Are you always rushing from one place to the next? Do you often eat without really tasting the food? If you do, then listen up: part of your brain may be in overdrive, acting as though you're being chased by a predator. Not only is it not doing you any good, it's also making you function inefficiently.
The amygdala is the brain region that is involved with the fight and flight system and the experiencing of emotions. This is the part of the brain that senses danger and gets us to respond even before we have a chance to think about it. It's an immediate responlse.
We end up worrying about the future or brooding about the past
But when our lives are not in danger, the amygdala should be turned off, otherwise we would be living in constant overdrive, a frantic mode of being that risks burning us out.
"For people who rush around, their amygdala is permanently on. It's an illusion of creative productivity," says Mark Williams, director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre at Oxford University.
For the past 20 years, Williams has been studying the benefits of mindfulness meditation, a simple form of meditation based on Buddhist practices. Working with two other psychologists, John Teasedale at Cambridge University and Zindel Segal at the University of Toronto, he has focused on helping people with depression.
The three were drawn to the potential benefits of a mindfulness stress reduction programme developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the late 1970s, which was based on Buddhist teachings.