Читать книгу Where Did That Come From?: How to Keep Control In Any Situation - Anne Boone's Riches - Страница 7

Has this happened to you?

You’ve almost certainly experienced this survival response. For example, you’re driving along listening to the radio when, out of the corner of your eye, you see a shape moving on the road in front of you. Without even thinking, you slam your foot on the brake, bringing the car to a shuddering halt.

Now if you’d been concentrating on the road and your driving, really concentrating, you would have realised that the shape was only a shadow. But the radio station was playing one of your favourite songs, one that brought back great memories, so you were driving on autopilot. You weren’t thinking, but your amygdala was on the lookout.

In that split second when your amygdala ‘sees’ the shadow, it makes you slam on the brakes. Adrenaline shoots through your body, your heart thumps, you start to shake, and maybe the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You realise a split second later that the shape you saw was nothing more than a shadow, but by then it’s too late. When you braked without warning, the driver in the car behind you also had to brake suddenly, but wasn’t quick enough to avoid running into the rear end of your car!

The next thing you know, you’re out of your car yelling at the person who smashed into you, but the reality is, when you think about it calmly, you probably feel embarrassed. You realise that if you’d been paying attention to the road, instead of being lost in the feelings brought on by the song, the accident would not have happened. In fact, you feel like an idiot. You just experienced The Almond Effect®. Your amygdala quickly assessed the shadow as a threat, and you reacted accordingly. But unfortunately, it got it wrong. Expensively!