The Wise Brain and the Wild Brain

we’re all born with ancient brains from back when we hunted on the plains,
and though an awful lot has changed, we still chase the things we taste:
salt, sugar, sex, starch, fat and love—we crave all of the above,
and it feels right when we find them, but we can never get enough...

                                                                  Brad Yoder, 2011, all rights reserved

Sometimes I show the above diagram to a client to illustrate how we humans tend to make decisions, wise and otherwise.

The lower part of the brain, the subcortex, I point out, is the part of our complex nervous system that is much like that of the rest of God’s creatures. It is the primitive, reactive part of the brain designed to help us survive, the part that generates the arousal needed for our “fight or flight” responses to perceived threats. It’s an important asset when there is a fire, an accident or any other immediate or possible danger, and is also the part of us that regulates body functions and urges us to satisfy our cravings for food, drink and sex. 

The higher brain, the neocortex, represents our amazing capacity for reflection, reasoning and creative problem-solving, and in my opinion is the part of us that most represents the image of God. It is here that we can make wise and thoughtful decisions, "wise" representing the kinds of actions we will later feel the least remorse about, and "foolish" being the kinds of impulse-based behaviors about which we are most likely to have profound regrets.

It is of course possible for this higher brain to come up with all kinds of nefarious and unwise schemes as well, depending on the moral values of the individual.

At any rate, when the lower part of our brain is highly activated, is in that impulsive mode in which strong feelings of fear, anger, or desire are escalating, the upper brain is half shut down, is more likely to just be ignored or bypassed. Which may be called for, even lifesaving, in case of a real emergency requiring immediate and drastic action, but catastrophic in life situations that call for careful choice-making.

All too often we humans tend to overreact to situations, perceiving them as crises when they simply represent normal problems. As a result we find ourselves behaving inappropriately, from the reactive rather than the reflective cortex of our brain.

All of the above is vastly oversimplified, of course, in that our brains are far more complex than I’ve described, but I still see this as a helpful picture to keep in mind. We’re surely better off being mindful of which part of our brain is calling the shots, and to make sure we are making wise, life-enhancing choices we’ll feel best about--and blessed by--one, ten or fifty years from now.

So much depends on whether the wise brain or the wild brain is in charge.

The Wise-Self/Worried-Self Journal

For any of us dealing with an overload of anxiety, anger or depression, I suggest using a journal as a daily “Worry Book”  in which we do what I call “double-entry journaling.”

Here’s how it works:

On one side of an open journal page we write down our worst fears, worries, angers, griefs or negative beliefs. We record these in raw, unedited form, just as they are repeating themselves endlessly in our mind. This step can help us identify, externalize and vent the negative messages that are coming from our fear-based “worried self.” Putting these distressing, repetitive thoughts and beliefs on paper helps us examine them more objectively to see if they pass the truth, faith and reasonableness test.

Examples of negative, "worried self" statements:

“I’m always messing up. Nothing I do or say ever comes out right.”

“My boss has it in for me. Everybody else at work gets treated better than I do.”

“Everything is just so hopeless. Life is totally unfair, and there’s not any use even trying to make things better.”

When we’re finished getting these off our chest we turn to the opposite page and write responses to each of our expressions of distress or fear, this time speaking from our “wise self.” This doesn’t mean writing down a lot of Pollyannish platitudes simply to make us feel better. Rather, we respond in the same way we would if this worried or depressed person were some other valued friend or family member we really cared about.

Here are some examples of “wise self” responses to the above:

“I’m human, so I do mess up sometimes. But of course I say and do some things right, too, and when I goof up, I can always learn from my mistakes.”

“My boss is unreasonable sometimes, for sure, but that’s his/her problem. My problem is knowing how to either ignore her/him when s/he’s having a bad day, confront him/her about it, or find myself another job.”

“I guess not everything is hopeless, even though some things do seem unfair. With God’s help and with the support of other good people, I can at least do my best to make my life worthwhile.”

When we’re finished reflecting on all that is unreasonably negative (on the left page), and finished affirming alternatives that are reasonably positive (on the right page), we close our “Worry Book” and set it aside, having done as much as we feel we can for the time being. Then whenever we need to, if not on a daily basis, we return to the book, review what we’ve written on both sides of the ledger, add to each column whatever is current, and again close it and set it aside. And then go about living under the guidance of our wise, faith-based and fear-free self to the best of our ability.

Living from our more reasonable, faith- and truth-based side won’t rid us of all our problems, but it  can go a long way to reduce, if not always eliminate, a lot of the anxiety or distress associated with them.

Bottom line: The truth is our friend, and will set us free. If it isn’t freeing us, it probably isn’t the truth.

For another helpful practice for the anxious: https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2017/11/rx-for-anxious-dedicated-worry-hour.html