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Amygdala Hijack causes a big problem on the brains functioning by shutting it down. The brain shuts down when say someone makes you really mad and the cortisol and adrenaline start pumping thru your body, causing lots of havoc on the body and the brain, which is also called the Amygdala hangover.  Amygdala Hijack may very well cause you to do things that you really think you would never do to anyone even loved ones because you are having such a bad day, for instance a mom trying to potty train her 3 year old and she refuses to go, Rebecca was tired hot and just screamed in her daughters face not knowing she was doing it. Also a man named Bryan Stefanski dragged his four year old daughter to the ocean on the Daytona beach and illegibly tried to drowned her because he was "having a bad day."  Amygdala drops your memory of function altogether because if you have ever been in a argument with a friend or partner you cant remember a positive thing about them.
AMYGDALA Resources

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Bryan Stefanski, 37, was charged with child abuse

DAYTONA BEACH - Beach patrol arrested a man witnesses said had dragged his 4-year-old daughter from the beach into the ocean and held her head underwater during a violent rage.

An investigator interviewed the suspect's wife at the beach and she told him her husband was "just having a bad day" and was still mad about a traffic problem he had encountered earlier in the day, according to a report.

The girl was not seriously injured, authorities said.

Bryan Stefanski, 37, of Gardner, Illinois, was charged Tuesday with child abuse without great harm. As of Wednesday afternoon, he remained behind bars without bail at the Volusia County Branch Jail.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Stefanski's wife said she didn't know when her husband was getting out of jail and declined to comment further.

In all, eight witnesses were interviewed by a Volusia County Beach Patrol official and all of them confirmed they heard yelling and cursing from Stefanski, according to the report. Some of them also said he appeared angry at the girl for dropping food onto the ground.

The report stated that several of the witnesses watched Stefanski grab the girl by her floating neck collar, drag her into the ocean and forcefully dunk her head and face under the water sometime around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. They also said Stefanski splashed water into the girl's face.

Beach patrol specialist Brad Warner questioned Stefanski and Stefanski became agitated. At one point, Stefanski was raising his voice and swinging his arms around, Warner stated.

Photographs were taken of the girl and she had suffered a scrape on her left shoulder, according to beach patrol.

Several people at the beach started to approach Stefanski during his tirade in an effort to detain him, Warner said.

When Stefanski was placed in handcuffs, about 100 beachgoers stood up and broke into applause, according to the report.

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Lifeguards: Illinois man loses temper on beach, dunks daughter's head underwater

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Bryan Stefanski, 37, was charged with child abuse DAYTONA BEACH - Beach patrol arrested a man witnesses said had dragged his 4-year-old daughter from the beach into the ocean and held her head underwater during a violent rage.

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Rebecca was running late and told her 3-year-old that there was no time for another snack. But the toddler ignored her, popped open a can of almonds and spilled nuts everywhere. She also stepped on Rebecca's foot, maybe on purpose.

Rebecca cleaned up and asked her daughter to "go potty," before they walked out the door. Her daughter refused. Rebecca was going into her third trimester of pregnancy. She was tired. It was hot. She lost it. She shouted in her daughter's face - not exactly the kind and consistent approach she had been striving for during potty training. But it happened.

Moms and anger
We all get angry. Sometimes we lose our temper. "Parents are not intentionally going into a situation and saying if my child misbehaves, I'm going to blow up at them and yell uncontrollably," says Karen Bridbord, PhD, a psychologist certified by the Gottman Institute, who specializes in relationships. But it happens, says Bridbord, because we hold so tightly to patience, winding ourselves up, until it eventually escapes and explodes.

"I didn't know that I had this monster inside me," confesses Megan, mother of a 3-year-old daughter in Baltimore. "I had these ideas of who I wanted to be as a mom: 'I'll be perfect. I'll be in control.' But there's so much that goes out of control with a kid."

And when it happens in social situations, Megan finds that her temper rushes in. She feels exposed, like "I've done something wrong to make her 'bad' at a particular moment. That there's something wrong with me." And before she knows it, Megan has cornered her daughter for a furious scolding, only to feel overwhelmed by guilt minutes later.

