Name It To Tame It: Integrating The Brain

Written By Lasting Peace Counseling

The key to true mental health is integration- an integrated brain and body. This is the opposite of living compartmentalized or fragmented as the world desires us to or as trauma (sin) can cause us to do.

This can look like:

shutting off our feelings and living only cognitively (emotional desert), or shutting off all logic and allowing our feelings to steer the ship (emotional hurricane).

Both scenarios lead to a break down of our mental and physical health and have a ripple effect into our relationships.

The antidotes? Utilize the WHOLE brain (both feelings and logic) to bring all of who we are before God and others.

The next few days I will share how you can start doing that in five easy steps

Today.. step 1:

“Name it to tame it” by neuropsychiatrist Dan Siegel.

When something does not quite go our way, it can leave us feeling frustrated, anxious, anger, scared or some other big feeling. By simply pausing and naming what we are feeling, we can stop the feeling from taking over and causing us to behave in a way we will regret.

What is it you are feeling?

Now that you have named, it, you have just integrated both sides of the brain which will cause YOU to be in control of the emotion versus it being in control of you.

You can do this with your children too! This simple act of helping your child identify the emotion will allow them to feel seen, heard and loved by you plus offer them language to express big feelings. be invited in?