Excerpt of Spiral Up! Discover the Power of Simple Tools to Relieve Stress & Feel Good Now

A meticulous analysis of national health data has shown startling rises in death rates for middle-aged white Americans. Surprisingly, these deaths are not from infectious or chronic diseases, but from emotional diseases. Clearly, it is time for a focal shift related to our health; it is time for our emotional health needs to take center stage. Luckily, there is a very specific part of our brain that controls our emotional responses. By targeting this emotional center, we can learn to improve our emotional state, decrease our stress levels, and improve our health. The emotional center of our brain dictates how we process the experiences of daily life, and over time it develops habitual responses to stress. If the brain’s response to stress is ineffective, it can lead to stress-related conditions such as anxiety, depression, overeating, PTSD, sleep disturbances, digestive problems and headaches. In fact, the emotional brain in stress is the root cause of 80 percent of health problems. Training the Emotional Brain Discoveries in the last five years have shown that emotional circuits within the brain are highly plastic, or amenable to change; and research shows that, when we use specific emotional tools to activate and change them, we can train the brain to process stress more effectively. Over the last 30 years, I have developed a neuroscience-based program called Emotional Brain Training (EBT) that gives us the tools to make positive changes in the emotional brain. The method...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Anxiety Binge Eating Creativity Diet & Nutrition Eating Disorders General Healthy Living Psychology Self-Help Treatment behavioral symptoms EBT Emotion Feeling Mental Disorder Nervous System Neuroscience neuroscience-base Source Type: news