During my years of education, I focused my studies mainly on the biological sciences. Part of my study included learning about the amygdala or the lizard brain. The amygdala is an almond shaped mass located deep within the temporal lobe of the brain. Its’ main function is the processing of emotions such as fear, anger, and pleasure. The amygdala is particularly concerned with processing these emotions and formulating a plan of action to increase survival. The whole flight or fight response.
I’ve been reading a book by Seth Godin entitled, “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable”. A portion of the book explains that to be great, we need to overcome the power of the lizard brain. The lizard brain or resistance is the voice in the back of our head that tells us to slow down, back off, be careful, or worst of all…compromise.
The contradictions of human behavior are never ending. We say we want to meet more people, but stay home when invited to go out. We say we want to lose weight, but we eat too much. We say we want to be successful, but are fearful of rejection. Remember fear is simply an acronym for: false evidence appearing real.
As we get closer to an insight or as we get closer to the truth of what each one of us truly wants, the resistance amplifies and grows stronger. Why, because the lizard brain hates change and risk. We’ve all heard the cliché…great reward requires great risk. The lizard brain wants each of us to conform and blend in. Who decided what the boundaries of conformity are? Who decided that a 9-5 job was the norm? Fortunately, the boundaries are being broken and expanded daily.
I’m not promoting a revolt or an “occupy Wall Street” type demonstration; I am simply trying to explain that each of us has the power to be great…indispensable. For each of us, the risk is different. It may be speaking our mind in a meeting of our peers. It may be playing an impromptu musical number at a town talent show. Each of us has the opportunity to quiet the lizard brain…ignore it and let the art in each of us come out.
5 comments:
This is sweet! I think that if you were a teacher I would love your class...just saying.
This totally reminded me of a quote - "Faith & fear cannot coexist." I have no idea who said it first (maybe Joseph F. Smith?) but it's true. If we have a little more faith, we can overcome that fear. :)
BTW, your posts are much more substantial... I'm starting to feel like a slacker with NaBloPoMo... but at least you get pictures every day!
Wow - this is pretty deep thinking. I guess I'm too much of a surface thinker. Wish I had the courage to overcome my fears.
I really do find it interesting that there is actually a part of our brain dedicated to this notion of survival. I liked the point that we have to overcome this base notion of survival in order to become better, stronger. That in some instances this drive to survive can be harmful to our abilities to create, to grow, to become better. Hmmm, lots of food for thought here. Thank you for this.
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