“Who among us has never felt an inner tug-of-war between desire and reason.?”
In her book 7 ½ lessons of the brain Lisa Barrett completely debunks the theory that we possess a three-layered brain: a lizard brain, an emotional brain, and a rational brain.
At times, it does feel like a battle between the layers.
On one shoulder the devil is telling you, “ This guy just cut me off in traffic. I’m going to teach him a lesson!”
On the other shoulder, the angel is telling you, “ Maybe this guy is having a bad day, show him some compassion.”
But Lisa writes: “But human brains don’t work that way. Rationality and emotion are not at war… they do not even live in separate parts of the brain.”
Our brain is a massive network of neurons and connections that span the entire brain.
Simply put, there is not a layer of our brain responsible for one human trait.
Most of everything we do think, feel, create involves the whole brain, not separate thoughts in separate places.
So what does that mean?
It means we can no longer say: “The devil made me do it!”
It means we are in full command and are fully responsible for our actions and thoughts.
We have access to every region of our brain.
Thank goodness, because it sounds like way too much work to overcome a beast!
Much simpler to be open to new ways of thinking.
Until we meet in Person.
Brain to Brain.
Heart to Heart.
Ciao!