Two Halves make a Whole

Expanding the left-right combo

That fear/anxiety centre in your brain, the amygdala, spewing out mega-doses of cortisol and adrenaline is a great help if you’re being chased by a lion. But when ‘captured’ by the anxiety-provoking mass media, politicians and others in authority, the consequences are not in your favour. In fact those consequences conspire against you as they drive you towards a Half-Brain preparation! The high levels of adrenaline compromise your ability to reason by suppressing your pre-frontal cortex. Additionally your over-heated left hemisphere suppresses your right hemisphere support of big-picture sensitivity, intuition, creativity and connection to emotions. But there’s another whammy … the red-hot amygdala decreases your dopamine levels by suppressing the nucleus accumbens which results in a diminished sense of purpose, drive, engagement and gratification. So when succumbing to the popular fear-based Covid narrative and other fear mongering you will inevitably experience degrees of fear and anxiety, hopeless-helplessness and to boot, lose your sense of reason, intuition and big-picture sensitivity.

But that’s not all folks ... That chemical combination has been shown conclusively to result in suppression of your immunity and the development of a chronic inflammatory state (think ‘cytokine storm’) – not very helpful in pandemic times! And also a little bothersome since chronic inflammatory states have been shown to underpin heart disease, strokes, cancer and many other nasty illness consequences.

But fortunately nature has equipped us with the natural neuro-psychological antidote: Pre-frontal lobe reasoning together with a right hemisphere feed quietens the raging amygdala; Enhanced meaning and purpose is associated with a stimulated nucleus accumbens and with increased dopamine production which further suppresses the spewing amygdala; Empathy, trust and belief mediated by oxytocin production and derived from the cingulate gyrus, enhances dopamine production and provides the finishing touch to finally releasing us from the clutches of the raging amygdala and allowing the virtues of the right hemisphere to flow unsuppressed  again.

Hence Weinberg’s 3:1 ratio shall set thee free: The activated pre-frontal cortex + nucleus accumbens + cingulate gyrus easily extinguishes the raging amygdala  and allows the light in from the right hemisphere. The way forward? Simply regain your sense of reason, re-purpose yourself in meaningful and gratifying endeavours and re-kindle your empathic engagement by being a little more sensitive and less judgemental. Ultimately this will move us towards the Whole-Brain integration together with all its rewards.

Essentially we need to establish a game plan and apply it regularly. Even ritualize it on a regular basis. In this way we will maintain the life-enhancing juices for sustained wellness, performance and leadership. Some internal reflection about things that are personally meaningful and purposeful together with acknowledgement of personal uniqueness will establish meaningful busyness. Recognizing one’s blessings in the context of the greater scheme of things invariably delivers a feeling of gratitude. Only a half a step away is non-judgemental sensitivity to others and their situations – often mirroring some of one’s own challenges. And then value contribution – making someone or something better than it was before engaging. From here flows curiosity and clarity, arriving ultimately at awareness – of self and of the greater environment. Here we arrive at a place of calmness and acceptance of the way of things, the authentic and fully self-actualized Whole-Brain.

Thus emerges the integrated, wise, innovative, sensitive and courageous human – the true leader in our midst.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4204522/   

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15011267/

Copyright reserved - Ian Weinberg 2022 This discussion is based on the Triangles Model and its applications (TMA). For those seeking a deeper dive into this fascinating world, I invite you to peruse the online courses available at  www.neuronostic.com – Online Mentoring Courses for the lay public and the Online Accreditation Course for professionals.