Charlotte Moore - Neurofocused Solutions

06/11/2025

😡😡 Anger seems to be an undertone for a lot of people nowadays. 🤬🤬

Angry, frustrated, annoyed, enraged.

🧠 Here's what's going on neurobiologically in the brain when these sorts of emotions hum in the background on a day to day basis...

The deep area of the brain where emotions are created (amygdala) is getting a brilliant workout 💪 With that workout comes, you guessed it, strength. The more you use it, the stronger it gets, the more likely the daily fuel will be anger.

Next, the part of the brain that manages the downregulation ⬇️ of the amygdala (hippocampus) gets flooded with prolonged high cortisol and gets damaged. This stops it from doing it's job properly: lowering the intensity of the emotion.

Let's head upstairs to the part of the brain that manages emotional regulation, the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This stops getting the exercise it needs. It stops going to the gym.
It starts to do the bare minimum each day and boy does that show up in behaviour!!

😡 When people feel angry, frustrated, annoyed, enraged, in today's world, EVERYONE knows about it.
It gets put on social media, it gets projected on to other people, it gets projected onto animals, it has an impact on everything and everyone in the environment. It is very obvious when someone feels these emotions. Most PFC's are so busy justifying the behaviour that it completely misses the emotion that ignited it in the first place!

What is also obvious, is how that repetive behaviour is evidence that the amygdala is getting a workout and the PFC is laying in bed doing sweet FA to help with emotional regulation.

A brain that sits with these emotions humming in the background most days is super important information.
These emotions on constant repeat lead to:
⚠️ communication imbalance between the amygdala and the PFC
⚠️ an overactivated amygdala
⚠️ a hypofunctioning PFC

How can this be changed?

We start by retraining those brain regions to communicate properly and over time rebalance their workload.

1️⃣ Noticing what emotion you feel as a single word answer (eg. Angry). **DO NOT turn it into a sentence, eg "because..."**
2️⃣ Find where you feel it in your body and say the emotion 3x out loud.
3️⃣ Breathe out the emotion and release it
(Repeat the process if necessary)

What does this do?
✅️ When the type of emotion is noticed, it activates the PFC and strengthens the neural pathways between the two areas.
✅️ The recognition of the emotion helps the hippocampus to turn down the intensity of emotion.
✅️ Helps the PFC to get it's but in the gym and work out for a change and causes the amygdala to chill out onto he couch for a bit.

Try these tips regularly and see what changes.
Happy brain training 🧠 💪

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕣𝕖
Clinical & Translational Neuroscientist | Neuroscience based intervention for trauma & stress | Neuroplasticity neurotherapy | Trauma & stress neuroeducation | Frontline stress & trauma training.

05/11/2025

Everything you do is driven by emotion and reinforced by thoughts!

04/11/2025

29/10/2025

Rewiring the brain to change behaviour takes time and effort!

Let's use trauma as an example.

A single traumatic event can easily result in the life long reconditioning of the brain's chemicals, connectivity and region activation.

🔬 We can see this effect on a cellular level, a gross anatomical level and on a behavioural level.

Structural brain changes occur in the:
🔍 hippocampus - the learning and memory area
🔍 amygdala - the emotional production area
🔍 prefrontal cortex - the emotional regulation, reasoning, decision making, impulse control and empathy area.

These changes occur when the communication between neurons (nerve cells) and supporting cells (glia) are instructed to adjust their communication by the hormone Cortisol.

🚦Cortisol tells the chemicals in the brain to increase or decrease according to environmental information. The amount of cortisol released at any given moment determines how the brain is shaped next and how much.

That one traumatic experience has a short AND long term neurobiological impact on the brain's circuitry and communication because of cortisol.

🚨 What is really important to understand about traumatic experiences is that the brain has an acute processing phase that determines how the information is processed long term. What you do in the 24-72hrs after the traumatic experience shapes how the brain processes the stress.

Regular practiced behaviour that is expressed after a traumatic event reflects how emotions activate that brain circuitry and how much access that individual has to their prefrontal cortex to regulate their emotional intensity, apply reasoning skills to various information, exercise impulse control and carry out effective decisions.

Understanding how the brain responds to stress and learning effective skills to process emotions and regulate your nervous system is fundamental to shaping your brain and behaviour in a healthy way and prevent stress related disorders from rearing their ugly heads.

Happy brain training 🧠 💪

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕣𝕖
Clinical & Translational Neuroscientist | Neuroscience based intervention for trauma & stress | Neuroplasticity neurotherapy | Trauma & stress neuroeducation | Frontline stress & trauma training

"Understand your brain, body and behaviour through neuroscience"
~ Charlotte Moore

✅️ If you would like neuroscience based help to work through trauma or stress, please reach out to me or book a private in-person or virtual appointment.

✅️ I invite you to contact me via private message, whatsapp, phone call, or email to ask any questions or discuss how I can help you or your organisation.

Learn more about my services:
𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.𝐜𝐨𝐦.𝐚𝐮
Book a private in-person or virtual appointment with me:
𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐲.𝐜𝐨𝐦/𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞_𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐞
Contact me:
𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞@𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.𝐜𝐨𝐦
𝟎𝟒𝟎𝟕𝟎𝟖𝟎𝟓𝟎𝟒

21/10/2025

How the heck do I cope with my emotions?

I'm hurting people around me when I feel angry!
I'm hurting myself when I feel angry or sad!
I don't know what to do when I feel frustrated or angry!
I lash out when I feel frustrated!
I shout when I feel angry!
I hit when I feel frustrated or angry!
I know how to get what I want when I feel frustrated, angry or sad!

When emotions are intense is when most people start noticing them, this is also often the point when it is the hardest to regulate them to.
When emotions are not intense, they're hard to notice unless you are consciously looking for them!

