432: Downshifting--Gear up for Success

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432 Downshifting--Gear up for Success
Time Aug 8, 1115 AM - 1230 PM
Location Governor's B
Presenter Arlene Taylor
Level K-12
Specialty General
Description "The brain" consists of several functional layers that can be compared to gears in a vehicle. In situations of trauma, crisis, or any type of fear, the brain downshifts in an attempt to access functions that promote safety. While this is a helpful strategy, it can be very deleterious when activated frequently or when sustained over time. Strategies to help you identify downshifting in a timely manner, suggestions for ways to promote upshifting and for communicating congruently with someone who is in a downshifted state are presented.

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PresentsDownshifting a Natural Brain
Phenomenon
?Arlene Taylor PhD   www.arlenetaylor.org Referen
ces Selected Brain Facts on web site   URL
http//www.arlenetaylor.org/selected_brain_facts/i
ndex.htm
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Your Brain is as Unique ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• As your thumbprint!
• No two brains are ever identical in structure,
  function, or perception!

• The way your brain functions largely determines
  your quality of life
• including level of health, accomplishments,
  and long-term success
• and creates your world, perceptions, beliefs,
  reactions, responses,
• and behaviors

• Give up any expectation of another brain ever
  understanding yours
• yours preciselyyou dont even understand
  your brain
• completelyits impossible!
• This presentation is one brains perception of
  the research

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Your Brain is Actually?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc
A collection of multiple brains Functionally
these brains can be described as three layers,
each containing distinct functions although
all systems interact with each other continually

• Thinking-Brain Layer ? 3rd gear
• (neocortex and prefrontal cortex)
• Emotional-Brain Layer ? 2nd gear
• (mammalian brain)
• Action-Brain Layer ? 1st gear
• (reptilian brain)

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Action Brain Layer ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Brain Stem and the Cerebellum
• Tends to dominate when threat is perceived
• Houses instinctual survival (stress) responses
• Provides an awareness of the outer sensory
  world
• Can be compared to the id

• Carries the perception that I am here and its
  all about me (egocentric)
• Doesnt use language but is able to perceive
  it
• Houses the Reticular Activating Systems that
  influences ones E-A-I
• Processes present tense only
• Processes positives easily -1-step process
  (has difficulty with negatives)
• Is usually the last portion of the brain to die

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Emotional Brain Layer ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Limbic System and Structures
• Transfers information from short to long term
  memory
• Searches brain to collect associations for
  memory recall (search engine)
• Processes the sense of smell directly
• Can be compared to the ego recognizes I
  am here but so are you
• Provides the foundation for all relationships
  with its tools of emotion
• (generates emotional impulses)

• 80,000 times faster than the thinking brain
  layer
• Directs immune system function
• Perceives present and past tenses
• Processes positives easily - 1-step process
  (has difficulty with negatives
• the reverse of an idea and a 2-step process)

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Thinking Brain Layer ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Cerebrum (eight lobes)
• Provides functions related to consciousness
• Can be compared to the superego can think
  of the good of others
• Able to process positives (more easily) and
  negatives
• Registers awareness of present, past, and
  future tenses

• Decodes sensory stimuli (except for smell
  emotional layer)
• Pre-frontal cortex contributes executive
  aspects of thought ( e.g.,
• abstract thinking, planning, goals-setting,
  paying attention, managing
• emotions, developing and using conscience,
  managing willpower)
• Possesses arguably limitless potential for
  processing concepts from
• outside world and thoughts from the inside
  world
• Uses all forms of language with complex
  analysis, and can process 125
• bits of information and 40 bits of human
  speech per second

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Downshifting A Metaphoric Term?Arlene Taylor
PhD Realizations Inc
To describe a natural brain phenomenon
Some authors use that actual term (Hart, Barron,
Pearce) while others (Sylwester) prefer terms
such as reflective versus reflexive

• Compare the three functional brain layers to a
  vehicle with an automatic transmission
• When the going gets tough the transmission is
  designed to
• shift into a lower gear as needed and then
  upshift again
• The brain possesses a similar type of
  functional process
• designed for short-term use in specific
  situations

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In Situations of Trauma, Crisis, or Fear?Arlene
Taylor PhD Realizations Inc
The brain downshifts - to access responses
perceived to be safer or that promote safety

• Results in an automatic shift of energy and
  attention toward lower
• brain layers (typically outside conscious
  awareness)
• A negative signal from any part of the brain
  creates a negative
• response throughout the emotional system,
  which is then reflected
• throughout the entire body and brain.

