1. © 2015 Lumity Your Brain and Emotions Name It to Tame It

2. © 2015 Lumity Review ■What are the main regions of the brain? ■What is plasticity? ■How are teenage brains different from adult brains? ■As teenagers, what advantage do you have right now?

3. © 2015 Lumity Assignment Check-In ■Have your assignment worksheet out ■Pair up with a classmate ■Take 1 minute each and tell your partner: ■Your #1 area that you plan to focus on ■Why you chose that area – your ultimate goal ■One step you took this week to increase your focus

4. © 2015 Lumity Review of Primary Emotions ■Fear ■Hurt ■Anger ■Sadness ■Joy

5. © 2015 Lumity Review of Plasticity ■Remember the movie clip from “Inside/Out”? ■What happened while the girl sat with her parents eating dinner? ■What could the girl or her parents do differently to take advantage of their brain’s plasticity?

6. © 2015 Lumity Your Brain and Threats ■Your primitive brain prepares you to either fight, run, or hope that you’re not noticed ■Fight, flight, or freeze ■In the brain, it’s the amygdala that responds to threats - real or imaginary ■The amygdala is located in the primitive, emotional center of the brain

7. © 2015 Lumity Your Brain and Threats

8. © 2015 Lumity Your Brain and Threats ■Our primitive brain can’t tell the difference between a physical and an emotional threat ■The amygdala is triggered by the real or perceived threat and goes into a flight or fight mode ■The prefrontal cortex can help us assess a situation and respond appropriately

9. © 2015 Lumity Amygdala Hijacks ■When the amygdala is over-stimulated, it overrides or hijacks the prefrontal cortex. ■When the prefrontal cortex is hijacked, our fear and/or anger can seem to run wild. ■When we have “flipped our lid”, the brain has actually disengaged the prefrontal cortex. ■Heart races, talk very fast or go quiet; not open to hearing advice or support from others. ■We can learn to re-engage the prefontal cortex.

10. © 2015 Lumity Amygdala Hijack Strategies BREATHE

11. © 2015 Lumity Amygdala Hijack Strategies: Breathing ■Long, slow breaths ■Breathe deep into the lower part of your stomach ■Count to 4 on both the inhale and exhale ■Inhale – 1, 2, 3, 4  Exhale – 1, 2, 3, 4 and repeat

12. © 2015 Lumity Amygdala Hijack Strategies: Snow Globe

13. © 2015 Lumity Amygdala Hijack Strategies: Name It to Tame It ■Dr. Daniel Siegel, expert on emotional intelligence ■Discovered that when we deny the feeling we’re having we make an amygdala hijack stronger and longer ■Stating the emotion we are having (fear, anger, sad, etc.) helps to re-engage the prefrontal cortex and we begin to think more clearly ■Naming emotions help to build new neural pathways of understanding for how to use our emotions to our advantage

14. © 2015 Lumity Homework ■This week: Practice “Name It to Tame It”. ■Watch for when you become upset about anything and think you may in an amygdala hijack. ■Describe the situation. ■Write down the primary emotion you are feeling. ■Check Column C only if you told another person about the primary feeling that you identified. ■Check Column D only if you share with another person the story of what upset you and triggered your amygdala hijack.