*UPDATED Podcast 2 More of how our brain drives our behavior...........

In this podcast: 

I will discuss basic human emotional needs and the intersection with culture.
Genetics: Structure determines function.
Where emotions originate: The limbic system and the HPA axis. 
The lobes of the brain. 
How we can find peace in life. 

                                  Please join me as I discuss why I think we do as we do and how we can ALL do differently. 

Change is difficult, at times it is very difficult and it can seem impossible, but WE change. Our brain drives us BUT plasticity rules! If we can dip into our courage, find our willingness, then pay attention to your body, learn to ignore your mind; we can tap into the infinite love, wisdom and power of our spirit guided by our Pineal gland, the window of our intuition. 

Please visit my sites for more information which includes: Articles where the podcast comes from, services, fees, booking and much more: 

Website:  www.gwensanimalandhumantherapy.com 
Blog:         www.ouroriginalbraininmodernlife.blog

Transcript

I am 

I am nature
I am energy
I am love
I am a spiritual being
    I am an emotional being 
I am a physical being 
Most of all I am a human being, becoming a humane being.


Yes indeed we are nature…….Hello and Welcome to my podcasts. Our Original Brain In Modern Life

My name is Gwen and what I'd like to talk to you today about my favorite subject. I call it why do we do as we do? I believe we do as we do because as our brain drives our behavior  not the other way around. So what can we do about our brain driving US and US not driving us. Please join me as I describe some of the processes of how this occurs, what can we do to change. How we can learn to drive US not the other way around. 

Each of these podcasts are in written form under articles at my blog ouroriginalbraininmodernlife.blog Here you will find all of my podcasts and the articles associated with them that I have written. Please read them if you like. You may find the pictures helpful for your understanding. You are welcome to print and share them. There is also a forum where you can share your thoughts, feelings and contemplations about what you have just listened too. Let me not forget for all you animal lovers…..ever want to talk with your animal companion? Please visit my site 
gwenshumanandanimaltherapy.com Namaste’

Let me give you an overview of this podcast. 

In this podcast: 

I will discuss basic human emotional needs and the intersection with culture.
Genetics: Structure determines function.
Where emotions originate: The limbic system and the HPA axis. 
The lobes of the brain. 
How we can find peace in life. 

This container must survive because our bodies are containers for our energetic spirit. This means this body of ours has to be nurtured and cared for with food, elimination, reproduction, and protection from weather, temperature, moisture, and predators. This requires a CEO to run us. That is our brain. Our brain drives our behavior to function in a stimulus/response manner. We are designed to react, not act. This modus operandi allowed us to use less energy. When we lived nomadically, we had less reliable food resources. We must conserve energy, and our brain uses a lot of energy.

Because our brain works automatically, it never sleeps. Even in sleep, our body is repairing, restoring, and manufacturing everything we need to keep alive. Our brain controls our actions, and humans can function like a patella reflex, simply reacting and reacting. If this fits you in any way, let me say there's nothing wrong with you. You are just human. The beautiful thing about being human is that we have free will, and we can decide how we behave if it is not consistent with who we are and if we want to be different. Change is slow and takes endless commitment and a lot of trial and error. How do we change? We change by reflecting, contemplating, examining, and asking why we do as we do. It is important when we ask ourselves that question and we do so with an open mind and a willingness to examine whatever comes up and look at it. The biggest hurdle is to ignore our mind and the messages it sends, trying to convince us that something is wrong with us. The more we pay attention to ourselves, the more aware we are of our feelings and how our feelings are our internal stimulation of an external event. An event that fits into the context of our history, our life story. Greater peace and potential understanding start with being able to ask the question why do I do as I do. Some questions to consider are: Do I behave in the manner I think I should in order to be liked, or is it consistent with who I am? We are all hardwired to desire to be a part of the tribe, to be accepted by others and seen for who we are. These are basic human needs. I wonder what is the cost of acting how you think you should be liked by others. 

A psychologist named Abraham Maslow made a pyramid called Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  This pyramid represents levels of self-development. The stage below needs to be satisfied before one can go to the next level. For example, you probably couldn’t pursue family, intimacy, or friends as readily if you didn't have a home. 

The need for belongingness is a human emotional need to affiliate with and be accepted by members of a group. Our need to belong is a primary social need as we are social animals. When we lived outside, more hazards existed, and being a part of a group increased our chance of survival. Our need to belong is reflected by our need to avoid rejection and feel approved by others. This need can be influential in our daily behavior. This is where the word “should” exists and leads to feelings of social obligation. Have you felt an unspoken social pressure to do something? Maybe it was to attend a social event or give a gift? Maybe your parents taught you that you shouldn’t say certain things about others. Children learn to ignore their natural inclinations at a young age because they fear rejection. Maybe it could be by your peer group, or maybe it was a teacher or parent. Children raised like this live by what Karen Horney calls the “Tyranny of the Should’s.” You should do this, you should do that. If you were reared like that or feel social pressure to behave in a certain way, as adults, you lose our natural tendency to be curious, to be open, to be hopeful, to want to self-examine and learn about one’s self. This is the curiosity that led us to leave Africa and explore Asia, and eventually explore and populate 90% of the planet. That aspect of ourselves can be reawakened.

