Is your amygdala hi-jacked?
Race morning nerves got you?
There are generally two types of people, ones that react emotionally to every situation and the other is people who think logically and act with intention. Do your emotions sometimes take over or rule your brain? Well you are not alone, especially just before a big race.
As a simple representation, to aid understanding and help us use this science, let’s call these two the human brain and the chimp brain. Can we train one to come out more than the other? Of course we can! So let’s get deeper into this.
Your human brain considers thoughts and reasoning, it understands logic and facts, helps us interact socially and show empathy or morality.
Your chimp brain is your survival instinct, it is emotionally driven, it doesn’t fight fairly and is stronger than you think. It receives sensory inputs before the human brain can process this and is how it can act without our permission (sometimes called the amygdala hi-jack).
How do we take control of our two brains on race morning? To think logically that we have done the training and are ready for this race? Or how do we join that group to do our workout for the first time and overcome our feeling of inadequacy? We need to coach our brain (and….. the more we do it the easier it becomes) things to try:
Verbalize unhelpful emotions or thoughts
Understand what is happening, recognize your being hi-jacked
Mindfulness creates awareness
Distraction and reward – think about how that finish line will feel
Shift attention to solutions – deep belly breathes will help you lower cortisol (the stress hormone) and calms you down
Emotions are contagious - speak to someone who is calmer than you
The brain is built for social interactions, use this to distract and help you talk through your hi-jacking so you can access what logic sits back there in the human brain. Use these strategies throughout your training and in every day life to coach our brains into managing ourselves better in the future.
Author – Head Coach Amanda Moore