Why we yell
The obvious answer is frustration, often sleep deprivation, and the general stress of life. There's also the sometimes overwhelming sense of responsibility - the to-do list divided among the needs of children, spouse, work. Maybe you just missed the bus, or the sitter didn't show and you're on a work deadline. Or maybe you forgot to cut the crusts off the sandwich and simply can't take the ensuing tantrum. There are bills. There is loneliness. There is what we expected, and what we get, and what we miss.

But, it's also how we're programmed to respond. "We call it an 'amygdala hijacking,'" says Bridbord. "Our emotions overwhelm us, and our heart rate is escalating. Our bodies experience the situation as if we are in fight or flight mode." But this natural response evolved to save us from saber-toothed tigers, not to negotiate the subtler challenges of modern parenthood.

When it is harmful
Experts acknowledge there are times in parenting when you must sound an alarm. When my daughter Lola is skipping toward the street, a quiet request to "make a better choice" won't keep her out of traffic. That's not the problem.

Yelling becomes problematic, says Dr. Bridbord, when "it is compounded with a message, usually one of criticism, humiliation, or even ridicule. Instead of targeting the child's behavior, it becomes a personal criticism." For example, instead of stopping with a quick reprimand to "quit kicking the table or that glass is going to fall," we add phrases such as "you never listen to me." Or one of the worst: "What's wrong with you?"

When children feel shamed, they "learn that they are bad - and then they often try to live up to that expectation," says Lawrence Cohen, MD, PhD, author of Playful Parenting. "The angry voice becomes a dominant inner voice of that child."

And unfortunately, "yelling is usually a learned behavior," says Dr. Bridbord. "Often, people who come from families where there was a lot of yelling tend to yell unless they really make a conscious effort [not] to perpetuate the cycle."

How to stop the screaming cycle
Dr. Bridbord coaches parents to become aware of the physiological signs of emotional flooding, when our nerves run "off to the races." We can learn to tell the signals our bodies give in a split second: the tightness in the throat, the rapid breathing. When you feel that response rising in you, take a moment to breathe and get centered.

Carla Naumburg, PhD, author of Parenting in the Present Moment, recommends using a common mindfulness acronym: STOP. "S is for Stop, T is for Take a breath, O is for Observe, P is for Proceed," says Naumburg. "The idea is to stop whatever you are doing, take a deep breath, and notice what's going on around you. You can get a little headspace before responding, so you can be more thoughtful instead of knee jerk."

When she's at home, Naumburg actually puts her hands on the kitchen counter or takes a minute to concentrate on the feeling of her feet on the floor. These little actions ground her and bring her body and mind back from the fight or flight response.

It helps me to consciously practice thinking about what I love most about my daughter - a strategy recommended by renowned marriage therapist John Gottman. Many of us share a tendency to ruminate on grudges, to see and then replay the worst intentions in others, even our own kids. So I keep a few specific memories on file, like an image of Lola pointing at a block tower with pride, or a phrase I love to hear her say. ("Mama, I missed you!")

Then I repeat these moments in my head when I am calm - like when I'm lying on my daughter's floor in the dark at bedtime - so that I can recall them (with effort) in those moments when I feel my chest tightening and my blood pressure rising.

Figure out your triggers
Just like hunger primes a toddler for a tantrum, parents have triggers too. Sometimes, like Megan, our insecurities undermine our best intentions. We identify with our children, and their faults make us more furious when they feel familiar. We may worry their actions are a reflection of us.

At other times, we can view our kids' behavior as malicious. "Parents can take very personally their children's misbehavior or rebellion," says Dr. Bridbord. She remembers a father who yelled at his children at bedtime after a long day at the office. Yes, his kids were delaying bedtime (something all kids do), but his anger really came from a lingering sense of disrespect from colleagues. Children "want boundaries and structure, but they're going to push at times to see how far they can go," says Dr. Bridbord. That's normal developmental growth, not that they are out to get you (truly).

And adults fall prey to the same triggers - hunger, exhaustion - that set kids off. Anna, mom of a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old (and pregnant with number three), in Brooklyn, says she "loses it at least a couple times a week." For her, the episodes come at then end of the day, "when we're all exhausted." During a recent incident, her older son was screaming and hitting her so that he could get inside the door ahead of his brother. "I tried to calm him down with words, then resorted to threats (no milk, no dinner, going to bed right away, etc.), then finally just screamed at the top of my lungs."

