{"id":307,"date":"2011-09-01T16:13:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T23:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/?p=307"},"modified":"2012-01-07T14:20:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T21:20:32","slug":"the-power-of-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/the-power-of-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-308\" href=\"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=308\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-308\" title=\"Voldemort.2\" src=\"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Voldemort.2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>We never make our best decisions from a place of fear.\u00a0\u00a0 The amygdala, that little guy in the middle of our brain kicks in &#8211; and we can just forget about it after that!\u00a0 Our left brain might as well have hopped\u00a0a jet to Katmandu, for al thel impact it will have.\u00a0\u00a0 When our fear is triggered, we automatically\u00a0shoot\u00a0into basic survival, fight-or-flight mode.\u00a0 Relationship stress &#8211; the terribly painful conflicts with which we struggle &#8211; activates the amygdala as sure as the saber toothed tiger coming across the path of our uber-ancient forebears.\u00a0 Marital therapist Brent Atkinson in his excellent <em><a title=\"Atkinson's Book\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Emotional-Intelligence-Couples-Therapy-Relationships\/dp\/039370386X\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1314917206&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">Emotional Intelligence in Couples Therapy<\/a><\/em> speaks about as well as any of the intensity with which we are swept up in the reactive and painful fear that infects both people in the throes of intimate conflict.\u00a0 While it is usually easier for us to say we are <em>angry<\/em> rather than fearful, it may not matter <em>how <\/em>you characterize these intense emotions.\u00a0 Either way, the right brain and amygdala dominate our mental process, our left brain shuts down and our ability to manage conflict is reduced to zero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We never make our best decisions from a place of fear.\u00a0\u00a0 The amygdala, that little guy in the middle of our brain kicks in &#8211; and we can just forget about it after that!\u00a0 Our left brain might as well have hopped\u00a0a jet to Katmandu, for al thel impact it will have.\u00a0\u00a0 When our fear <a href=\"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/the-power-of-fear\/\">Continue reading &#8594;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions\/309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}