“Harmony emerges from integration. Chaos and rigidity arise when integration is blocked.”

Daniel J. Siegel

3 Parts of the Mind/Brain That Need to Communicate:
The Mind/Brain is Organized Into 3 Seperate “Aspects”

Triune brain theory developed by Dr. Paul MacLean describes three distinct areas of the brain:

  • The Reptilian brain
  • The Limbic brain
  • The Neocortex

These three areas share a lot of similarities to the understanding of the Mind/brain in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Traditional Yoga:

  • The Reptilian brain – Po or “Soul of the body”
  • The Limbic brain – Hun or “Ethereal Soul”
  • The Neocortex – Shen or “Mind”

For simplicity going forward I will refer to these 3 distinct aspects as:

  • The Body Brain
  • The Emotional/Thinking Brain (Mind)
  • The Self-Aware/Conscious Brain

*Please note that this page and the next are dramatic oversimplifications of complex concepts, especially in the context of the self-aware/conscious brain*

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