There is still much to learn about the brain as it is very complex but what we do know can help us understand ourselves better and use it to our advantage. We’ll look into key parts of the brain to see how it shapes how we experience things and ultimately understand ourselves better. We’ll focus on three areas of the brain which is a simplified way of understanding the different components and how it functions.
The brain is more complicated than what will be mentioned. Each system encompasses a lot more functions than emotions, memories, processing thoughts, and information. They are all interconnected. There's many different lobes and other detailed parts of the brain that we're not going to get into because it's just a lot of information and we want to keep it informative enough without getting too lost in all the details. But this gives an idea overall of how the brain can be viewed.
Brain stem, limbic system and cerebrum
The bottom most part of the brain is the brainstem sometimes referred to as the reptilian brain. It’s responsible for the regulatory things. This makes sure that your system is functioning well, so your lungs are breathing, your heart is pumping, your other organs are doing exactly what it needs to do. You don’t have to worry about it because it is on auto pilot. It regulates your body temperature and when you get a cold it raises the temperature to kill the virus. This vital part allows us to survive, where our sense of if we are thirsty, hungry, fight or flight, being territorial and reproducing comes from.
The limbic system regulates emotion, behaviors, motivation and memory. All this helps tell your body what to do based on what you encounter. It’s that gut feeling that many of us rely on. Let’s you had great experiences at the beach then each time you think about it, you recall those memories that evoke those feelings of happiness.
When you go there you anticipate what happened in the past will likely happen again. You use memories to help predict what might happen so you can make decisions. And your emotions help make decisions. While we might like to think that our decisions are completely rational, we draw on our memories to see how we felt and whether it’s something that we want to do or not. For someone that's had a bad experience at a carnival they'll tend to want to avoid going to one as the memory associated with it evokes unpleasant emotions. They’ll expect it to happen again.
The third part we’ll touch on is the cerebrum which is responsible for thoughts, actions, language, learning and interpreting things. This is the largest part of your brain. This helps you to make better informed decisions. Like mentioned before while we might think that the decisions we make are purely rational, we use how we felt based on the situation recalling our own memories, finding new information and using the two to think through things that can help us going forward.
If you never experienced going on a cruise ship you'll use the cerebrum to analyze if that's something that you should do. You might ask other people about their experiences on their cruise, look at the things to do and then you'll draw your own conclusion from it. Without this part of the brain then you would always continuously do the same thing repeatedly, just doing what you know, which limits you.
All these different parts interact with each other, where one activates another. If you get excited because you’ve accomplished a big goal such as getting into your dream school, it activates the reptilian brain where your heart beats faster because of a heightened emotional state.
Or if you interpret something upsetting like your favorite sports team losing a game it activates the limbic system because your emotions were triggered where now you’re angry, sad or even fearful. Or if you have a large cut where you’re bleeding a lot it activates the cerebrum that you need to assess how dire it is and can cause an emotional response of panic. These are examples of how one can activate another. It can go from top to bottom or bottom to top.
How stress affects the brain
Typically, when we're under stress it causes us to make poor decisions because of lack of a certain resource such as rest or food, or an overload of a stimulate. The ability to interpret or analyze what's going on is diminished. This is the state where the reptilian brain overtakes the cerebrum’s ability to do its job effectively.
It can cause us to lash out at ourselves or anybody that's around us. Making good decisions in times like this can be a lot more difficult to do. If you do have to make a decision in a state like this, it can cause urgency that can lead to panic. You’ll tend to make harsher decisions that are impulsive.
Think of you just had a long hard day at work and you’re under an intense amount of stress and as you're driving home, you're facing a lot of traffic. You could be thinking about wanting to get home as soon as you can and just relax. This might cause you to tailgate somebody so closely that you're merely inches away from their bumper and as traffic is moving along that start stop, start stop causes you to get closer and closer to the car in front of you to the point where you hit them and now you got to deal with resolving the crash.
Poor decision right? The closer you are to somebody’s bumper it’s not going to get you that much faster to your home that makes it worthwhile. You might save a few milliseconds or even a few seconds but because being in a stressful state it causes that urgency of wanting to get home a lot quicker.
But if you take the opposite scenario of this where you had a fantastic day at work and you're right in the middle of traffic you're going to be in a better emotional state where you're more forgiving and patient. This can cause you to back off the car that is right in front of you and if others are in such a rush and they're looking to cut you off you’re more inclined to let them because you have that momentum of being in a good state.
You’re in a place where you can make better decisions. You know that having distance between you and the other cars is going to allow you to get home at a reasonable time as you are avoiding getting into an accident. The few seconds that can potentially be saved are not worth the risk. The only difference between these two scenarios is a person's emotional state.
