Do you recognise this?
This morning when my alarm clock went off at 6am, I knew I 'should' get up so as not to be late for work, but I didn't 'want' to get up. I tried to tell myself that I needed to get up, then realised my three Brains were competing in all this:
My Gut Brain wanted to go back to sleep (needed the rest).
My Heart Brain was trying to kindly tell me that I really ought to get up.
I then said to those two, "Let's see what the Head Brain is thinking," and instantly had a clear image of what I can only describe as the personification of my Head Brain, shutting a front door and leaving a house! My Head Brain didn't seem to care about what the other two needed or wanted, it was doing what it knew needed to be done.
This was all in a semi-awake state, so could just have been my subconscious riffing, but I found it interesting, especially as the personification of my Head Brain was a different gender to me, from different ethnic stock and I saw his face incredibly clearly - not resembling anyone I'm aware of seeing before. The house 'he' was leaving was also nowhere I'd ever lived.
The Mind is a strange place indeed...
I received this story from a friend of mine who nows the 3 brain theory as I describe in my book "how MEN and WOMEN FIT" Finally understand your partner with the three brains theory.
Love it when we create an awareness how our internal dialogue is happening.
Our three Brains make decisions in different ways
This is an important concept to remember when you want to coonect with someone else. The Head Brain’s thoughtful consideration does not happen when the Heart or Gut Brains have been activated. Similarly, the Heart Brain’s capacity for connection and compassion are offline when we are in Gut Brain-driven survival mode. You could see this as a pyramid. Only when the lower Brain is content can we can go up to a more sophisticated level of thinking.
So, to review:
The Gut Brain: This level is based on our survival instincts, or our gut, with feelings like fear, desire, disgust, and rage. When the Gut Brain is making decisions, our communication and behavior is based on fear, anger and lust and it is always focused on ‘Me’.
The Heart Brain: This level is based on emotions. They include love, guilt, happiness, hope, joy, shame, sorrow, hate and sadness. Because they are all based on connecting, belonging and are all about ‘Us’ they are essential in our relationships. It also means this Brain can only play a part in our decision- making when we feel safe enough to let our guard down and put the Gut Brain at rest, so that we can feel and nurture attachments.
The Head Brain: This level is solely focused on making logical decisions for the future, based on acquired (past) knowledge. It deals with intellectual feelings like understanding, anticipation, interest, surprise, and wonder. All those things can influence our decisions. We can really use this Brain only when we are feeling safe enough or it is consulted by the Gut or Heart Brain. It cannot override the Gut Brain in situations that provoke fear. And, as we mentioned above, it has an almost impossible task trying to convince a Heart Brain to override an emotional decision.
BTW if you like to learn more about this?
Click on this link to the EBOOK https://www.pealacademy.com/how-well-do-you-know-your-partner
And if you like to learn more about this a therapist, coach or for the workplace join our 2 day workshop in August or follow our Clinical Hypnotherapy training that starts in September.
Have great day Christoffel Sneijders