Did you know that fear is one of the strongest mapping emotions in the brain. We have approximately 100 billion neurons in the brain mapping to thoughts, behaviors, patterns, and physiology. About five times more of those neurons are allocated to threat detection, or fear, than to seeing things on the bright side. The more we fear something, the more we recruit well-exercised neural maps and the stronger that fear becomes, sometimes even becoming the dominant reality and attracting in the very fear we are feeding. This fear mapping sets off a domino effect of physiological response that can eventually disrupt or cause dysfunction in our digestion, heart rate, glucose levels, muscle and viscera functioning, mental resilience, and cognitive abilities. In addition, this fear response not only impacts our well-being but also inhibits our ability to relate to others with compassion and understanding.
How will you stop feeding your fears today? Creating an intention to not feed your fears is the first step. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. Increasing resources to the reward center of our brain down regulates our fear response, allowing us to pause and stop feeding our fears. Try boosting your dopamine levels by listening to your favorite music, meditating for 5-15 minutes, enjoying physical activity, increasing creativity or eating foods that increase dopamine levels like green tea, chocolate, avocado or almonds.
To learn more effective tools to stop feeding your fears, consider watching this complimentary 60 minute video from the Neurosculpting Institute detailing a daily action plan to live a life fueled by your intention including nutrition for the brain, neuroscience research on regulating emotional response and transformational embodied practices: Art of Embodied Living and Brain Health.