Transitions are often a pressure point, especially in an overscheduled day. Dana Rosenbloom, MSEd., a parenting educator in Manhattan, asks parents to continually "assess and reassess what's working for them and what may no longer work and require new strategies."

Seleni editorial director Kate Rope realized that taking her two kids across town for swim classes every Tuesday often led to meltdowns for one or more of the three of them. So, even though her eldest loves swimming, she dropped the activity to have calmer and more enjoyable Tuesdays for all.

Find an outlet for your emotions
As you probably tell your kids, "It's OK to be angry, but it's not OK to hurt people." Feeling anger at your children or anything else in your life is a natural, human emotion. Dr. Cohen recommends talking with a friend or therapist about what's behind your angry outbursts. "Choose someone who can tolerate you talking about angry feelings without judging you," suggests Dr. Cohen, and then "talk about what triggers you, about how you were treated as a child, about what kind of nurturing you needed then, and about what values you want driving your own parenting."

When all else fails, walk away
Sometimes it's you who needs the time out. If your child is not in imminent danger, walk away. Close the door. And, in really rough moments, Dr. Cohen suggests you "Lie on the floor and declare a surrender." This idea, from Patty Wipfler'sHand in Hand Parenting, is "a way to give up the impossible demands for perfection and control, which then allows you to get up committed to what really matters - connection and compassion."

Dr. Bridbord urges her clients to try meditation. "It increases your ability to not be reactive but rather be reflective in responding to your environment," says Bridbord. She recommends taking five minutes a day to breathe deeply and focus on what is happening inside you.

What to do after you yell
When your best efforts at staying calm fail, Dr. Cohen says the next step is simple. "Apologize. Children are very forgiving when we acknowledge our mistakes and make an effort to do better." Rosenbloom agrees, "Young children have an incredible ability to let it go and move on. When the situation is over, make a concerted effort to move on to the next."

"And don't bother with the guilt," recommends Philippa Gordon, a pediatrician in Brooklyn. Or "you'll spend your whole life feeling guilty. The important thing is to model regaining control. Let the kid know that things are back to normal."

Try to do better, not be perfect
Guilt feels like an action - a way to pay penance. But it's paralyzing and doesn't lead to anything productive for you or your child. Instead, model working through your emotions. Dr. Bridbord recommends "actually sitting down, taking a few deep breaths, and modeling to your children at that moment what to do when they're frustrated. We hear parents say this to their children all the time: take a few deep breaths, take a time out. You're giving yourself a time out in front of your child."

"Children are resilient, and they have a deep capacity to forgive in a way that some adults lose over time," says Dr. Bridbord. "Saying you're sorry, sharing what you're feeling, that's important - you're emotion coaching. Your role is not to be perfect. They're not going to love you less because you're imperfect."

I've been practicing this approach with my daughter. I tell her "Mommy got angry, but she is going to take a deep breath now. She is going to say she's sorry." I put my hand to my breastbone as I inhale. Lola also inhales in an exaggerated way. Together, we can start over again in the new moment.

Some helpful reading:

Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen
This book has helped me on a daily basis, just thinking of the title helps me recast a tense moment as a chance to play (instead of panic).

Screamfree Parenting by Hal Edward Runkel
One of Dr. Cohen's go-to books.

Hand in Hand Parenting
This is a rich and diverse resource site, which can help with anger management and many other parenting concerns.

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild by Mem Fox and Marla Frazee
This charming picture book is about a mother who loses her temper after a long day.

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Rebecca was running late and told her 3-year-old that there was no time for another snack. But the toddler ignored her, popped open a can of almonds and spilled nuts everywhere. She also stepped on Rebecca's foot, maybe on purpose. Rebecca cleaned up and asked her daughter to "go potty," before they walked out the door.

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Conflict wreaks havoc on our brains. We are groomed by evolution to protect ourselves whenever we sense a threat. In our modern context, we don't fight like a badger with a coyote, or run away like a rabbit from a fox. But our basic impulse to protect ourselves is automatic and unconscious.

We have two amygdala, one on each side of the brain, behind the eyes and the optical nerves. Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, in his book The Body Keeps the Score, calls this the brain's "smoke detector." It's responsible for detecting fear and preparing our body for an emergency response.

