Hijacked by Your Brain: How to Free Yourself When Stress Takes Over (Groundbreaking Self-Help Book on Controlling Your Stress for Better Mental Health and Wellness)

by Julian D. Ford

When you pay attention to emotions, you empower yourself by noticing the parts of life you need to prepare for. This allows you to activate your thinking center and quickly understand what’s going on. If you notice emotions when a stress reaction starts (or is about to start), this empowers your thinking center to make a plan for what to do. Emotions don’t cause you to overreact. Emotions prevent overreactions by the alarm. Emotions are a wake-up call that allows us to recognize that we need to pay attention. If we pay attention to them, they serve a clear purpose: to ensure that a situation that triggers us, and the inevitable alarm feelings, don’t overwhelm the optimal emotions we feel most deeply.