The Brain Isn’t Just About Logic: Better Relationships in 2 Minutes #4

A number of years ago, I took a course with Dr. Bruce Perry, who is a neuroscientist, brain researcher and clinician. One of the things that I found to be most fascinating is that our brains aren’t really meant to be logical all the time and that’s actually ok. We’ve been taught by our culture that if it isn’t logical, it isn’t valuable. Period. But Dr. Perry’s research blew that out of the water for me.

I’m Rebecca Thompson Hitt and this is Better Relationships in 2 minutes.

He explained that our brains have different areas with different jobs. All information, from all of our senses, comes in through the base of our brain to assess safety. If it doesn’t pass the safety test (whether it is an actual threat or not), we’re going to be in a place of survival- fight, flight or freeze. This part isn’t logical. It is designed to keep us alive and overrides our thinking brain.

Our emotional brains help us connect to one another. They’re not really logical, either, but they’re essential for connecting to one another. This is our heart. Without this part, we’d just be robots. Our emotional brains need a different kind of handling than our logical or our survival brain and that’s the focus of my course Listening to Feelings.

Our thinking brains are good for solving problems, making breakfast, creating an exercise plan that you can hopefully stick to, but the emotional brain is what cements those plans into place. Our emotional brains are what makes us human, yet we seem to have very little literacy with our emotional brains and what to do in the big and small storms of life.

You can learn more about the emotional brain in particular in my course Listening to Feelings.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about the paradox of feelings.

Author

  • Rebecca Thompson Hitt, MS, MFT is the founder of The Consciously Parenting Project (2007) and Thriving Humans (Thrivinghumans.org). For over thirty years, she has walked alongside individuals, couples, and families as they find their way back into relationship with their children, with each other, and with themselves. Her approach reaches beneath behavior to the earliest experiences and nervous system patterns that shape how we connect. With gentleness, deep listening, and no pathologizing, she helps people so see themselves and the ones they love with new eyes. She offers online consultations and groups, and works with people all over the world, supporting the transformation needed in the world starting with our closest relationships. With over 30 years of professional experience working with individuals, couples, and families, Rebecca is dedicated to transforming our relationships stories, one relationship and one family at a time. Rebecca is the author of four books and the mother o...

    View all posts Holistic Family Therapist

Rebecca Thompson Hitt

Rebecca Thompson Hitt, MS, MFT is the founder of The Consciously Parenting Project (2007) and Thriving Humans (Thrivinghumans.org). For over thirty years, she has walked alongside individuals, couples, and families as they find their way back into relationship with their children, with each other, and with themselves. Her approach reaches beneath behavior to the earliest experiences and nervous system patterns that shape how we connect. With gentleness, deep listening, and no pathologizing, she helps people so see themselves and the ones they love with new eyes. She offers online consultations and groups, and works with people all over the world, supporting the transformation needed in the world starting with our closest relationships. With over 30 years of professional experience working with individuals, couples, and families, Rebecca is dedicated to transforming our relationships stories, one relationship and one family at a time. Rebecca is the author of four books and the mother of two young adult sons, whose growing up was a part of her own healing work. Reach her at rebecca@thrivinghumans.org

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