How understanding your brain will help you regulate your emotions :: Episode 49

Apr 16, 2021

In this episode of Counselor On Call, we are talking about how God designed your brain.

Understanding how God designed your brain will help you better understand yourself and why you do the things you do. Learning about the brain also creates a deeper connection with others and with God.

Here are 4 parts of the brain we discussed today, based on a model created by Dr. Dan Siegel.

The brain stem:

• It controls fundamental body functions such as breathing, eye movements, blood pressure, heartbeat, and swallowing
• Responsible for the fight, flight, freeze response
  

The limbic stem: the emotional part of the brain,

• When we perceive a threat, the amygdala sounds an alarm, releasing a cascade of chemicals in the body. Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol flood our system, immediately preparing us for fight or flight
  
• How we focus our attention
  
• How we remember things

The cortex the higher part of the brain.

We can call this the executive region - we want this part to remain regulated in order to maintain connection with each other. We’ll talk in a minute about what happens when we get dysregulated and how this keeps us from connecting with ourselves and others.

• helps you to manage and mention your emotions
  
• Helps with thinking and planning
  

The prefrontal cortex -  also called the “master controller”:

• regulate the body, the ability to tune into someone else which allows compassion or empathy (what happens when we feel rejected or triggered),
  
• response flexibility:  allows you to put a space between an impulse and an action,
  
• the ability to calm fears - teach your upstairs part of the brain to calm fears
  

Hope you loved this episode as much as I did! Be sure to subscribe to Apple and while you’re there, add 5 stars on a review! Also, don’t forget to share this episode with a friend.

Have a great week!

Melissa