When we perceive a threat, the amygdala sounds an alarm, releasing a cascade of chemicals in the body. Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol flood our system, immediately preparing us for fight or flight. When this deeply instinctive function takes over, we call it what Daniel Goleman coined in Emotional Intelligence as "amygdala hijack." In common psychological parlance we say, "We've been triggered." We notice immediate changes like an increased heart rate or sweaty palms. Our breathing becomes more shallow and rapid as we take in more oxygen, preparing to bolt if we have to.

The flood of stress hormones create other sensations like a quivering in our solar plexus, limbs, or our voice. We may notice heat flush our face, our throat constrict, or the back of our neck tighten and jaw set. We are in the grip of a highly efficient, but prehistoric set of physiological responses. These sensations are not exactly pleasant - they're not meant for relaxation. They're designed to move us to action.

The active amygdala also immediately shuts down the neural pathway to our prefrontal cortex so we can become disoriented in a heated conversation. Complex decision-making disappears, as does our access to multiple perspectives. As our attention narrows, we find ourselves trapped in the one perspective that makes us feel the most safe: "I'm right and you're wrong," even though we ordinarily see more perspectives.

And if that wasn't enough, our memory becomes untrustworthy. Have you ever been in a fight with your partner or friend, and you literally can't remember a positive thing about them? It's as though the brain drops the memory function altogether in an effort to survive the threat. When our memory is compromised like this, we can't recall something from the past that might help us calm down. In fact, we can't remember much of anything. Instead, we're simply filled with the flashing red light of the amygdala indicating "Danger, react. Danger, protect. Danger, attack."

In the throes of amygdala hijack, we can't choose how we want to react because the old protective mechanism in the nervous system does it for us - even before we glimpse that there could be a choice. It is ridiculous.
Practicing Mindfulness in Conflict
Mindfulness is the perfect awareness technique to employ when a conflict arises - whether it's at work or home. It allows us to override the conditioned nervous system with conscious awareness. Instead of attacking or recoiling, and later justifying our reactions, we can learn to stay present, participate in regulating our own nervous system, and eventually, develop new, more free and helpful ways of interacting.

Practicing mindfulness in the middle of a conflict demands a willingness to stay present, to feel intensely, to override our negative thoughts, and to engage our breath to maintain presence with the body. Like any skill, it takes practice.

There are different approaches to working with a provoked nervous system and intense emotions, but they all have some elements in common. Here are four simple steps (which I also describe in my book, Everything is Workable) that I try to use when I find myself with an overloaded nervous system and a body racing with a fight or flight impulse.
Step 1: Stay present.
The first step in practicing mindfulness when triggered is to notice we are provoked. We may notice a change in our tone of voice, gripping sensations in the belly, or a sudden desire to withdraw. Each of us has particular bodily and behavioral cues that alert us to the reality that we feel threatened, and are therefore running on automatic pilot.

We have to decide to stay put and present, to be curious and explore our experience. For me, it helps to remind myself to relax. I have a visual cue that I use that involves my son. When I'm worked up, he has the habit of looking at me, raising and lowering his hands in a calming fashion, and saying "Easy Windmill." I try to reflect on this and it helps me calm down because he's so charming when he does it.
Step 2: Let go of the story.
This might be the most difficult part of the practice. We need to completely let go of the thinking and judging mind. This is a very challenging step because when we feel threatened, the mind immediately fills with all kinds of difficult thoughts and stories about what's happening. But we must be willing to forget the story, just for a minute, because there is a feedback loop between our thoughts and our body. If the negative thoughts persist, so do the stressful hormones. It isn't that we're wrong, but we will be more far more clear in our perceptions when the nervous system has relaxed.
Step 3: Focus on the body.
Now simply focus on feeling and exploring whatever sensations arise in the body. We feel them naturally, just as they are, not trying to control or change them. We allow the mind to be as open as possible, noticing the different places in the body where sensations occur, what is tight, shaky, rushing, or hurts. We pay attention to the different qualities and textures of the sensations, and the way things change and shift. We can also notice how biased we are against unpleasant or more intense sensations.
Step 4: Finally, breathe.
Everybody knows that it helps to breathe. There are many different qualities of the breath, but we only need to learn about two: Rhythm and smoothness. As Alan Watkins explains in his book Coherence: The Secret Science of Brilliant Leadership, if we focus on these two dimensions, even for a few short minutes, the production of the cortisol and adrenaline will stop.

