Emotional Brain Training is a method of rewiring the brain to promote optimal processing of stress. The method is based on six tools, one to identify the level of stress or "brain state" on a 5-point scale. For each level there is a different pathway in the brain that most effectively eases stress and promotes positive emotions.
One way of thinking about the brain is in different layers of function. The most primitive is the lower part of the brain and its core. The limbic system is the next layer of the human brain and is the seat of emotions, relationships, spirituality and reward. The newest layer is the neocortical brain, the seat of consciousness, planning and decision-making.
Each of these brain areas has different strengths and it is how the whole brain works together - neural integration - that supports our survival. The neocortex enables us to think magnificent thoughts, the limbic system to love and feel loved, and the primitive brain responds to stressors with amazing speed, adjusting bodily processes to offer the best chances of survival.
When the brain perceives a survival level threat, it shifts the flow of energy toward the more primitive areas, creating the quickest response and fulfilling our first purpose which is to survive. When our minds think that our survival is in danger and decides to shut off our ability to be creative or sense others emotions and instead just focus on making very quick instinctive decisions.
When this happens, both the limbic system and the neocortex stop working and our ability to process emotions and our ability to rationally think stops because we are not using that part of our brains.
The initial stress activates memories formed during other periods of stress. Memories or wires are "state specific", that is, we are more likely to arouse other memories that were stored in that state, even though they don't "match" the current situation.
The secondary stress, the arousal of wires or connections that amplify the stress experienced, is not experienced as a memory. There is no "source attribution" or feeling of remembering something.
For example when you experience rejection, the wiring from being rejected by other loves, or being bullied as school, or being criticized by a teacher, or negative experiences with mom, dad and siblings is aroused. Again, we don't sense that we are remembering, but nonetheless, the wires cause us to overreact. Even if we didn't like that old lover that much anyway, but you'd never know it. We plummet to Brain State 5, and it feels as if our life is on the line.
In Brain State 5, it is perfectly normal and universal either to be hyper-aroused or blank out. Thinking is irrational. We are confused. Emotions are extreme or strangely absent. Intimacy is impossible to find. We tend to merge or distance. Our behaviors are extreme, and tend to be addictive.
When the brain is working as it should, the limbic brain flows input from all the senses, from the body, emotional memories, unconscious expectations and thoughts. In an ongoing flow of functionality it sizes up all the potential threats and rewards, prioritizes them, then settles on an emotion. That emotion is the message to the neocortical brain and directs us to meet our most important need. The strongest emotion points to the most important need.
The brain is in one of five states at all times, ranging from stress to joy. For each brain state there is a specific pathway that most effectively processes stress back to well-being. Learn how to switch your brain from stress to joy. Rewire the brain for lasting results and change the brain's set point toward well-being.
Laurel Mellin, MA, RD is an Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF. She is the founder of Emotional Brain Training (EBT), a method of treating obesity and stress symptoms that equips individuals with tools based on an integration of neuroscience and attachment theory to decrease the frequency and duration of the stress response and to favor high-level well-being.
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