This blog is based on 2 realizations:
1. When I love & take care of myself everything in my life seems to flow.
2. When I neglect myself and put myself last, things seem sad and hard.
So I'm going to play a Self-Love game with myself this year and I hope you'll join me! Click here for how you can get started.
When we’re experiencing uncomfortable emotions, the Triune Brain model can be helpful…
Reptilian mind: (Lizard)
Concerned with safety, food, and sex.
Mammalian mind: (Bonobo or Golden Retriever)
Concerned with relationships, love, approval, affection.
Conscious mind: (Witness)
Interested in growth and development.
Feel free to share your thoughts about our Celebrate You call on the topic of emotions…
ChristiI have been struggling with the emotion of ANGER for a while now (although some recent EMDR sessions really helped!).
Listening to this part of the call I was really able to see how this is from my Reptilian Brain. And that helped me to release feel guilty and responsible for the emotion even arising within me. Once I made the connection that my SAFETY was feeling threatened and my RE-action was to feel angry, I was able to have some compassion for that part of myself… which oddly helps me to release the anger so much easier!!!
Thanks Mona!
NinaI haven’t listened to this call yet. I plan to later today.
One comment: I LOVE the idea of describing the Mammalian Brain as a Golden Retriever! I had a Golden when I was a kid (name of Trance; well, his mother was Terry and his father was Lance, so …), and “concerned with relationships, love, approval, affection” described him to a tee! (Why a “tee” anyway? Where’d that expression come from? Anybody know?)
Another thought. In doing yogic breathing, you sit (or whatever) and let your thoughts just float past you, not dwelling on them, just being aware of them and then letting them go. Those random chaotic thoughts, the constant chatter in our minds, is often called the Monkey Mind (c.f., Bonobo above). After doing this for a while and thinking that you suck at meditation, you notice that there is a part of you, something separate from the Monkey Mind, that is *aware* of the chatter. Someone is watching. And that’s the Witness (Conscious Mind). Neat.
More after I’ve listened to the call.
@Christi: I found the same thing when I learned about the Triune Brain model. It helped me stop taking my anger or fear so personally. I saw that it was just my reptilian mind (the way I’m biologically wired) doing what it does.
So that really gave me some perspective.
@Nina: I love those kinds of “watching the thoughts” meditations. Helps me not take what’s happening so personally.
The mind is producing thoughts. The pancreas is producing insulin. The heart is pumping blood. Everything is doing its job and I don’t have identify with any of those things as being me.
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