Brain to Mind

Brain science explains why visualization improves performance in the real world, helps to make better decisions and minimize errors.

Is decaf or regular coffee better?

Does the color of tea matter (black, green, oolong)?

What about herbal tea?

Which herbal is best (hibiscus, chamomile)?

Parkinson’s Disease is an extremely common neurodegenerative disorder that causes problems with movement and thinking. There is currently no cure for PD, but there are medications on the market to help control the unbearable symptoms. 

Recently, there have been groundbreaking findings on the cause, detection, and treatment of parkinson’s disease. These findings are game changing and have the ability to completely change the lives of so many, so let’s talk about it. 

Learn more at https://brain2mind.substack.com/

Marcus Aurelius had a lot going on in his life. In what should have been his golden years, he was presiding over an empire at war and contending with an heir who wasn’t up to snuff. He could easily have become a bitter critic. He could’ve easily grown arrogant and thin skinned and unwilling to hear criticism. Instead, out of this crucible came the stoic masterpiece, Meditations, which had a lot of wise things to say about giving and receiving criticism.

In Camus’ famous essay, “The Myth of Sisyphus,” he explores what it means to be an absurd hero: one who fully recognizes the futility and meaninglessness of one’s life, but despite that goes on living one’s limited time on earth joyfully. To me, Camus’ re-envisioning of the mythic character, Sisyphus, illustrates Camus’ philosophical take on what it’s like to be stuck in what you may consider a meaningless life.

Thousands of working people around the world burnout every day. Burnout occurs when you work your fingers to the bone. No, that's not quite right. Burnout occurs when you work so hard you fry your brain to a cinder. There’s ample neuroscience that explores burnout. 

Albert Camus, was an Algerian-French Philosopher who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1957.  Many considered Camus an existentialist, a philosophy which explores the meaning, value and purpose of human existence in a world that doesn’t give a fig. He, on the other hand, considered himself an absurdist, a subtly different philosophy, which argues the universe is irrational and meaningless. 

So, what does Camus have to do with burnout? It turns out, Camus had a lot of ideas pertaining to work-life balance. You may not like what he had to say, though.

The three brains in your head have got to live together in such cramped little quarters. I mean, there’s not much room inside your skull. The neocortex, the limbic system and the reptilian brain. Those three brains have different rhythms to begin with (the rhythm of the neocortex is as slow as molasses when compared to the reptilian brain, which reacts lightning fast) and when your three brains get out of sync, there’s a lot of noise, it’s cacophony. When the conductor is masterful, slow beats and fast beats can coincide. When your internal conductor gets the three brains in sync, it’s sweet music, it’s a symphony. 

First, we’ll discuss some scientific studies, which describe how criticism affects the brain. And not just any old criticism, we’ll be talking about overly harsh criticism. Nagging you might say. Not surprisingly, there are lots of variables: such as who’s doing the criticizing (parents criticizing children for instance) and who’s being criticized (such as a young child, a teenager or a person with a high level of neuroticism). 

After discussing the science, we’ll reflect on how Marcus Aurelius would advise us on how to give and receive criticism. Now, Marcus needs no introduction, but he’s a nineteen hundred year old Roman emperor and author of Meditations, a canonical text of stoicism.

Our skulls house not one brain, but three (neocortex, limbic system, reptilian brain). Each brain represents a distinct evolutionary stratum that formed upon the older layer, as if there were an archaeological site inside your skull. It's difficult to achieve inner peace when your brain gets out of sync with its own rhythm. How do your three brains get out of sync? How do you get them back in sync?