Welcome to episode 269 of Live Happy Now.

This is Paula Phelps, and I'd like to thank you for joining us again this week.

If you've ever had a sudden feeling of distress that triggers your fight or flight response,

then you know what it's like to have your emotions hijacked.

And if that's something you've experienced recently, you're not alone.

This week,

clinical psychologist and mindfulness expert, Dr. Shauna Shapiro, returns to talk about how current times might be affecting your emotions and what practices you can use, both individually

and as a family, to regulate them. Shauna, thank you for coming back to talk to us on Live Happy Now.

Oh, I'm delighted to be back.

Thanks, Paula.

Well, you and I talked back in February, and things were so much different.

There was no way we knew what was ahead of us.

And we talked about your fantastic book.

Good morning.

I love you.

And the reason I wanted to invite you back today and talk to you is because you give so many great

practices for mindfulness and for managing things during difficult times. And one thing that I kept

going back to during this time is your practice on emotion regulation. So thank you for coming on

because that's really something I want to talk to you about today. I agree. I think all of us can feel the impact of these times in our nervous systems, on our emotions and our hearts, and it's

really important to have tools and practices to help regulate them. And your practice on emotion

regulation really explains how it starts. So I guess to begin with, can you explain to us what an amygdala hijack is?

So an amygdala hijack is when kind of our fear centers, which is based in the amygdala,

...