Day-to-day Stress and Amygdala Hijack – A Filmy Case Study

By now we have all realized that the dynamic Business environment which also includes self and others expectations are mainly responsible for stress. We are mainly talking about mental stress which gets triggered due to some event or a person or maybe some insecurities associated with both. The truth is, no one or nothing can ‘give’ you stress. Stress is your own response to a situation, person or a thing.

So as the stress levels are rising, we are also looking at some impulsive reactions. All of us have at least one example of impulsive reactions at workplace. Somewhere, the prime concern points to the intrinsic stress levels. I am tempted to think of one reaction from Vivek Oberoi, who had raised a concern related to the conflict with Salman Khan.

This happened in early part of the new millennium, when he went on air through a News channel and expressed his concern in rather animated way. He had quite a few things to say about Salman which by the way, I have no clue whether they were true or not. However, we didn’t get any reaction from Salman immediately after that but something changed in Vivek Oberoi’s life. We didn’t see him too often in as many films as expected. The media started speculating that Salman had something to do with it as generally it is believed that the Khans, Kapoors and Bachchans have a good hold in the industry, especially the producers. Not that Vivek Oberoi was totally ousted from the industry, but the inflow of his movies had reduced considerably.

And then something strange happened. After many years since the drama on the News Channel, in one of the film award functions, Vivek Oberoi was performing. After his performance, he was seen publicly apologizing through hand gestures to Salman Khan who was sitting in the first row. We again didn’t get a response from Salman but he was seen to be ignoring Vivek.

Now my problem with the whole thing is, either the TV interview was the correct step, in which case apologizing was not required. But the critic in my brain says that Vivek acted out of an impulse while on the News channel which he repented later on. This means he probably was not thinking what he was doing to himself or to Salman. Now some people may say, this is an act of Emotional Stupidity. I would say, this was a result of Amygdala Hijack where the reptilian brain shut off the thinking brain. Agile Neuro (agileneuro.com), through its training on Emotional Intelligence, explains this very well. Why we tend to react at times instead of responding? Is it easier said than done, “Respond, and don’t react?” Is there a technique of how we can restart the ‘thinking brain’ to prevent Amygdala hijack? During our childhood days, we were told about a technique of dealing with anger, and the technique was counting backwards from 100 to 1. The logic behind this is to start the ‘thinking brain’ and for that you need some logical or analytical process to run. Counting backwards buys you some time to calm down and obviously, it is an analytical process which restarts the ‘thinking brain’.

But I wonder if this technique works for grown-ups. We need something more concrete for this. A technique which is the most suitable for that person who is facing Amygdala Hijack. That’s one way how someone can increase their EQ score and be more Emotionally Intelligent. Some people have their own internal dialogue which helps them have a poise. It’s all about being the coach for yourself in some tight situations. The power of dissociating from the situation and rationally analyzing it to come up with objective solution is a competency in itself. And so many well-known celebrities don’t have it. But it can be learnt. After all, 90% of the top performers are high in EQ. Almost all organizations that are doing well in their industry, have the top management with high EQ. Build the building!