The Body Brain:
“I know you’re tired but come, this is the way.”
Rumi
The body brain monitors the “outside world” through our 5 senses and our “internal world” through our thoughts and feelings, then activites the body to physically respond. It controls automatic and reflex reactions such as breathing, keeping our heart beating, and digestion.
It is through this area that the brain creates a physical/physiological reaction in the body (which is how it can contribute to dis-ease). When you are sad or angry the change/tension that you feel in your body in response to this emotion is because of the body brain.
How the body responds to what you see, hear, taste, touch, feel, or even think is powered by this part of your brain and this has tremendous impact on your mental and physical ability to thrive.
Thriving: A “default state” in which you are joyful, content, and calm with few mental or physical limitations.
An example can help:
- When you see, smell, and taste food your body brain takes these “external impressions” and combines them with your “internal impressions” about eating (“I like to eat,” “This food is good/bad for me,” “I have an allergy to this food,” and so forth.)
- Once combined the body brain then sends signals to your body in response to these impressions. Depending on the “impressions” it recieved; the body brain may signal to get the digestive juices going or flood your body with adrenaline to run away.
- Imagine the difference the proper signal makes to your ability to digest the food you are eating. If the body brain is sending the message to “run” instead of “digest” whenever you eat food this will have tremendous impact on developing digestive symptoms.
The Emotional/Thinking Brain (Mind):
“Often your brain makes you believe, what you see is truly real, even when it is not.”
Abhijit Naskar, Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality
The emotional/thinking brain is (as you would guess) the source of our emotions, and when activated we feel joyful, fearful, angry, sad, etc. Your emotions inform your thinking process about the correct direction to go based on survival or percieved consequences.
It is also (from the perspective of TCM) the location of our subconscious from which we recieve creativity, inspiration, images, thoughts, and ideas. Left to itself, it is the nature of this area to “move” and “wander”: always searching and always coming up with thoughts, ideas, projects, and aspirations. It is designed to shape, create, and feel.
When you plan, create, and take action you rely on the stored knowledge that you have accumulated throughout your life. These experiences carry with them an emotional attachment and how you feel about a particular thought or idea influences your choices.
It is worth taking a quick look at this same area from the perspective of Yoga. In this tradition thoughts and emotions are 2 forms of the same thing, literally translated as “mind stuff.” In short; thoughts and ideas are “mind stuff” with more form and less emotional charge whereas emotions are “mind stuff” with less form and more emotional charge.
I bring this up because from both the TCM and Yoga perspectives our “minds” are designed to wander, create, and regurgitate thoughts and ideas. This can become an issue if we start to identify ourselves as our thoughts and emotions (“I am what I am thinking or feeling”). This is a HUGE topic that will be explored throughout this blog and in on the “Meditation” page. I cannot do justice to here, however I can leave you with this understanding…
Thoughts and emotions are nothing more than “manifestations of energy”. As they are nothing more than “energy” they can no more define who you are than a stomach ache, anxiety, or twisted ankle would. If we start to identify certain thoughts or emotions as good or bad instead of what they are (energy) we can set up a cycle of dis-ease, worry, and becoming “ruled” by our emotions (stuck in a mood).
The Self-Aware/Conscious Brain:
“The joy of being conscious…rather than what you are conscious of.”
The Recognition Sutras, Christopher “Hareesh” Wallis
From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine this part of the brain defines us as individuals, recognizes and assesses our emotions and feelings, and coordinates and integrates with all the other aspects of the brain. This part of our brain is the most fundamental and it is through this part that we are able to define any sense of self-recognition such as “I am happy” or “I am a man.”
For many reasons this part of the brain can be the most challenging for most people to recognize or become aware of, yet it is the most important and the most powerful. It is worth noting then a few thoughts from the Tantric Yoga tradition (not to be confused with Tantra which is completely unrelated) as they help put the perspective from Traditional Chinese Medicine into terms more easily understood by the average person.
Here are a few thoughts that I hope will point you towards your own “waking up” to this part of your brain.
- A few ways this part of you has been described:
- Wordless experience of being conscious
- The power of awareness that allows you to recognize a thought in yourside your mind. “I am thinking about…”
- The wordless observation of the moment.
2. A few ways to experience this for yourself: Try these ways of accessing your “self aware” brain!
- It is often most obvious in the “gap” at the end of a train of thought. When becoming lost in your thoughts there is a period of time (perhaps only 1-2 seconds) after the end of a train of thought in which you “come up for air” and are simply aware for a moment of your existence outside your thoughts.
- It can be found after “loosing yourself” in something powerful or beautiful such as a sunset, song, or great poem in which you have become “absorbed” into what you are focused on. In this case there is a moment before you say to yourself “wow, I enjoyed that” where you are quietly “flavored’ with the thing you became absorbed with. Quiet, wordless joy in the moment.
- Perhaps my favorite from an incredible teacher of mine, ask yourself this question outloud without analysing or pondering the answer. “What is the quality of this moment before I have a thought about it?” Again just as in the other 2 previous examples there is a small window of time where you are simply aware of your conscious experience without commentary.
3. Since so many people identify themselves as their thoughts or emotions rather than by this “self aware” or “conscious” aspect of themselves it can also be helpful to highlight a few differences between the “thinking brain (mind)” and the “self aware/conscious brain”
- All experience is non-verbal. Our thoughts try to put our experiences into words by saying things like “I like chocolate” or “I hate traffic,” however the experience of enjoying chocolate or hating traffic is non-verbal. (that includes talking to yourself in the privacy of your own mind)
- What we experience is often more vivid when we are accessing primarily our “self aware” brain. You have experienced this before when perhaps out in nature, at a great show or performance, or during an amazing meal. The colors are more vibrant, the smells are more intense, you become aware of the feel of the breeze on your skin, and there is often a sense of wordless joy or tranquility.
*Special Note: The self-aware/conscious brain is also defined as consciousness, and is an incredibly complex concept for which we do not have a perfect understanding of in the West. I will discuss this in more detail here but I want to be very clear that we don’t know where consciousness is located or where it comes from. In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is listed as either “in the brain” or “in the heart” and from clinical experience I find time and again that developing access to it has shows tremendous benefits to healing the Mind.*
Up Next: What does this all boil down to for you? How can you use this knowledge to heal from dis-ease and create a life of thriving? (Feel free to pause and “digest” this page before moving on!)