• The emotional layer can respond to signals of
  danger from the
• action layer (instinct, reflexes) and from
  the thinking layer
• (criticism, anxiety, evaluation)
• When anxious, undecided, insecure, or tense,
  the brains attention
• can be divided among the three layers (e.g,
  think one thing, feel
• another, and act from impulses that differ
  from either)

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Studies of Gender Differences?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc
Boys may be at higher risk for downshifting as
have they tend to have more difficulty coping
with some traumas/stressors

• Boys
• Tend to find it more difficult
• coping with parental fighting
• or divorce, the effects are more
• intense and last longer
• Brains return more slowly to
• stability and learning readiness
• post stress
• Are at higher risk for suicide
• (rate is 3 times higher than girls
• up to age 24)

• Girls
• Tend to have less difficulty
• coping with parental fighting or
• divorce, effects less intense
• Brains return more quickly to
• stability and learning readiness
• post stress
• Attempt suicide more often but
• succeed less often

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Triggers for Downshifting ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Trauma or Crisis
• Examples Disasters, hospitalization,
  chronic illness,
• abuse, injury, death, war zone
  experiences, loss

• Self-destructive Behaviors
• Examples Self-destructive behaviors
  (e.g., non-nutritional eating,
• drug abuse, sexual promiscuity,
  compulsive actions, addictive
• behaviors, unbalanced lifestyle) or
  their negative consequences

• Negative Experiences
• Examples Fired, divorced, shamed in
  front of others, failed a test,
• dysfunctional living / working
  environments, abuse, loss

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Triggers for Downshifting ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Thought Patterns
• Examples negative, hopeless, helpless,
• disempowered, fanciful, magical,
  skewed,
• abusive, low self-worth, , victim,
  angry . . .

• Any type of fear
• Valid fear alerts you to potentially
  dangerous situations
• - Identify the worst thing that could
  happen
• - Evaluate the possibility versus the
  probability
• - Figure out if you can do anything
  about the situation
• - If yes, take appropriate action
  related to the actual danger
• - If no, be prudent and practice the
  Serenity Prayer

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Triggers for Downshifting ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc
Imagined fear usually involves negative
thinking - Negative thinking is unlikely
to improve the odds - Figure out ways to
deal effectively with imagined fear -
Change the way you think, obtain professional
help, recall a happy memory, read /
recite empowering poems / prose, sing

• Deal with imagined fear appropriately to reduce
  negative consequences (the pre-frontal lobes
  appear to be involved with managing fear,
  learning how not to be afraid, and inhibiting the
  amygdalae that remember fear)
• It is physiologically impossible to be fearful
  and appreciative simultaneously
• Identify something to appreciate
• Do something to help someone else
• A happy heart is good medicine!

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Implications for Christianity?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Craft strategies to deal with fear in order to
  reduce undesirable / negative consequences
• Love casts out fear . . . (I John 4)
• Avoid worry, fear, anxiety . . . (Matthew 7,
  Luke 12)
• A cheerful heart is good medicine . . .
  (Proverbs 17)
• The Lord is your helper so avoid fear . . .
  (Hebrews 13)

• It is physiologically impossible to be fearful
• and appreciative at the same time
• Identify something to appreciate
• Give thanks for something
• Do something to help someone else

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Over Time it can be Deleterious ?Arlene Taylor
PhD Realizations Inc

• To have the brains attention and energy focused
  frequently or for prolonged periods of time
  primarily toward the lower brain layers
• Downshifting is a helpful strategy for
  specific situations
• Even a helpful function can lose some benefit
  when
• over utilized or misused

• There is good news
• Your brain is so complex and capable that you
  can still have access to
• conscious, third-layer thinking at some
  leveleven when temporarily
• downshifted!
• You can develop increased awareness and
  preplanned strategies to help
• you upshift as quickly as possible!

