Brain Fact Friday on "Training Your Brain to Self-Regulate Automatic Negative Thoughts and Emotions"

<p>Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for our second Brain Fact Friday! When we recorded episode #109<a href='#_edn1'>[i]</a> we announced we would be pulling out an important Brain Fact every Friday to dive deep into some of the brain-based strategies we are offering in each episode, so we can be sure to implement these important concepts in our schools, workplaces and lives.</p> <p>BRAIN FACT: Here’s our Brain Fact for this week from Horacio Sanchez, who we had an insightful interview with for Episode #111<a href='#_edn2'>[ii]</a> on his new book “Finding Solutions to the Poverty Problem.”</p> <p>“Did you know that when we engage in inner speech, all the mechanisms of outer speech and the auditory process activate in the brain. Therefore, what we say to ourselves is just like hearing it said by someone else to us. Inform students (and ourselves) that inner speech can build them up or destroy them.” (Horacio Sanchez)<a href='#_edn3'>[iii]</a></p> <p>I brought up the damaging effects of Automatic Negative Thinking on one of our early episodes, #14 on Self-Regulation<a href='#_edn4'>[iv]</a>. The skill of managing our thoughts, emotions and behavior comes under the competency of self-regulation (one of the 6 social and emotional learning competencies that we covered in the beginning episodes of this podcast).</p> <p>What is Self-Regulation and Why is it So Important? </p> <p>It’s “the ability to manage your emotions and behavior in accordance with the demands of the situation. It includes being able to resist highly emotional reactions to upsetting stimuli, to calm yourself down when you get upset, adjust to a change in expectations and (the ability) to handle frustration”<a href='#_edn5'>[v]</a> In other words, it’s the ability to bounce back after a setback or disappointment, and the ability to stay in congruence with your inner value system. </p> <p>Using Self-Regulation to Manage Negative Thinking in the Workplace</p> <p>I’ve got to say, this topic