To breath rhythmically means that the in-breath and out-breath occur repeatedly at the same intervals. So if we inhale, counting 1, 2, 3, and 4, and then exhale, counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, then inhale again, counting 1, 2, 3, and 4, and then exhale again, counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6; this establishes rhythm.

At the same time, we should invite the breath to be even or smooth, meaning that the volume of the breath stays consistent as it moves in and out, like sipping liquid through a narrow straw. If we manage those two qualities for just a few minutes, the breath assists us in remaining present, making it possible to stay with intense sensation in the body.

Paying attention to our body re-establishes equilibrium faster, restoring our ability to think, to listen, and relate. This takes practice, but eventually, we retrain ourselves to respond rather than to react. Anger becomes clarity and resolve, sadness leads to compassion, jealousy becomes fuel for change.

There will also be certain moments when we fail. Becoming more intimate with our body's response to a hijacked nervous system is challenging, to say the least. This is because the sensations are very uncomfortable, our emotions are volatile, and our mind is usually filling with unsupportive thoughts like "Get me outta here," or "How can they be saying that?" or "This is a waste of my time."

Each time we succeed in being mindful of our body in moments of distress, we develop our capacity. Even more, we may observe something new when it occurs. A moment of pause, an unexpected question when it appears or a laugh that erupts. When anything new happens, taking note of it helps to free us of the pattern to our old way of doing things. Before we know it, our old habit of fight or flight is changing, and the world is a safer place.

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Conflict wreaks havoc on our brains. We are groomed by evolution to protect ourselves whenever we sense a threat. In our modern context, we don't fight like a badger with a coyote, or run away like a rabbit from a fox. But our basic impulse to protect ourselves is automatic and unconscious.

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Once amygdala hits focus on the body, feel the sensations that arise the body naturally. Begin to breath smotthly and keep your rythem to it, in thru the nose and hold, and out thru the mouth.

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Amygdala Hijack & Emotional Intelligence

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http://richerexperiences.com/amygdala-hijack/ More on the amygdala hijack plus how to overcome fear & rewire your brain for long term fear & anxiety relief in my free video course: http://richerexperiences.com/overcome-fear/ An Amygdala Hijack (term coined by Daniel Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence) occurs during the fight, flight or freeze stress response.

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Whether you know it or not, many of your decisions and actions are the result of a tiny part of your brain called the amygdala.

Your amygdala are very small almond-shaped masses (there are actually two of them) of nuclei located deep within the temporal lobe of your brain. Your amygdala is an ancient limbic system structure primarily responsible for processing memory, decision-making, motivation, and emotional reactions - most significantly, those related to survival. You have your amygdala to blame and thank for primal emotions, such as fear, anger, and pleasure.

Your amygdala acts as your brain's threat radar and alarm. It was a very useful thing to have when our ancestors hunted for food - or were hunted for food. When the amygdala sounds the alarm, your body responds with an almost instantaneous sequence of hormonal and physiological changes preparing you to fight or flee.

When this happens, your amygdala hijacks your brain, and most of your physical and mental resources get allocated to making sure you survive. Your thinking, rational brain shuts down. Even though you no longer run into hungry tigers on a regular basis, your amygdala activates today when you run into an angry partner, unhappy boss, or rude driver.

How Your Amygdala Influences Your Memory

Research shows that the amygdala plays a crucial role in the formation and storage of emotional memories, resulting in what is known as " emotional learning." While both positive and negative emotional memory storage may be facilitated by the amygdala, studies confirm that it pays special attention to threats, which results in " fear conditioning. "

Fear conditioning is the classic Pavlovian response. In How Your Neurons Make You A Nervous Wreck (and how to rewire them) I explain:

Your brain learns, through a process called conditioning, to continually adapt your behavior in an attempt to be better suited to survive in its environment. In classical conditioning, your brain learns to associate two stimuli, such as in Pavlov's well-known experiments with dogs. Pavlov, who was actually studying digestion, paired the sound of a bell with the dogs being presented food, which caused them to salivate. Pretty soon, he noticed that just the sound of the bell had the dogs drooling. The dogs brains had been conditioned to physically connect the sound of a bell with food in a neural pathway.