In my third semester of college, I learned about humanistic psychology, which was largely the work of Dr Abraham Maslow and Dr Carl Rogers. I was introduced to Carl Rogers by the teacher, who had drawn two circles on the board. One was a smaller circle and the other was a larger circle. He explained that the smaller circle was true I and the bigger circle was other I. He stated that humans have a need for positive regard, love, and affection and that most humans receive conditional positive regard and are raised by caregivers who rule under the “tyranny of the shoulds.” I will love you if you act this way. I will love you if you're interested in XY&Z but not an AB&C. When raised by the tyranny of the should’s, one learns to abandon one's natural curiosity. The person will then live an inauthentic life, doing what they think they need to do for approval and acceptance, not what feels true to them. For example, if you were raised in a home where you lived under the tyranny of the should’s. You may go to college and pursue a career that you think your parents want you to have, and when you have that career, you will gain their love and acceptance. I believe when you live your life based on what you think you need to do to be accepted by others; there is a good chance you will feel a sense of dissatisfaction with your career and yourself. That can be a recipe leading to one judging oneself and others. How often do you reject what someone says or does based upon what you thought they should have said or done? 

We all live under the tyranny of the shoulds. It is called socialization. But how much of our socialization comes from explicit norms within a given culture versus the norms we embrace based upon the shoulds of life? The shoulds of life, I believe, come from our mind. Our mind is the part of the brain that interprets the information coming in and operates on fear. Often reacting based on the shoulds of life. The manner we think we should be to be liked. 

*If this resonates, please read: https://evolutioncounseling.com/tyranny-of-the-shoulds/. It is an excellent full explanation of how that can operate in anyone’s life. 

How does what happens when we are younger affect us later? What part of the human puzzle do our neurology and genetics play? 

Genetics: Our genetics dictate the structure and how our brain works, and of course, the environment plays a role. The two operate and develop in tandem. From conception throughout the first couple of years of our lives, we are greatly impacted by all that our caretakers say and do. Caregivers are those who take care of us from the moment we are conceived to the moment we are born, perhaps the first couple of years of our lives, and even until now. During this time, we developed our current “emotional brain” circuitry, which is really another way of saying how do feelings register in our body. Do we feel our feelings intensely, and do they frighten us? Are we even aware of any coping mechanisms we have developed because they were intense? What is our emotional relationship with the world around us? This emotional circuitry starts as dirt roads in our brain. These roads are developed by nature, one or both parents and how our caregivers nurtured us. The part of the brain that feels emotion is operating off of cues in our external environment. The more we can understand the relationship between the two, the more we can understand why we do what we do. The brain has an extraordinary amount of something called plasticity. You can be born, nurtured, and developed a specific emotional temperament, but we can change that. You are your genetics, and that is only the gun; the environment pulls the trigger. You can intervene and change your emotional reactions, learning how to use our whole brain. Our emotional circuitry is the road our brain automatically goes to when stimulated. This stimulation we call our feelings, our emotions. Our emotions are our internal stimulation in relationship to what's happening outside of us. That information, that electrical stimulation, comes from one of our six senses, and it’s our cue as to what to do next to enhance ourselves. We inherit this brain architecture, then we are raised by our caregivers initially, then the rest of the world later.

The human brain physically is divided into two parts. The stuff between our ears,  a small amount of cauliflower, the brainstem, cerebellum, pons, spinal cord this is our original brain. The cauliflower part is our modern brain. These areas of our brain are distinctive yet intimately connected. The limbic system is a part of our original brain. It is where emotion is first felt. Our limbic system is our emotional alarm center. This is how our brain drives us, but we can learn to drive ourselves, gaining control over our alarm center, our limbic system. Having more control over our limbic alarm center can allow us to feel and we can feel greater self-control and well-being. It starts with being aware of oneself and being open to self-examine what is really motivating us. What is happening at the moment? How does this all fit into the context of who I am? What can I learn? 


So, what is this limbic system? A Neuroscientist named James Papez proposed that an emotional circuitry ran through the hypothalamus. He then identified specific structures that were a part of this emotional circuitry. The structures are the amygdala (emotional alarm center), thalamus (relay station), hippocampus (memory), cingulate gyrus the first layer of the cortex, closest to the stuff between our ears), olfactory bulb, and hypothalamus.

The amygdala is sized and shaped like an almond. It is located deep in the brain toward the middle, right below the ear lobe. You have two, one on the right and one on the left; like most parts of the brain, there is a pair. The primary function of the amygdala is to operate as an alarm system to alert us to danger. The only coping strategies of the amygdala are to run, fight, or play dead. The amygdala, by way of chemical messengers, can stimulate portions of the brain that stimulate the body.  

When we perceive anything that stimulates fear, the amygdala will send chemical messengers that act in a cascade manner on the body. The amygdala intimates this alarm system and ultimately stimulates the hypothalamus, which stimulates the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland stimulates the adrenal gland. The adrenal gland makes both cortisol and adrenaline. Each chemical messenger stimulates the next like dominoes falling. 