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Potential Consequences ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• When downshifted you may
• Fail to recall what you heard (Studies have
  shown that people tend to
• recall less than 15 of what they heard
  during a crisis)
• Be prevented from learning
• Experience a reduced ability to take cues
  (input) into consideration
• Be less able to engage in complex intellectual
  tasks ( ? creativity)
• Fail to see interconnectedness / generate
  solutions for problems

• Develop phobias
• Experience altered immune system function
• Accelerate the aging process
• Reactivate old learned beliefs and patterns of
  behaviors or relapse into
• addictive behaviors regardless of
  available information

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Managing Your Downshifting ?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• 1 Identify symptoms you exhibit when your brain
  is in a downshifted state
• This could include a tendency to be defensive,
  over-reactive, or to isolate yourself
• Increase your conscious awareness
• NOTE Experiencing feelings of sadness may
  be an appropriate response to a situation of loss
  and may not necessarily indicate downshifting

• The brain is so amazing that you still can
  have access to the
• conscious thinking brain layer, even when
  attention and energy
• is temporarily focused toward the lower
  brain layers, through
• a set of preplanned strategies

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Managing Your Downshifting, Contd ?Arlene
Taylor PhD Realizations Inc
2 Define what you need in order to perceive a
sense of safety. Include all six boundary
areas in your evaluation.
Physical Spiritual
Mental Social
Emotional Sexual
Perception of safety can differ for different
brains although there are some common
threads People typically tend to feel safe when
they believe themselves competent to handle basic
developmental tasks in each area of
lifecommensurate with their age, education,
experience, and maturity levels
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Managing Your Downshifting, Contd ?Arlene
Taylor PhD Realizations Inc

• 3 Develop and use pre-planned strategies
• to access higher brain functions
• Do some brain-breathing
• Think of something humorous and laugh
• Engage in positive self-talk
• Sing, meditate, pray, exercise

• Ask for help from your support person(s)
• Visualize (mentally picture) yourself in a safe
  place
• Contract with yourself to deal with it later in
  the day
• Do a task over which you have some control
• Activate the Quieting Reflex (Charles Stroebel)

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Managing Your Downshifting, Contd?Arlene Taylor
PhD Realizations Inc

• 4 Increase your awareness of your patterns
• of behavior related to downshifting
• Identify when, where, common triggers,
• length of time, environments, etc.
• Purpose to avoid inappropriate, unnecessary,
• frequent, or prolonged downshifting

• Implement preventive strategies that work for
  you
• and your brain
• Refer to ten preventive strategies that follow
  to give you
• ideas and get you started

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Handling Downshifting in Others?Arlene Taylor
PhD Realizations Inc
Dont touch the stove! Keep your hands away
from the stove!
Bottom line do something to help the other
person realize a sense of safety

• 1 Use short, simple, positive statements
• The subconscious readily understands positives
• (a one-step process) but has difficulty with
• negatives, the reverse of an idea, which is
  a
• two-step process)
• The conscious mind is capable of changing the
  initial
• picture to its opposite, but it is a
  difficult process
• The use of negatives may increase ones
  problems
• as the brain visualizes negative outcomes and
  may
• fail to create reverse pictures successfully

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Handling Downshifting in Others?Arlene Taylor
PhD Realizations Inc

• 2 Use present-tense words
• Present tense is perceived by all three
  functional brain layers - Action, Emotional,
  Thinking

• 3 Use congruent communication
• Message content in a 2-party communication
  7-10 is transmitted
• through actual words, 15 through voice
  tonals (sound, pitch,
• inflection, rate), and 75 through
  nonverbals
• All portions of the transmission must be in
  harmony and coinciding
• with each other to avoid sending mixed
  messages
• Be aware of socialized gender differences
  related to congruence (e.g.,
• Mona Lisa grin even when unhappy, being
  nice, direct versus indirect
• speech styles, crying, stoicism, females and
  anger, males and fear
• or sadness) and make the most effective
  choice

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Handling Downshifting in Others ?Arlene Taylor
PhD Realizations Inc

• 4 Avoid use of the word why
• In the English language, why is often
• perceived as stressful or threatening and
  can
• trigger downshifting
• To elicit information or stimulate discussion
  try instead
• What did you want to have happen in this
  situation?
• When you made this choice what did you
  think might happen?
• What could you do differently in the
  future?

