Limbic Hijackers are everywhere. Are you one?

I got hijacked the other day. In my car. Driving to Morningside Park for my daily sunrise practice of mindful meditation and movement. Living and driving in Miami is nearly an Olympic level sporting skill at times. Thank goodness I know about PBS. Colleagues who know me from my former days as a global TV executive likely think I must be referring to Public Broadcasting Systems. Many might even think it logical that it be my new place of employment and where I'm now focusing my branding, marketing and strategic communications efforts; the geek that I am. PBS doesn't refer to where I don't work, though.

P.B.S. is an actual mindfulness practice that literally can help to slow your roll in Miami traffic or the 10 items or less line.

Especially when someone in front of you has 22 items. Why do I know? Because as a recovering perfectionist and a Virgo, I actually count the items. Mine and the shoppers before me. And I practice this little nugget of mindfulness that is one of the "Jewell's tools" in my toolkit. As odd as it may sound, I even taught the P.B.S. practice recently on the sidewalk at the edge of Biscayne Boulevard after being rear-ended. Yes, #OnlyInMiami will you find a mindfulness teacher like me sharing how to Pause. Breathe. and Smile. with someone who just nearly shoved me into Miami traffic. Why?

Because the poor chap who hit me had been rear-ended by someone else. He'd been dinged from behind by someone else whose combined impatience and anxiety overpowered his foot. That impatient foot found its way to the gas pedal, not the brake. And the anger, urgency and/or impulsiveness, all ingredients in a powerful hormonal cocktail that coursed through the hit-and-run driver's nervous system, also overpowered what his eyes could plainly see before him. That there were two cars ahead of him. That two cars ahead of him logically meant he had to wait. Evidently, Mr. Hit & Run had even tried to rise up over the edge of the curb onto the grass in order to pass where there was no road, but instead a meridian. His nervous system was in such as state as to be overwhelmed with the hormone bath he was steeping in.

The dude had a "limbic hijack". Also known as "flipping your lid".

Yep, he essentially lost control of his own internal systems which caused him to lose control of his bodily behaviors which created this nasty little fender bender between three cars and three people. Mr. Hit & Run, like all of us, has an autonomic nervous system (ANS) which regulates his internal "weather". Most of us don't even realize the 101 of being human enough to understand how our ANS has elements which "amp" us up or "chill us out". Simply put, the sympathetic nervous system handles our intense physical reactions and is the center which houses our "fight, flight or freeze" behaviors. The parasympathetic nervous system, which I call the "parachute" for our human experience, brings us back down to Earth as it is the home of our "rest & digest" behaviors. There are behaviors we can learn, train in and practice to support these beneficial parasympathetic actions of our autonomic nervous system, like relaxation, meditation, yoga, walking, coloring, reading and even washing the dishes.

However, few of us are taught about the primal part of the brain (the amygdala) which represents reaction over response. Often called the "reptilian brain" this area is considered one of the oldest and most reactive parts of being human. Fear lives in our amygdala, along with aggression and anxiety. At this juncture is a "hotwire" whose switch can "flip" or pathway can "flood" with overriding emotions that flow throughout our systems when we are triggered. Simply put, we go "offline" or we "flip our lid". At the front of our brain lives another key to being human, our prefrontal cortex. As the most evolved section of our grey matter and often called the "mammalian" part of our brain, it is what helps us gauge responses, regulate emotions, modulate our behavior, engage in executive function and rational thought.

When the internal weather of Mr. Hit & Run hit a point of no return, a "boiling point", as it were, his muscles became charged with aggression and anxiety and even the oxygen and red blood cells in his muscles gathered to fight off what was perceived as a threat. His bodily energy was geared toward his amygdala. The frontal lobes of his brain were overridden or "disabled" by his fight-flight response. He was not thinking clearly. He might not have even been able to see clearly. Think of a time when you were so aggravated or upset you couldn't even find the words to speak. We all have times when we "go offline" or "flip our lids". We are all limbic hijackers. Check out this video of how we actually #FlipOurLid: https://youtu.be/gm9CIJ74Oxw

How does "Pause. Breathe. Smile" fit in to a three-way fender bender?

When we pause, we are consciously choosing to #SlowOurRoll. That creates space in the experience we are having. As Holocaust survivor and author of "Man's Search For Meaning", Viktor Frankl identified, "between every stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom". Pause is Step #1 to being more mindful and elevating one's human capacity beyond reaction and toward response.

Pause is Step #1

Step #2 is Breathe.

While breathing is an autonomic nervous system function, learning how to "occupy your breath" or choose consciously to breathe, and learning how to, actually matters. Taking a deep breath, for example, stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and will increase your heart rate. Exhaling for a longer count than the inhale actually soothes and supports your nervous system, all elements of the parasympathetic response of "rest & digest", bringing you, like a parachute, "back down to Earth". Learning and practicing to breath at a ratio of 2-1 helps. Exhale 2x as long as your inhale. Your heart racing will calm and a clearer head results. Try adding a sigh as you exhale. Do this for a period of 3 - 5 breaths minimum. Observe your experience.

Step #3 is what many think is a silly little trick, which is to SMILE.

Your face muscles relax with the sense of a slight smile. There's even a signal that gets sent to your autonomic nervous system when we smile. Something seems to say, "everything is alright". Because our nervous systems' entire task is to keep us alive, when the signal of "its all okay" is received, not only do your facial muscles ease, so do muscles that are in your neck, shoulders and around your skull.

Even if you're not Mr. Hit & Run, I can guarantee you're a limbic hijacker. We all are. Few of us have been trained what it is like to be in our human experience and manage things like our breath, our emotions, and thus, our responses over our reactions. If you want to start today, just remember P.B.S. Pause. Breathe. Smile. It may not change the fender bender, but it will change how you experience it.

Pause. Breathe. Smile. is today's lesson in #BeingHuman101