Amygdala Hijack Explained — With a Somatic Practice to Calm Your Amygdala
Amygdala Hijack Explained: What It Is and How to Calm It
There are moments in life when we suddenly find ourselves reacting in ways we didn’t intend—snapping at someone we love, shutting down in the middle of a conversation, or feeling overtaken by fear or distress that seems out of proportion to what’s happening. And later, we might think, Where did that come from? That wasn’t like me.
This is what psychologists refer to as an amygdala hijack: a moment when the brain’s emotional center overrides its rational thinking, flooding the body with a threat response before we can consciously process what’s happening.
What Is an Amygdala Hijack?
To understand amygdala hijack, it helps to know a little bit about how the brain works in moments of perceived threat.
The amygdala is a small structure deep in the brain that plays a central role in detecting danger and initiating the body’s protective responses. It’s fast, efficient, and designed to keep us alive. When the amygdala senses threat -whether it’s a car swerving into your lane or a painful tone in someone’s voice - it sends out an alarm. And in that moment, your more thoughtful, reflective brain (the prefrontal cortex) can go offline.
This is the hijack. The emotional brain takes over. It’s not logical or measured. It’s fast, ancient, and wired for survival.
Importantly, the amygdala doesn’t just respond to current danger. It also responds to anything that reminds the body of danger—including past trauma, unresolved fear, shame, or even memories you may not consciously recall. In other words, your body can respond to a non-threatening situation as if you’re being chased by a Saber Tooth Tiger.
What It Feels Like to Be Hijacked
When you're in an amygdala hijack, you’ll often feel out of control and reactive. There can be a kind of tunnel vision—emotionally, mentally, and physically. You may lose access to logic, empathy, curiosity, or creativity.
This is what psychologist Daniel Goleman refers to as the refractory state: a period where the brain becomes so caught in the emotional response that it filters out any information that contradicts what it's feeling. So even if someone is trying to soothe you, or if the situation resolves quickly, your system may still feel as if you're in danger.
The thinking brain is offline. And the emotional brain is sounding the alarm.
Why You Can’t Think Your Way Out of an Amygdala Hijack
One of the most challenging aspects of an amygdala hijack is that we can’t think our way out of it … because the part of the brain responsible for clear thinking isn’t fully online. The prefrontal cortex, which governs reflection, reasoning, and impulse control, goes temporarily dark while the amygdala is in charge.
That’s why techniques that rely on logic or reassurance often don’t work in the moment. Your body needs to feel safe before your brain can access reasoning again.
How to Calm Amygdala Hijack With Havening Techniques®
This is where Havening Techniques® can be a powerful, body-based intervention.
Havening uses gentle, rhythmic touch on the arms, hands, or face to help regulate the nervous system. This touch generates delta brainwaves - the same slow waves we experience in deep sleep - which have been shown to downregulate the amygdala and bring the body out of a reactive state.
In moments of hijack, when logic and reasoning aren’t accessible, Havening offers an alternative route to safety. It calms the body’s alarm system, allowing the emotional storm to settle and the thinking brain to come back online. It’s simple, gentle, and works directly with the biology of your stress response.
So today I’m going to guide you through a short Havening exercise - something you can come back to anytime you feel caught in reactivity, flooded by emotion, or stuck in a hijack.
From Judgment to Compassion
If you’ve ever had an experience like this (and chances are, you have) please know this:
You are not too much. You are not failing. You are not broken.
You are having a very human response to something that, on some level, felt like danger.
And your nervous system did exactly what it’s designed to do: protect you.
Understanding amygdala hijack helps us move from judgment to curiosity.
It helps us make sense of why we sometimes feel so reactive … why we can go from calm to spiraling in the blink of an eye.
Why we say something we regret, or shut down completely, or feel flooded by fear or shame… even when the situation, objectively, doesn’t seem that threatening.
When we understand the amygdala’s role in these moments, it gives us more than just insight - it gives us a doorway into compassion. Instead of blaming ourselves for how we respond, we begin to recognize: oh… this isn’t a me being broken. This is a protective response from my nervous system.
And that shift can change everything.
Try the Somatic Practice To Calm Your Amygdala now!
Episode timing:
00:00 - Understanding Amygdala Hijack (and How to Calm It)
06:46 - Somatic Practice to Calm Your Amygdala using Havening
23:50 - Conclusion
Related: Try more nervous system healing meditations here!
Learn more about Havening Techniques and the science behind them
Havening Techniques® is a registered trademark of Ronald Ruden, 15 East 91st Street, New York. www.havening.org
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How was that Somatic Practice to Calm Your Amygdala for you?
What shifted within you? What was your number at the beginning and what was it at the end?
Please let me know in the comments!
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About me
Hey, I’m Karena!
I’m a somatic emotional healing coach here to help you quickly identify and heal the subconscious blocks, old emotional wounds and self-sabotaging core beliefs that are holding you back!
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