Are you howling or hooting? On Retraining Your Brain.
- Matt Hatton
- Oct 13, 2023
- 2 min read
Not so long ago, I was having a conversation with my eleven-year-old son. We were
walking from Colindale tube station, on our way to the London Royal Air Force Museum. We got thinking about the ‘state’ of the RAF fighter pilots as they jumped into the cockpits of their Spitfires, ready for a dogfight in the 1940 Battle of Britain. Of the adrenaline that must have been pumping through their bodies as they engaged in deadly air-to-air combat.
In my all-knowing way, I said to my son, “Of course, when you are in a potential ‘flight-or-fight’ scenario as they were, your blood supply will be directed to your arms and legs and to the part of your brain that concentrates on dealing with danger – it is called the amygdala.”
My son replied, “Oh yes, we’ve done all about that at school. The amygdala is like a Guard-Dog, there to protect you. Then you’ve got the hippocampus which is the memory part which is like an Elephant and then there is the pre-frontal cortex which is like an Owl, wise and knowledgeable.”
I was blown away by the simplicity of his explanation and it got me thinking.
What if inside our heads lives this menagerie of animals? They represent our thoughts. They all serve a useful purpose. Yet they are all vying for our attention with the sounds they make. Their sounds represent our emotions.
We need to be careful though. If the Guard-Dog is incessantly growling or howling all day and all night long, that is where it can go wrong. All that noise can wear us down, keeping us chained up to fear, dread, hopelessness, helplessness and a general ‘stuck-ness’.
What about you?
Is all that howling and barking in your head getting to you? (your ‘guard-dog’)?
How about jazzing things up by focusing on some trumpeting (your ‘elephant’)?
What if you actually get a hoot from listening to your ‘sage’ now and again (your ‘owl’)?
As a Life Coach, I work with people who want to balance the animal noise inside their heads. If you want to equalise your animal noise and Retrain Your Brain, do please get in touch.
You can contact me by visiting: https://www.matthattoncoaching.com
PS For a great overview of how the brain works and how, then, you can make positive changes in your life, I recommend reading Why The F*CK Can’t I Change? by neuroscientist and behavioural coach Dr Gabija Toleikyte. For more information, do visit:
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