Page 24 - How Changing Your Anger Can Help You Be a Better Parent book

So, you can be empowered to understand that you can be emotionally hijacked when you get
angry and consider what you can do for yourself in the heat of the angry moment when you feel
the emotion taking over the rest of your thinking.

The part of your brain that you want to hopefully get more activation in is the thinking part of the
brain - the Prefrontal Cortex - to be able to assess what your child may need in that moment.
When feeling emotionally dysregulated, you can be intentional about focusing on what you and
your child may need at that moment to calm down.

You can really be attuned to what's happening inside of your brain when you’re angry, and also
understand that the way you're thinking about what's happening to you is impacting your anger.
The way that you are perceiving, interpreting and processing any angry situation is impacting your
brain connections and brain chemistry - the neurochemicals that are actually being released.

You actually can be more aware of your angry perceptions and change your angry thinking.
You can empower yourself to understand how your brain becomes dysregulated and have tools
to meet the needs to get regulated, to get your body to a calmer place, and to get yourself to a
clear-thinking place.

With less emotional thinking, you have a better understanding of the situation and the impact of
your words and behaviors.

As it turns out, when you become angry and emotionally dysregulated, research indicates that
your neuroprocessing moves into the lower (survival) parts of your brain.

Emotional dysregulation or emotional hijacking plunges your brain states into survival-mode and
will reduce your cognitive and logical thinking.

Activation of your lower brain states will also affect your sense of time, your understanding of
situations and impact of your communication, and your functional IQ.

Brain research indicates that the angrier you get, the dumber you become in the heat of an angry
moment.

Yes, your IQ goes down in that angry moment. Your functional IQ at that moment could actually
drop forty to fifty points!

It’s best to have clearer thinking, certainly a smarter position, to be able to make more effective
decisions on to how to express your anger.

This should provide you with a better understanding of what and where in your brain anger
connections are being made and what brain regions are more active when you get angry.

You now have more awareness of angry neurochemicals being released, which impacts your
thinking patterns, your emotional response and your behavior.

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