This circuit is called the HPA axis. That is because all parts, the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal gland, work together to cope with whatever stress one perceives. Have you ever had your own thoughts create a feeling of anxiety? When this happens, you feel threatened and go into survival mode. Our sympathetic system takes over, and we get ready to run, fight, or play dead. 

This is the stress response. Like dominoes falling, one reaction stimulates the next, and then it’s all fed back to the source, the hypothalamus. This feedback is intended to stop the hypothalamus from signaling the adrenal gland to secrete more cortisol. Cortisol is meant to elevate blood sugar levels for short bursts of energy. However, elevated cortisol suppresses our immunity, suppresses bone growth, and affects many bodily functions. This is why stress can kill. One effective way to decrease stress is using our whole brain, not just the stuff between our ears. Learning how to prevent our original brain from driving our behavior. The amygdala initiates a sympathetic nervous system reaction, and we react. This is where activities like meditation, breathing, and paying attention to patterns in your life can pay off. Meditation reduces anxiety by keeping us calmer, breathing slowly and gently, and directing our attention away from the situation that is producing the anxiety. learning the patterns and triggers that are setting off your anxiety is helpful.

Our modern brain. What are these lobes and what do they do? 

Our largest is the frontal cortex. It is often thought of as the thinking part of the brain; this is where emotion is processed, and we make our interpretations as to the sensory stimulus coming in. This sensory stimulation can be from any one of the six senses: smell, seeing, hearing, touch, taste, and my favorite, intuition. 

Our parental lobe allows us to see in 3-D, to imagine things in our mind that we can’t readily see. 

*It is thought that Einstein had an enlarged parietal lobe that might have helped him develop the theory of relativity.  

E=MC2 

Our parietal lobe has allowed us to see things of space and create instruments like GPS. 

Our occipital lobe allows us to process vision to determine what we are seeing at any given moment. The most amazing thing about our occipital lobe is that we can close our eyes and envision things in our mind’s eye. For example, If I close my eyes, I can envision Ella Fitzgerald singing as I recall her from YouTube videos I have watched. 

Our temporal lobe. That is where our memories reside. We understand what we hear, decipher the language, and begin to understand what is occurring outside of us. Is there danger? That danger can come from our own thoughts, creating a sense of danger or the environment.  An example of the stressor coming from our own mind. You are at the airport, and for some reason, there are problems with security. It looks like you're going to miss your flight. You have a complete meltdown. Later, upon reflection, you realize that this experience reminds you of a childhood memory where you were late and missed a birthday party.  You plug back into that memory, which is another way of saying your body remembers this feeling and begins to behave the same as you did then. Your body will take over and you react. 

You can learn not to react. You do so by paying attention to what you are feeling and how you are acting in your day-to-day interactions.  You might find you feel tension in your throat, chest, or other body parts. This often happens when we feel we have to defend ourselves and our actions and explain ourselves. Ask yourself how this fits into your life. What has happened like this? What did you interpret from this experience? This can help us understand the meaning behind many of our daily interactions, but it starts with being open and allowing yourself to feel. Connecting with your inner guidance, your wisdom, your intuition, the signals of the pineal gland are sending. The pineal gland is located in the middle of your head, straight back from middle area between your eyebrows. The Egyptians called this the third eye.  

*https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/01/23/the-three-meanings-of-emc2-einsteins-most-famous-equation/?sh=af2260771c0b

Being open and following my intuition has guided my life, telling me what to do when and reflecting on how my inner voice always knows. All I have to do is listen. 

Lastly, the two areas of significance that radically changed the course of human history are the Broca and Wernicke areas, as they gave us the ability to speak and understand language. With language, we create culture. The world we see around us is a result of these two areas expanding as recently as 40-70,000 years ago. Not very long. 


Please join me for my next podcast when I discuss how I discovered and use my intuition, block universe theory, string theory, and the pineal gland. For now please enjoy A poem I have written for you…..


You are

You are nature
You are energy
Your are love
You are a spiritual being
You are an emotional being
You are a physical being 
Most of all you are a human being becoming a humane being 
Namaste` Be well Until next time. 


*https://www.healthline.com/health/mind-body/how-to-open-your-third-eye
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/is-having-a-sense-of-belonging-important
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-need-to-belong-2795393
https://evolutioncounseling.com/tyranny-of-the-shoulds/
http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/why-0-3/baby-and-brain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbic_system
https://marcellepick.com/how-cortisol-affects-the-immune-system/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol#:~:text=Cortisol can weaken the activity of the immune, unable to produce the T-cell growth factor IL-2.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23073-cerebral-cortex
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/01/23/the-three-meanings-of-emc2-einsteins-most-famous-equation/?sh=af2260771c0b 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgH9KXEQ0YU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6kreUskcpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhpEg0mUug0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnURElCzGc0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyYqyYAKGC0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppcKojHqML4&list=PLQWND5qZhbj1RwrMJ4f8ldKM4cEnbVTcy&index=1
https://memory.ucsf.edu/symptoms/speech-language
https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1075&context=duquark
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineal_gland