Has Anyone Seen My Amygdala?

Lots of great response from readers on yesterday’s post/short story, Spillage – the tale of my recent “grocery store learning incident.”  I would like to thank one very special contributor, Patricia Timpanaro, who is at once an EQ coach (Emotional Intelligence), a certified True Colors advisor, and what else . . . oh yes, my own mother!   I am thankful for the almost-nag-free wisdom and her insight as to what really happened at the HEB:

Jeff, I really enjoyed this and must tell you once again that you really tested your Emotional Intelligence (EQ) which I have been telling you about forever; you need to take their course.  

They call what happened to you “amygdala hijack”.  The amygdala (pronounced ah-mig-dala) is the tiny place in your brain that controls and monitors emotional responses. In order to avoid a hijack, EQ folks advise a 6 second, not a 5 second pause. This gives your frontal lobe a chance to add some reasoning to your emotional response. Together cognition and emotion make a great team and prevent reactions like the one you had.

My favorite quip:  “Together cognition and emotion make a great team and prevent reactions like the one you had.”

That’s so true.  Without having investigated EQ completely, it makes perfect sense to hone our EQ as well as our IQ.  After all, how many times have our feelings railroaded our thinking?