We consider ourselves to be 21st-century inhabitants; most of us own cars and we can fly to the other side of the world in a day. It’s hard to imagine us living any other way, but our early ancestors certainly did.

Because of the environment they lived in, their brain was always on red alert looking out for the next life-threatening event. When they encountered it, their unconscious fight/flight response was triggered. This fight/flight response has evolved with us, and today we know it as anxiety. When it’s triggered we can’t think from the logical part of our brain; the prefrontal cortex. 

Anxiety doesn’t have to be a reaction to one life-threatening event. It can be built up over time – and when this happens we spend more time thinking from our primitive brain, which can only respond with either anger, anxiety or depression, or a combination of all three. 

The most influential part of our primitive brain is the amygdala. Our amygdala will always see things from the worst possible perspective; it’s obsessional and vigilant. Once it’s perceived something as a threat, it wants to remind you of it all the time, in its mistaken belief that doing so is keeping you safe. 

As it’s obsessional, the amygdala will continue to remind you of this threat long after the danger has passed. Our negative thoughts will then be played out in a loop and we can find ourselves constantly catastrophising. 

When we suffer from anxiety, the ‘it’s all right, the danger has passed’ signal never reaches our prefrontal cortex. As a result we spend our days with a head full of worry fearing the worst.

Serotonin helps to calm our amygdala and in doing so it allows our prefrontal cortex to have more responsibility for our thinking. This part of our brain, which is much more rational, can then assess the threat and make a decision as to whether it’s real or imagined. If it assesses it to be real, then it can help us to make a plan to overcome it. 

Serotonin is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. We can’t make tryptophan, but we can consume it by eating foods such as eggs, salmon, soy, nuts and seeds. Natural sunlight is also known to raise our serotonin levels, as is exercise – and exercise gives us an extra boost by keeping it in our system for longer.  

What better way to increase your serotonin levels than going for a walk or run around the shelter belt on a sunny day and then popping into Tesco to pick up some foods high in tryptophan? 

Ian Murton is an award winning clinical hypnotherapist based in Fairfield. He specialises in helping children and adults to overcome their anxiety and insomnia. You can find out more about his services by visiting his website ianmurtonhypnotherapy.com.