Engaging in twisting activities like yoga or stretching, sitting with pretzel arms or crisscrossed legs are all examples of Cross-Lateral Movement.
During this challenging time, we are all likely functioning more from our Lizard and Mammal parts of our brain which is leading to undesirable behaviors. Working on rewiring your brain can help you to manage your responses to this stressful and what feels to be trapped situation. If you find these activities don’t work right away, try them again. The skills gained from these activities take time and practice to achieve and the rewiring takes time and repetition to develop.