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When we invest in our thinking and our health, we bring the best versions of ourselves to all we do and can more easily face the challenges ahead.
Our brain’s performance is being gravely manipulated, resulting in behaviors that leave us more lonely, anxious, depressed, distrustful, illness-prone, and overweight than ever before. At the same time, we feel disconnected from ourselves, from others, and from the world at large.
This sad state of affairs has arisen because the brain’s long-established processes that allowed for our survival over the course of millions of years have been hijacked by aspects of contemporary life.
Research is showing that the relationship between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex is actively being sabotaged by the chronic stress and lack of adequate sleep that are so characteristic of modern life.
When we find ourselves pleasure seeking 24-7, chasing instant gratification and pushing those chemical buttons, we reinforce neural pathways that keep us constantly craving and silence the prefrontal cortex by weakening its ability to exert control over the lower, limbic brain.