• 5 Communicate at eye level whenever possible
• Both individuals either stand or sit
• Studies of the impact on perception of length
  of hospital visits
• indicated patients thought more time had
  passed (than actually
• had) if the physician sat down through at
  least part of the visit

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Handling Downshifting in Others ?Arlene Taylor
PhD Realizations Inc

• 6 Mirror language style (visual, auditory,
  kinesthetic)
• To promote a sense of comfort
• 7 Solicit input
• To promote a sense of being heard and
• understood

• 8 Encourage participation in making decisions
• 9 Allow choice between two options whenever
  possible
• 10 Provide opportunities to exercise some
  control
• Over a portion of an activity (if not over the
  entire activity)

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Implications for Christianity ?Arlene Taylor
PhD Realizations Inc
Apostle Paul - what I want to do I dont do, and
what I dont want to do I do! Go figure . . .
(Romans 7)

• Parenting / grand parenting / role modeling
• Counseling / teaching / pastoring / mentoring
• Temptations (cellular memory)

• Use of will power and conscience (e.g.,
  executive functions)
• Health physical, emotional , mental,
  spiritual, social, sexual
• Anxiety of being good enough to be saved
• Fear of last-days tribulation

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Preventive Strategies 1?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Live a high-level-wellness lifestyle in balance
• Evaluate your typical habits and behaviors
  in relation to amount of water you drink, type of
  food ingested, frequency of eating, amount of
  exercise, amount of sleep, periods of play and
  recreation, hours spent working, and so on.

Take steps to avoid becoming exhausted. For
every period of exhaustion the brain tends to
experience a corresponding period of depression.
While depression in and of itself may not be a
trigger for downshifting, it can drain your
energy and increase your risk of being challenged
in areas that are difficult or energy intensive.
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Preventive Strategies 2?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc
2. Create a personal loss history and write it
out The starting date may be prior to
your birth in some cases (e.g., you were
not a wanted pregnancy). Evaluate your
loss history carefully. Go through the
process of grief recovery as needed to deal with
unresolved loss. Finish up unfinished business.
Refer to Taylors web site for information about
the Grief Recovery Pyramid for survivors of loss
(as opposed to the Kubler-Ross model for
individuals who are personally facing death).
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Preventive Strategies 3?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc
3. Give up blame related to downshifting
Recognize that the phenomenon of downshifting is
a natural and desirable short-term response in
specific situations. Avoid beating up on yourself
when it occurs inappropriately.
Give up blame related to downshifting, period.
Most people (including you) did the best they
could at the time with their level of
understanding and the tools that were available
to them. Blame tends to function as a red herring
that never solves anything. You can learn a new
way!
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Preventive Strategies 4?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Increase your conscious awareness
• Estimates are that as much as 95 of what goes
  on
• in the brain occurs at a subconscious level.
  Become
• More observant and strive to bring more
  information
• to conscious thought. You can manage only what
  you
• become aware of, identify, and label.

Its often what you dont know you dont know
that can cause the most trouble. Overreactions
tend to involve the past. Something about a
present situation reminded your brain of a past
situation (e.g., shameful or hurtful), and it
brought the unresolved emotional weight to bear
on the present, usually inappropriately. Identify
and resolve the past insofar as it is possible to
do so.
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Preventive Strategies 5?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Develop an appropriate response to conflict
  situations
• Identify any tendency you may have to run
  away
• from, avoid, or distance yourself from
  conflict.

