Conflict tends to clutch our brains like a vice grip, tightening with every headline, every fiery tweet, every looped news clip designed to trigger outrage. Much like a gambler drawn to the flickering thrill of uncertain outcomes, we flip through media feeds for emotional highs, even when they come drenched in negativity. Why? Because our brain’s amygdala, or what we might call the Namungo MYG, clings to emotional heat. And left untamed, it steals our capacity to reason, to create, and to care.
But what if we could tame our MYG and direct our attention toward sustainable solutions rather than reactive cycles? What if the very parts of our brain that contribute to conflict could also lead us out of it, through the wisdom of a Mita Growth Mindset, the imaginative insight of the 6 namungos, and the grounded clarity of two-footed questions?
Let’s take a walk through the brain’s conflict circuitry and find the very tools within us already to awaken and rewire it for peace, creativity, and shared progress.
Why Conflict Hijacks Our Brain
The amygdala (MYG) reacts quickly to perceived threat. In conflict, it floods the body with stress responses, anger, fear, defensiveness. Enter CORT, or cortisol, another namungo that raises our stress levels. Add in BAS (basal ganglia), which stores old ruts and routines like grudges and blame loops, and suddenly our brains are wired more for war than resolution.
When we live from that state, when we feed conflict with divisive language and broadcast hostility, we aren’t just expressing opinions. We’re draining innovation, choking kindness, and bankrupting our brains. There’s no space for creativity when MYG and CORT dominate the scene and BAS keeps us looping the same emotional stories.
Rewiring Conflict: Let the Namungos Lead
Thankfully, the brain also holds fictional heroes, namungos, who represent real capacities that help us grow, change, and thrive. With a Mita Growth Mindset, these namungos offer more than metaphors, they become the GPS to redirect conflict toward transformation.
SERO (serotonin) brings calm, contentment, and trust. When we increase SERO, our brains experience more safety and openness, prime conditions for sustainable dialogue.
PLAS (neuroplasticity) reminds us the brain can change. Even deeply rooted conflict responses are not fixed; they can be rewired.
WM (working memory) shows us that our mental space is limited, we must prioritize what we hold. Will we rehearse slights or build solutions?
And BAS, CORT, and MYG, though often involved in conflict, can be retrained when guided by grace and growth-oriented questions.
Two-Footed Questions: The Mita Tool That Tames Our MYG
Mita conflict resolution practices invite us to ask two-footed questions, questions with one foot in curiosity and the other in possibility. These questions activate PLAS and SERO, and help calm the MYG by shifting focus from reactivity to reflection.
Instead of asking:
Why are they so wrong?
Try instead:
What insight might I discover if I listen beyond the words, and what new way forward could emerge if I let go of being right?
Rather than:
How do I win this argument?
Ask instead:
What one risk can I take to grow understanding, and what might I learn about my own assumptions along the way?
Two-footed questions reframe the purpose of dialogue from victory to growth, from standoff to shared insight. They invite the SERO in us to lead, and they free WM to hold new ideas rather than emotional debris.
From Innovation Drain to Imagination Reign
When conflict is unresolved or mismanaged, it doesn’t just affect relationships, it weakens innovation. We can’t imagine together when we’re locked in old grooves (BAS) and high-stress response (CORT). But when we apply Mita tools and the 6 namungos to daily life, we shift from brain drain to brain gain.
Try these practical actions:
Deliberately activate SERO by doing one kind act daily. The brain’s wellbeing molecule rises with each act of grace.
Interrupt BAS ruts by trying something unfamiliar. Take a new perspective. Visit a different news source. Practice the opposite of a knee-jerk reaction.
Calm MYG and CORT with breathwork, nature walks, or two-footed journaling prompts that invite self-compassion and insight.
Stretch PLAS by learning one new skill a week, especially something that brings joy.
Engage WM in building—write, create, invent, and play with solutions.
And always return to the power of two-footed questions to reframe conflict as opportunity.
Reimagining Community, One Brain at a Time
What if kindness became the currency of our conversations? What if conflict became a classroom for deeper listening, and every disagreement was an invitation to grow?
Using the Mita Growth Mindset, seniors, learners, and leaders alike can practice brain-based strategies that reframe conflict. Courses like Lead Innovation with the Brain in Mind offer guided practice and applied neuroscience for change agents across every sector. The results? Dialogue replaces division. Creativity fuels leadership. And innovation rises where grudge once ruled.
Words That Transform, Minds That Renew
Next time we feel the electric jolt of conflict, whether online or in person, let’s pause. Ask a two-footed question. Let a namungo help us reroute. Speak kindness, not to appease but to awaken. It’s in this rewiring, choice by choice, that we free our minds from innovation drain and launch our first step from problems into possibilities.
Because the opposite of conflict isn’t silence. It’s shared wonder.