Brain Power!

Prefrontal Cortex: the ‘thinking’ part of the brain The PFC is in charge of making decisions, thinking, learning and problem solving.

Amygdala: the ‘feeling’ part of the brain The amygdala acts as a security guard to keep you safe. It warns our body of danger and stress to protect us. It also blocks information from going to your PFC so you can react in a flash.

When we are in a calm and safe state, our amygdala can communicate with the ‘leader’ part of our brain to make good decisions. When we are in a negative emotional state where we feel stressed, anxious, or fearful, the amygdala fires to warn us (our fight, flight, freeze response) and cannot communicate with our ‘leader’ part of our brain for clear decision making.

Don’t let your amygdala hijack your PFC! The problem is that your amygdala can’t tell a stressful situation from a true emergency and it can cause you to react without thinking. Have you ever done or said something that you regretted when you were angry?

Hippocampus: our memory saver Our filing cabinet that stores all of our experiences and everything we learn.

Memories, Feelings, Reactions Having a bad experience can effect the way you react to new situations. Your hippocampus remembers the situation causing your amygdala to respond in a way to keep you safe.

An example of an amygdala hijacking

Baby Jezabelle the Christmas Puppy

My nephew had a bad experience with a dog when he was little My nephew had a bad experience with a dog when he was little. When he met Jezabelle, instead of seeing a cute puppy, this is what my he saw and reacted with fear. Because of what was stored in his hippocampus, his amygdala tried to protect him from what it perceived as

Jezabelle Today