Take careful and deliberate steps to resolve
conflict rather than creating a metaphorical
enemy outpost of unresolved conflict in your
head. This may involve reframing, forgiving,
setting and implementing bona fide boundaries,
practicing new behaviors, or changing your
thought patterns, to name just a few.
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Preventive Strategies 6?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Take responsibility for managing your own
  upshifting
• Understand that upshifting occurs through a
  conscious process. Take responsibility for
  implementing preplanned strategies to access
  conscious cognitive functions in your own brain.
  It s your brain! Avoid expecting others to try
  to do this for you (they probably couldnt
  anyway).

Be aware of behaviors in other persons that
indicate the brain may be in a downshifted state.
Develop and consistently implement behaviors that
promote congruent communication.
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Preventive Strategies 7?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc
7. Develop an affirming communication style
Negativity, impatience, worry, anxiety, or
fear can trigger downshifting, and can
actually delay personal growth and needed
recovery processes if not addressed and resolved.
This is especially true when new more functional
patterns of behavior are in the process of being
developed and are not yet strong enough to
over-ride the older, less desirable patterns.
Speak, think, and act in an affirming manner
toward yourself and with others. This is a simple
concept but usually takes time, effort, and
consistent commitment to develop.
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Preventive Strategies 8?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc
8. Avoid unnecessary downshifting
Downshifting can become a habit. Although you can
implement strategies to upshift, it is usually
easier to avoid unnecessary downshifting
in the first place.
Become savvy! Identify triggers in your own life
and learn to avoid them whenever possible.
Increase your sensitivity to what triggers
downshifting in others and develop strategies for
communicating more effectively. Access your
support system / Higher Power as indicated.
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Preventive Strategies 9?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Learn to recognize tension quickly and take
• steps to resolve it
• Tension involves energy that is trapped in
  muscle tissue and unable to flow. When life isnt
  working well and a person experiences anxiety,
  worry, trauma, crisis, fear, etc., the discomfort
  tends to be stored in muscle tissue. It requires
  a great deal of energy to maintain muscular
  tension, which can alter muscle function. In
  extreme cases, the muscles may cease to function
  properly, if at all.

Remember that when the brain is in a downshifted
state, the tendency is to go for the longest-held
or least-painful pattern. Since the action and
emotional brain layers involve the subconscious,
a person can slip into old patterns very quickly
or relapse into addictive behaviors regardless of
available information and in spite of the best of
intentions.
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Preventive Strategies 10?Arlene Taylor PhD
Realizations Inc

• Release discomfort and tension from the muscles
• and exhibit more desirable muscular
  patterns
• Increase your conscious awareness, realizing that
  your body
• is part of your subconscious mind. Exercise
  regularly and
• alter repetitive behaviors as needed. Engage in
  muscular
• reprogramming, if necessary.

When it is a question of needing to heal nerves
and muscles or to reprogram the way in which they
are functioning, the thinking brain layer must
help the body. The rationale for understanding
what has happened, is happening, and what needs
to happen is a cognitive process. Consciously
working through new exercises or techniques is a
necessary step. Gradually the information will
filter down to the emotional brain layer and the
action brain layer (where the software is loaded,
if you will), to implement the desired changes.
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Speaker Information
If you ask Arlene Taylor what she does in life
that absolutely energizes her, she will likely
reply, Im a brain-function specialist and I
help people thrive! She incorporates
cutting-edge brain-function research into her
empowering seminars, highlighting strategies
that, when practically applied, can help people
be more successful?by design.
A recipient of the American Medal of Honor for
Brain-Function Education (American Biographical
Institute Inc, 2002), Taylor holds earned
doctorates in Health and Human Services and in
Clinical Pastoral Counseling. In 1989 the Loma
Linda University Nursing Alumni Association
selected Taylor as Alumna of the year. She has
life membership in the National Registry of Whos
Who, 2000 edition. A member of the National
Speakers Association, Taylor is listed with the
Professional Speakers Bureau International.
Access her web site (www.arlenetaylor.org) for
descriptions of seminars, Taylor-on-the-Brain
Bulletins, SynapSez? newsletter, Selected Brain
Facts, Frequently Asked Questions, lecture
schedules, and more.
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