Examples like this are why certain practices like deep breathing or meditation or taking time away from what's causing you stress are consistently emphasized. And it's for good reason because they work but only when you're committed to doing it. The cerebrum can regulate things for the better. This helps to minimize the reptilian brain from taking over, from wanting to lash out or fighting someone.
Even things like thinking about those happy moments that you had when you're in a bad mood can uplift you. Your cerebrum is triggering a memory that has your limbic system moving along nicely in a feel-good state. This can cause your heart rate to slow down, your blood pressure to drop, your relaxed to interpret things better and make good decisions.
Being self-aware to manage your brain
It is each and every one of us responsibilities for how we conduct ourselves how we behave, and we got to constantly remind ourselves about that. It's understandable to lose our composure at times where we fall short of what we were striving for, but we have got to be conscious of what we do and how we do it.
If in the scenario where you had a stressful day and you were in traffic where you hit the car right in front of you because of that urgency to get home so quickly, the police are not going to find a valid argument if you say that I had a stressful day, I wanted to get home as quickly as possible and I shouldn’t be held liable.
Or if you had to make your case with a judge in a courtroom, they are going to buy that excuse, they’ll find you at fault. Being self-aware in a moment like this can be really helpful because it's you saying that listen I just had a hard day I'm probably going to be in traffic so I might as well put on some music that could uplift me, watch a funny video that makes me laugh, talk to somebody that can hear me out so I can decompress and doing all this before actually getting in the car. It’s recognizing when you could slip up because being in a vulnerable state.
This leads to getting better at handling the stresses, the challenges, the struggles that you're up against. These are constants that are always going to be present so we might as well find ways to learn how to take them on and not merely expect that things are going to work out in our favor. The things that are talked about in stress management or anger management are simple things that should be what you rely on to get you to at least a neutral state. When you can do this the cerebrum is regulating the other parts of the brain from making a difficult situation worse.
The brain is elastic
A great thing to know about our brains is that it's elastic that we can obviously learn new things and that our abilities are not set in stone. Genetically we all have a starting point if we don't work on things. Let's say you're naturally good at math, it takes very little effort for you to do it well and understand new material. But if you're not a strong communicator that alone does not mean that you can't be. It just requires greater effort on your part to develop that side.
This helps us to understand that we are not limited by whether we have a certain trait, or we don't. It's not whether you're smart or not smart, fast or not fast. That's that thinking in absolute terms where we become our own greatest threat. It's simply how quickly do certain things come to us. Generally, if we're not good at something or the longer it takes to catch on to something it gets us to think that I can't do this and will divert that energy to something that is easy, something that I do well.
If this does happen, then it will start to create negative memories associated with the thing that is hard. Each time you think about it, you’ll be reminded to stay away from it. That's where that limitation comes from, it's drawing on those past experiences to tell you how things will turn out.
Know that you can get better at the things that you might be weak in right now it just requires a strong commitment to continue to work at it to refine your craft. With the right amount of work and figuring out how to get better eventually you can it just requires a build up to where you hit a breaking point. Just like running water in a plumbing system, when you turn on the faucet there needs to be a high enough amount of pressure for water to come out and getting better at certain things requires going through that stage that buildup of that pressure.
Being aware that the limbic system stores a lot of your memories that trigger emotions and the cerebrum responsible for interpreting information and how they work together might better help you overcome certain fears or those bad memories that limit you. They do serve a purpose to remind us you what to be careful or what to watch out for but just acting alone on those emotions really keep you stuck in place. To help overcome this you can use those memories, those emotions that are evoked and use that with your cerebrum where you can really process your thoughts and combine those two for the better.
Final thoughts
Take things a step further and really come to understand those things that trigger you to be in survival mode. The things that upset you, that make you defensive because it can feel like retreating or at least resisting that keeps you stuck in place. Our brain serves a wonderful purpose for us to continue to go about our lives, but we have to use the limbic system and the cerebrum together to learn, develop and grow vigorously. It'd be foolish to rely simply on instinct, so we must constantly keep making progress and sometimes that requires going through pain. To do what is hard.
Getting familiar with these components of how the brain operates makes you better self-aware that you can leverage it for the better. When we're experiencing those unwanted emotions such as anger, disappointment or sadness that's not something that should be avoided but instead embrace it figure out the source that’s causing it and figure out how you can overcome it. The more that you give yourself time to process this, especially those painful emotions you get acclimated to where it becomes less and less intense, because you're able to regulate them a lot better think things through and help you make good decisions.
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