"Oh $h!ggidy! Did you see that?!" was the common refrain from the night of the Oscars 2022. So many of us worldwide watched in shock as Will Smith, one of the main honorees of the event, slapped Chris Rock in response to a joke told about Jada Pinkett Smith's bald head, which is due to autoimmune alopecia. This is just one of MANY examples that we have had lately of humans behaving badly. From airplane conduct, to road rage, to gun violence, political violence and even war, it is not your imagination that you are seeing more people act out aggressively towards others, often in responses that seem to be extreme relative to the triggers. You may be wondering, what the heck is wrong with humans???!
Dr. Alauna's answer: We are primitive. Humans currently run primarily on input and impulses from our most animalistic, primitive brain systems, and because we have such a poor understanding of our invisible anatomy, we have been taught to blame others, God OR the Devil (sometimes all 3!) when our emotions become intense and we act on them. The widespread myths about emotions and ignorance about how the human brain calculates information and makes decisions is resulting in widespread chaos, and of course, major disagreements about how we view things. In this episode of Minding Your Amygdala, Dr. Alauna breaks down The Slap with an empathetic perspective on how trauma and biology played a role in THAT situation, and how to recognize when your amygdala may be taking you down a primitive path that you don't want to experience.
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