Managing an Amygdala Hijack

If this topic is of particular interest to you we suggest that you talk to us about our Performance & Wellbeing Coaching.

An Amygdala hijack happens when your brain reacts to psychological stress as if it's physical danger. It's an emotional response that is immediate, overwhelming, and out of proportion with the actual stimulus because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat.

This is why Psychological Safety in the workplace matter, not only for the employees but for the wellbeing of the business itself.

Identify Triggers

Just like muscles, emotional intelligence can be strengthened. Practice makes perfect and it all starts with identifying the stressors or stimuli that trigger these responses. Once the stressors are identified, the key is to diffuse the emotional outburst before it occurs. When one encounters a stressful situation and finds their heart racing, muscles tightening and mind spiralling into a reactive mode, the absolute best thing to do is hit the “pause” button. Think of it as defensive driving in the workplace.

People are all wired differently. Those in better control of their emotions are more likely to thwart emotional hijacking than those who lack emotional control. For someone more sensitive, small things can set a person off. These stressors can surface through any of our senses and can manifest themselves physically, mentally or emotionally.

So what do you do when you realise you’re in the middle of an emotional hijack?

Take Action

Use these three tips to help you:

Take a deep breath - Before saying a word, shooting a scathing look or worse, immediately take a breath to start the calming process.
Change the setting - If at all possible, get up and move around. Do anything possible to change your environment. This serves a few purposes. By changing your environment, it makes your brain reactivate some of the pathways it had shut off to handle the emotional hijack. Secondly, it buys time to calm down and begin to think rationally.
Turn a negative into a positive - Take negative stress and use it as fuel to achieve your goals. Whatever triggered the emotional hijack may have made you mad, but you have three choices and two aren’t good. You can lash out at the person who angered you (not good), stay mad and sulk (neither good nor productive) or you can take that energy and use it as fuel to do something positive. Caffeine will only get you so far, so finding another source of fuel to get you through the day is never a bad thing, so why not take a negative and turn it into a positive?

Becoming a victim of emotional hijacking is avoidable and increasing emotional intelligence is absolutely possible. Setting your mind to doing both will help you succeed markedly in the workplace.