Survival Brain
Survival Brain is a section of the brain where the emotions live.
It has one goal - to keep you alive.
To operate, Survival Brain has two boxes.
Box One says: Normal.
Box Two screams: Danger!
Survival Brain is dramatic - there is no in between.
Since Logic Brain is in charge most of the time, it downgrades the survival analysis from “Danger!”, to Abnormal.
Abnormal is that moment when you’re out of your normal. And that sounds incredibly basic but our normal is important.
Our normal is where we’re comfortable. It’s where we function at a relaxed level. Normal is where we usually feel safest.
And safety and comfort are good things.
So is stepping out of those comforts when you’re ready.
Stepping out of comforts is how we learn.
Learning is always a challenge.
For example: A stove has hot surfaces. Your baby should not be touching it. But as they grow older, you need to teach them what part of the stove to touch, how to turn it on and off, and eventually how to cook on the stove.
The stove was originally in the danger box. It was scary. It was bad to touch it because it would hurt the baby.
But as your child grew and learned, the stove became less dangerous because you taught them how to use it.
Emotions are the same. Kids learn their emotions and the emotional reactions from the adults around them.
Yet, we as adults often view our emotions as still in the Danger Box.
We fail to realize that we can take things out of the danger box as we learn and grow. (And grown ups can learn and grow.)
Survival brain may tantrum and scream about how the items you’re working with should go back in the Danger Box, especially emotional content… but as adults, we need to get out of our comfort zones and move into working with our emotions.
This is because our ability to deal with emotions directly relates to how we deal with the overwhelm and how we deal with each other as people.
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