DO YOU NEED PEACE?

Collaborating with Ron Hume

Oh, my lord, I almost had a panic attack yesterday when I got stuck in my hamburger inner tube.  Somehow my whole body was wedged into the opening like the tip of an arrow. When I realized I was staring at a plastic pickle and my arms were grasping a leaf of lettuce, my heart started pounding.  I tried to twist and turn to get myself out of the middle of the bun, but my old arms and core muscles weren’t strong enough.  I started gasping for air and yelling for my daughter when visions of hamburger heaven swam before my eyes.  I think I heard my daughter laughing as she flipped the hamburger, and I shot out like a swollen sesame seed. 

After I sputtered and splashed  around for a minute, I realized I may have overreacted just a little bit.  Well, meet “Janet Lee,” my Character #2, the brain cells who want to protect me from the external world. I definitely need her, but  she’s also the part of my brain that can be a perfectionist, throw a fit, takes things personally and become anxious.

Last week we identified and named our 4 Characters that Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor wrote about in her book Whole Brain Living, and I promised to introduce you to Dr. Taylor’s Brain Huddle, her “Power Tool for Peace.”   As Dr. Taylor acknowledges  many people live in a “blinding fog of desperate emotions”  and    learning how to regulate our Character #2’s — instead of numbing them with alcohol and drugs — can  really help relieve  fear and anxiety that most people, especially millennials, experience today.

It’s good to know that both fear and anxiety  are normal, that they come from the emotional cells of Characters #2 & #3 which can send us  into Fight, Flight or Freeze.  But both  are triggered by different things.  Fear is triggered in response to an immediate threat (like drowning)  while anxiety is generally triggered by past experiences (trauma) or anticipation about  the future.

Even my husband laughed one time after he said, “Jan, you just don’t worry enough.” You see he’s always prepared for a rainy day. Several years ago when we were on a cruise to Mexico after we had seen the movie “Titanic,” I saw him staring out our cabin window into the  night.  I asked, “Honey, what are you looking at?  The stars?”

“No,” he answered nervously, “ I’m just checking to see if we are too far out to swim to shore -- if something happens.”  Oy vey!

It’s times like that when we’re feeling anxious  or times when we feel shame, guilt, embarrassment that Dr. Taylor suggests we call all our 4 Characters together in a Brain Huddle – a conscience conversation among them about what’s going on in life – and then recalibrate.  Check out this podcast for a fuller description of the Brain Huddle.  Dr. Taylor and the interviewer discuss it at 39:52.

Since Dr. Taylor and other researchers have proven  that fear, anxiety and stress reside  in our Left Hemispheres, we must move to  our Right Hemispheres to find Peace. We can do that just by engaging with Characters #3 & #4 — being in the present moment, moving our bodies, creating things , exploring in Nature, laughing, singing, dancing, meditating.

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” ~ John Muir

And so…

Character #2:  “Hey, Old Lady, stay out of that hamburger inner tube.  It’s too dangerous for someone your age.”

Character #3:    “ Oh, My Friend, use the banana float.  Have fun! It’s much more ap -peeling.  Ha! Ha!”

It’ll Be OK.   

~~~

“My mind is like my internet.  19 tabs open, 3 frozen and I have no idea where the music is coming from.”    ~ Bachelorette Party Spot

COMMENT: HOW DO YOU RELIEVE ANXIETY?

I am so excited that Ron Hume, a 91- year- old Substack blogger, who writes about aging in “The Pathfinder Newsletter,” has invited me  to collaborate with him.  We will be introducing each other to our readers by sharing an article from each other’s blog. Ron had a 50- year career in business. He developed the self-help program called “Successful Investing & Money Management” with 6 million subscribers and has recently written the book How I Lost $25,000,000: Discover the Secret to Business Success, and Found True Happiness. The touching story he writes in “An Everyday Exercise to Keep Stress at Bay” really complements my blog today on MINDFULNESS — the basic human ability to be fully present and aware as not to overly react. Please check out Ron’s story through the link above and Subscribe to his Free blog. Thanks! xoxo