I recently read 'The Chimp Paradox' by Steve Peters, brilliant book gives a real interesting take on how our minds work and how we can get more control over them.
The basic premises being that due to evolution we have two three distinct parts to our brain the chimp the human and the computer.The chimp part of our brain is five times stronger than the human and views the world through the eyes of a chimp. It sees us, as still being part of the food chain, reacts with emotion, controls our fight flight or freeze response.
It works differently to the evolutionary more recent addition of our human brain which deals with logic and facts.
The book and the ideas in it have impacted me in a far more positive way than all of the counselling I have had in my past.
The more you think about life and who we are both as individuals and a collective the more fascinating it becomes.
As i sit here tapping away on my keyboard i have no idea, really, of how i get my fingers to dance across the keys hetting all the currect latters ...okay maybe 'dancing' was a little strong!?
When i get up to go and make a drink of reach across to pet Louie, again I don't know how my body does that.
I am very ignorant when it comes to mechanics so it is similar when I am driving a car I know how to switch it on and break and accelerate but have little idea of how and engine works. Though I actually probably have a better understanding of a car than the workings of my own body!
How often do any of us think about how we keep our heart beating, how we work our lungs and kidneys how we maintain our eyes and ears, how we digest out food, how we generate energy, there are just so many mysteries and when you think how simply we are created and how miniscule we are at the beginning, it is just mind blowing.
Along with our bodies being a mystery to us so are our minds, i have a better understanding of why now. We have very little control in what our bodies look like and how well they work, none of us made a conscious choice on how our bodies work and look. On a fairly basic level though we can look after our bodies, by exercising, eating well, learning new tasks. But nature and programming is doing most of it. We all age, again with very little input from us as to how that goes for us. I certainly did not choose for my hair and teeth to fall out, for my ears, nose, prostate and fight knacker to get bigger! At the beginning when we were so tiny that we could only be seen through a microscope that was all programmed in and we are just passengers.
Now this is what I have learned recently just as much of our our bodies work, look and age has been programmed in so is much of the way our minds work. The emotional chimp part of the brain works individually and independently from you as a human.
Think of all the times you get scared or panic when you don't know why. When you worry far more than you would like to. When you stay in situations you feel you should leave, when you really want to go travelling or ask someone out and something stops you. when you get so anxious it upsets your stomach and you are thinking, 'there is no way I should be this nervous'
That is the inner conflict between you older more established, in evolutionary terms, chimp brain and the more recently evolved human brain.
So those negative thoughts we all get, that is the chimp trying to protect you (it sees threats everywhere) and unfortunately it is as natural as breathing or your heart beating, Trying to stop those thoughts is like holding your breath.
What I have learned over the last few weeks though is we can manage those thoughts (just as we can regulate breathing patterns) to the extent, where in my case the physical impact of those thoughts, for me it was crippling anxiety at times leading to stomach pain and nausea, can be greatly reduced. By managing and calming our chimp brain.