Now, Pavlov's dogs scenario learning makes sense, but your brain doesn't care if the pairing is logical or not, as demonstrated in the controversial "Little Albert" experiments. Scientist John B. Watson conditioned a young child, dubbed Little Albert, to fear a white rat by pairing the rat with a loud, scary noise over and over. Watson then demonstrated that Albert's fear transferred to other white furry objects, such as a dog, a bunny, and a fur coat. In this case, poor Little Albert's brain had wired white and furry with fear.

Studies reveal that emotional arousal during an event influences the strength of the memory for that event. The greater the emotional meaning you give something, the better your retention of that event turns out to be. Unfortunately, we usually have the most emotional responses to negative or fearful happenings.

How Emotional Learning Influences Your Choices

OK. So, what does all this mean for you? It means that your amygdala subconsciously influences your behavior and decisions today based on past emotional learning of which you may not even be aware. If emotional memories trigger your amygdala and your logical brain goes offline, your choices at that point become fear based and reactionary - not goal oriented and logical.

When your amygdala is running the show, you end up going through life trying to avoid what it remembers as "bad" instead of making conscious choices to live the life you want and taking steps towards happiness and fulfillment. In Are You Living According To What You Want Or According to What You Don't Want?, I write:

This a fear-based existence where life becomes a marathon obstacle course of trying to avoid instead of trying to achieve. Trying to avoid pain. Trying to avoid loneliness. Trying to avoid failure. A person can focus on and exert so much energy avoiding what they don't want that what they do want becomes secondary with pitiful little progress made in that direction.

How To Calm Your Amygdala And Take Your Life Back

To ensure your survival, the brain is actually programmed to thwart any conscious effort to override the amygdala's fear response. So, changing our relationship to fear isn't easy, but it can be done by becoming more mindful, practicing meditation, learning to respond rather than react, getting comfortable with uncertainty, and even welcoming and leaning into fear.

In the book, Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool, Taylor Clark suggests the following proven methods to relate better to your fears and calm your amygdala:

Breathe - Consciously take slow, deep breaths into your abdomen to inform the parasympathetic nervous system that things are OK.

Put your feelings into words - Labeling an emotion, by talking or writing, helps the brain process and diffuse it.

Train, practice, and prepare - Through repetition and experience, you can program yourself to perform and make better decisions under stress as the procedure becomes routine and automatic in the brain.

Redirect your focus - Instead of turning your attention inward, growing preoccupied with worries, concentrate on the present moment and on the task at hand.

Mindfully disentangle from worries and thoughts - Learn to observe your thoughts and worries, distance yourself from them, and let them pass without getting hooked into them.

Expose yourself to your fears - To hit the mute button on fear, you have to allow yourself to feel afraid and expose yourself to it. Clark writes: "...[M]oving through a fear is the only way out of it."

Learn to accept uncertainty and lack of control - By actually facing your fears of the future, accepting reality, and basking in your uncertainty, for instance, by repeating and exploring a distressing worry, without resisting the anxious emotional reaction, you and your amygdala habituates to the idea, and calm down. With exposure and acceptance, a fear loses its power.

Reframe the situation - When anxious biases appear about a situation, we can learn to consciously change our perspective by looking for the good, speculating possible positive outcomes, and not buying into the negative thoughts.

Joke around - Research shows that humor helps a person break out of a negative point of view and see things differently.

Build faith in yourself - Through celebrating small successes when exposing yourself to fear, changing to positive self-talk, and visualizing optimistic outcomes, you can expand your comfort zone and confidence. Research into worry shows that people handle worst-case scenarios far better than they expect.

Keep your eyes on a guiding principle - Dedication to a higher purpose, whether a spiritual belief, altruism, or personal goals, helps abate fear and keep us pointed in the right direction in the face of fear or hopelessness.

Open up to fear unconditionally - Instead of battling, avoiding, trying to control, or feeling bad about fear, learn to approach fear as a friendly companion, expecting it to show up and welcoming it when it does. If you stop thinking of it as a problem, it's not a problem.

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How Your Amygdala Hijacks Your Life - The Best Brain Possible

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Whether you know it or not, many of your decisions and actions are the result of a tiny part of your brain called the amygdala. Your amygdala are very small almond-shaped masses (there are actually two of them) of nuclei located deep within the temporal lobe of your brain.