In the first section of this course, we shared how school staff said they were feeling at the end of the unprecedented 2019-2020 school year. Most of them said anxious, stressed, and worried. However, even before COVID-19 school staff reported experiencing unpleasant emotions regularly. During the 2017-2018 school year, stressed, frustrated, and overwhelmed were the most commonly reported feeling words among a mix of other unpleasant emotions. It's clear that how we want to feel is different than how we actually feel. We say we want to feel excited, safe, confident, and happy. But in reality many of us have felt stressed, frustrated, overwhelmed for years. Some unpleasant feelings are inevitable and even useful, but what's wrong here is how out of balance we are. Unfortunately, 70% of the emotions adults have been feeling have been in the red and blue Mood Meter quadrants, which are the unpleasant emotions. A reasonable goal would be to flip these ratios so that we're spending 70% of the time in yellow and green quadrants, experiencing pleasant emotions, and about 30% of the time, the blue and red quadrants. As we've said, some unpleasant emotions are inevitable and helpful. But over time, especially when they're strong, they can take a toll on our health and our well being. So why is it so hard to get our emotional lives in balance? The reality is that our bodies are responding to the physical threats before us, which is natural. Our bodies are trying to keep us safe by ringing our alarm bells. There are two parts of our brains really at work here. The first is the limbic region, which is deep in the middle of the brain. The limbic region is like an air traffic controller, scanning for an incoming threat. It monitors information that comes in from our senses, like what we see and hear, as well as our memories and thoughts. The main job of the limbic system is to keep our bodies safe from danger. It's in charge of releasing the neurotransmitters and hormones that move energy to different parts of our bodies for fight, flight, and freeze. Memories of scary events are also stored here in the hopes of protecting us from similar events in the future. The second area involved is the prefrontal cortex. This is the part of our brain that thinks, reasons, plans, and analyzes situations. We can think of it is the executive manager of our thoughts, that helps us to see the big picture and have perspective. These neural connections between the limbic region and the prefrontal cortex grow over the course of our childhood, and take about 25 years to fully established. These connections allow our feelings to inform our thoughts. The connectivity between the two regions also makes it possible for us to use our thoughts to help us manage our emotions. But when were highly stressed, the limbic region takes over and turns on all the alarms to help us survive. The access to the prefrontal cortex shuts down, which is why it's hard to think clearly, to learn, or to pay attention to anything else when we're stressed. When we're feeling stressed, the sensory system also goes on full alert, meaning that vision and hearing lock onto the threat. The limbic region sends messages to the adrenal glands to release adrenaline, which activates the heart and lungs, preparing us for fight or flight. The stress hormone cortisol is released, which starts breaking down fats and proteins for energy. It also stores the memory of the scary event and its context in our brains. Body functions that are not essential for responding to danger, like the immune response and digestion are also slowed down. Once the threat has passed, the body restores its balance and functioning again. However, repeated or prolonged stress eventually causes wear and tear on these functions. This is why experiencing long term adversity can cost problems like immune disorders, high blood pressure, heart problems, and metabolic problems. This sound scary, but the good news is understanding the stress response, also gives us clues for how to manage it in the best way possible. Again, too many unpleasant emotions experienced for long periods of time, which are natural results of stressful and uncertain times, can have negative effects are physical and mental health, our relationships, and our performance in and out of school. While the goal isn't to experience pleasant emotions all the time, we do often need greater balance. And we need strategies that work for us to get there.
