Understand why certain experiences feel overwhelming and how your brain stores unprocessed stress.

Gain language to describe emotional reactions without shame or self-blame.

Increase awareness of how trauma impacts memory, stress, and daily functioning.

How Your Brain Processes Life

This handout offers a simple, visual explanation of how the brain processes experiences through three key regions: the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala. Using an accessible library metaphor, it illustrates how memories are stored, organized, or left unprocessed, especially during stress or trauma.  The content helps normalize why some experiences linger as emotional reactions without clear context, and how unresolved stress can affect beliefs, reactions, and regulation.  Structured for quick understanding, the handout supports insight without overwhelm. Readers leave with greater clarity about their nervous system, increased self-compassion, and a foundational understanding that supports healing, reflection, and therapeutic work.

About Breelove.ca

This resource, like all offerings in our digital library, was co-created by the Breelove collective: a team of culturally rooted, trauma-informed practitioners, drawing from real moments in real healing spaces. At Breelove.ca, we offer more than care, we create it in community. Our practice centers Black, Indigenous, racialized, queer, and other marginalized communities in the Maritimes, while holding space for all bodies throughout Turtle Island and Canada. Our approach combines clinical counselling with community wisdom: trauma-informed support, anti-oppressive frameworks, and real tools for emotional resilience. We offer 1:1 therapy, live support groups, self-paced healing courses, digital downloads like this one, and a free online community where you’re never expected to heal alone. Because we believe that we each deserve to be well, and to be witnessed as we get there.

Download the handout now to better understand how your brain processes experiences and responds to stress.

This trauma-informed handout translates neuroscience into relatable language, helping you understand stress responses without judgment and build insight that supports healing, regulation, and self-trust.

Get your free download now