Day 10 of my personal transformation. Video Here. I wake up at 4:45. I can no longer sleep. Rough night. I got in late, ate terrible food, and then struggled with thoughts playing pinball in my head all night. So now I am sitting on the bench where I keep my running shoes. I am holding one of them, thinking I should put it on. Instead, I am staring listlessly down at the floor. Staring. Clock ticking. My brain signals that I am too tired, weak, or fat. This is a hopeless endeavor. You need a break anyway. Just go eat something wrong and go back to bed. Do you ever have thoughts like this? If you do, then:
TELL THAT PRIMAL BRAIN OF YOURS TO SHUT UP.
In the news recently, we have been watching horrible images of human tragedy and suffering. Conflict that is resulting in the death of humans. This brings a lot of emotions out, which it should. We should react negatively to violence. When your life is truly at stake, your primal brain is a great ally. You have a reservoir of adrenaline that can kick in and trigger an elevated and fast response to avoid danger and imminent threat. When you are threatened, there is an absolute and critical need to pay attention to your primal brain. The problem is that this primal instinct is always at work, even when we are not really under any threat at all.
Running around my neighborhood will not kill me or harm me in any way. In fact, it will benefit me tremendously. However, the primal mind is hard at work sending signals to you that you are interpreting as a reason to avoid the risk. Your primal instinct will keep sending signals, and you will come up with hundreds of reasons why you should not engage in strenuous work. This is true in our relationships and in business as well. We often get the signal that we are incapable, do not have the capacity, or do not know enough. We come up with reasons why we should refrain from talking to someone or reaching out to someone new. This is because we have this fear instinct to avoid people we do not know. In ancient times, strange people and animals were always a threat. So, avoidance was the first instinct. The funny thing is that if a Bengal Tiger walked into my office or I picked up the phone to attempt to cold call someone, my fear instinct would feel the same. In one case, there actually is the threat of harm. On the other, there is absolutely nothing that will harm you. Yet our primal trigger is the same.
Understanding that the human brain is not just the active thinking part of the frontal lobe is essential. Most people, if you were to ask them where are you? Meaning, where inside the body are you? You could put that somewhere above the eyes and behind the forehead. However, the human brain is much more complex. It extends well beyond the cranium and into the entire body, wherever the nervous system extends. These are highly connected and tied together in a complex organic signaling system that we are only beginning to understand. It is really incredible when you think about it. No matter what you are doing, some areas of the body are firing off signals, and the 10 major regions of the human brain are processing them. The active part of the brain has to make decisions, and we have a consciousness that resides independent of all these systems so that these decisions can be made. That is amazing. Human consciousness, spirit, soul, whatever your preference is incredible.
That means when your consciousness is active and mindful, you can choose which impulses to handle and which to ignore. You are in charge of the human system. Some things function without your engagement, like breathing. However, you are able, if you need to, to interrupt the breathing process and take control. It’s a good idea when you jump into a lake. This is vital to understand and to be conscious of the origins. We have a system for processing high-order cognitive functions, that one you know well. Most function in the background. You have a system for dealing with memory language processing and integrating that with visual perception. This system is triggering your active mind constantly. Another part of the brain handles our attention, integrates sensory data, and even allows us to process things spatially. We have visual processing, auditory processing, emotion processing, motor control, habit forming, and the ability to process inputs into a framework for you to even make a decision. All of these are part of what we call the brain. This does not include all the “mini-brains” you have all over your body. Whoever developed this system was a really excellent programmer!
Then, we have instincts, which we really need to understand how that works. There are some theories, but the best we can do so far is catalog them. Flight and Fight is one we all know well, but you have many others. The desire to be a parent and produce and care for offspring is vital, including reproduction. We are instinctually curious and also aggressive when threatened. We are finely tuned in determining if another person would be a good mate or a good part of our social structure. These instincts each have an entire signaling system that involves processing information from human organs and parts of the body. Your stomach is part of your brain, sending constant signals. You have to eat to survive. That is one example, but thousands of micro-processes feed into, support, and maintain our natural instincts. You also have control over these and can interrupt them when necessary. You can choose not to be aggressive. You can choose not to eat. You can choose not to act on urges, impulses, and desires.
This is a long way in telling this simple concept. You can tell your primal brain screaming at you to stop, to shut up. When you suddenly desire to eat that entire box of cookies, you can tell that part of your brain to shut up. You are, in fact, getting bombarded constantly with this signaling and making interpretations. If you are not aware and conscious of your role in managing this, your natural instincts will win. Suppose you are just going through the motions without really thinking. In that case, you will be doing the least amount possible, consuming the easiest calories available, and generally doing things that feed that primal brain but do not help you. So, be mindful and recognize where the trigger is coming from. Why do you want to do this? Why are you doing this? Great questions to ask because the more engaged your active mind is in this process of living, the better off you will be.