So what have you noticed you do in response to feeling intense:
Anger?
Sadness?
Happiness?
Frustration?
Excitement?

Are the things you do in response to your emotions prosocial or antisocial?
Do they build your relationships up or break them down?
Do the things you do in the short term to alleviate or process your emotions help or hinder your relationships in the long run?

We often find unconscious "coping" mechanisms to manage the short term pain without consciously realising that there is often a long term consequence to that unconscious short term solution.

When we repeat these unconscious practices, we get better at them and don't even realise that we now have conditioned responses to emotions, and that often have an extended impact on those around us.

How can we change this?

1️⃣ Practicing becoming aware of the emotions you feel in the moment on a daily basis helps you to tune into emotions when they aren't intense, and in turn also helps your prefrontal cortex build emotional regulation skills.

2️⃣ List your emotions as single word answers:
Angry
Sad
Happy
Excited
Frustrated

Rules: don't follow up your single word answers with sentences that expand, justify, intellectualise, judge or have an opinion on your emotions list. Let them be single word answers.
Don't add a "because" in your mind after the emotion, that is justification and leads to defense which feeds more emotional intensity.

3️⃣ Start teaching yourself that the healthiest way to respond to your emotions are:
1. Pause
2. Notice them
3. Find where you feel them in your body
4. Trust that reducing emotional intensity doesn't require analysis, it just requires the recognition of the emotion
5. Create space from the person (mental and/or physical) until your emotions have softened and then return when they're not so intense to communicate your way through it.

If you would like more help learning how to do this or any other trauma or stress related reparation, please feel free to get in touch or book a session with me.

Happy brain training 🧠 💪

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕣𝕖
Clinical & Translational Neuroscientist | Neuroscience based intervention for trauma & stress | Neuroplasticity neurotherapy | Trauma & stress neuroeducation | Frontline stress & trauma training

"Understand your brain, body and behaviour through neuroscience"
~ Charlotte Moore

✅️ If you would like neuroscience based help to work through trauma or stress, please reach out to me or book a private in-person or virtual appointment.

✅️ I invite you to contact me via private message, whatsapp, phone call, or email to ask any questions or discuss how I can help you or your organisation.

Learn more about my services:
𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.𝐜𝐨𝐦.𝐚𝐮
Book a private in-person or virtual appointment with me:
𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐲.𝐜𝐨𝐦/𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞_𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐞
Contact me:
𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞@𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.𝐜𝐨𝐦
𝟎𝟒𝟎𝟕𝟎𝟖𝟎𝟓𝟎𝟒

01/10/2025

Hippocampus (on the left) is latin for "seahorse" and aptly named so because of its resemblance to a seahorse (on the right).

This structure of the brain is involved in memory, learning and cortisol regulation and is especially sensitive to cortisol (the adaptation to stress hormone). This is what allows it to play such a fundamental role in memory and learning.

Because of it's sensitivity to cortisol, the hippocampus is highly vulnerable to excitoneurotoxicity.
Excitoneurotoxicity occurs when cortisol is elevated for prolonged periods of time (even moderate elevation).

The neurons (nerve cells) that make up the hippocampus become injured and further exposure leads to neuron death.

Because this clever little brain structure also plays a role in lowering cortisol, when the neurons within it are damaged or die, it's function of memory and learning become impaired, along with the ability to downregulate cortisol.

This is one of the major contributors to pervasive, ongoing stress and why people find it hard to stop the hightened cyclic effects of anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, etc. Ultimately leading to more neurotransmitter dysregulation.
The sympathetic nervous system develops excessive tone and the body's stress signals play a huge role in shaping the brain's structure and behaviour.

Thankfully, when we put the effort into mitigating our response to stressors, new neurons in the hippocampus can develop!! 💪💪
Welcome back memory, learning and cortisol downregulation.

The hardest part is overriding what your brain and body have conditioned themselves to do in response to these stressors.
Nowadays most people learn to "cope" with their situation/environment.
Learning to "cope" is just learning to tolerate an environment that isn't working for you. Tolerance is fine when being practiced for short periods of time, but incredibly corrosive and damaging when being practiced long term.

Learn to make a change that advocates for nervous system and emotional safety.

Your brain needs to feel physically and emotionally safe to relax properly. Make sure the place where you sleep is just that...
Emotionally and physically safe!
If it's not, then your brain will stay on threat alert, keep your cortisol up and damage your hippocampus.
You'll develop behaviours that allow you to cope, and will lose behaviours that allow you to thrive in balance, peace and acceptance.

Be in charge of what environments you choose!

Choose the time you exposed yourself to hard environments and make sure you ALWAYS have a safe environment to sleep in!

Never sacrifice your safe sleep space for ANYTHING!

Happy brain training 🧠 💪

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕣𝕖
Clinical & Translational Neuroscientist | Neuroscience based intervention for trauma & stress | Neuroplasticity neurotherapy | Trauma & stress neuroeducation | Frontline stress & trauma training

"Understand your brain, body and behaviour through neuroscience"
~ Charlotte Moore

✅️ If you would like neuroscience based help to work through trauma or stress, please reach out to me or book a private in-person or virtual appointment.

✅️ I invite you to contact me via private message, whatsapp, phone call, or email to ask any questions or discuss how I can help you or your organisation.

Learn more about my services:
𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.𝐜𝐨𝐦.𝐚𝐮
Book a private in-person or virtual appointment with me:
𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐲.𝐜𝐨𝐦/𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞_𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐞
Contact me:
𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞@𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.𝐜𝐨𝐦
𝟎𝟒𝟎𝟕𝟎𝟖𝟎𝟓𝟎𝟒

26/09/2025

Food for thought...
How do you respond to rejection?