The Science Behind It

The following posts highlight the latest (extraordinary) neurobiology and cognitive-psychology research, which has one important implication: There are neurobiological explanations for the way that we think, feel, and react. So when we develop psychological conditions like anxiety or depression, it is not our fault. We are doing the best we can with the brains that nature gave us. 

But the greatest new discovery is that we can change our brain chemistry and structure, no matter how old we are.

Though guilt and shame are similar and often used interchangeably, recent neuroscience research suggests that they are very different emotional processes. They both underpin self-correction but they are made up of different brain chemistry, are based on different beliefs, and motivate different reactions (1).   Guilt arises when we think that we have done damage […]

Stress is the way that our mind and body react to demands or threats. Whereas anxiety is worry about what might happen in the future, stress is the response to what is happening now.   Why We Experience Stress   Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has been studying emotions for over 30 years. Damasio suggests that all […]

    Perhaps you’ve heard of the amygdala. It is the lightning-fast brain section responsible for detecting potential threats and prompting fear responses, such as fight-or-flight. The amygdala sends signals to the hypothalamus to release bursts of stress hormones (such as cortisol and adrenaline), which promote arousal and prompt us to enact safety strategies.   […]

Fear is the physical, mental, and emotional reaction to a threat that is present or imminent. Anxiety is caused by imagining threats or possible future danger. Our threat perception can be rational and reasonable or wildly disproportionate and unrealistic. However, our brains have difficulty telling the difference between real and imagined threats.

Depression Head

Most of our emotional brain function happens in the Limbic system where neurotransmitters such as serotonin (which stabilises mood), dopamine (makes us feel pleasure) and GABA (calms anxiety) all play a role in our emotional wellbeing. Sometimes our complex emotional system falters and we receive either excessive or insufficient amounts of these neurotransmitters and depression […]

 In the simplest terms, all stuckness, hesitation, resistance, or inability to change can be traced back to the emotion of fear. Sometimes this fear is well founded and easy to name, but sometimes it is outside of our awareness. To understand how fear underlies our stuckness, let´s look at how all emotions work together.