Have you ever felt sad or upset but don’t know why?

Maybe you have reacted in a way that doesn’t make sense?

A common symptom of stress is not being able to  think straight and unable to do something that ordinarily you would find easy. Understanding how your brain works can take the pressure off you. It can reassure some of us that we are  not going mad, when we discover these responses are not only normal,  there is actually something we can do to change the outcome.  Discovering The Triune Brain model instantly made sense of my experience and gave me a language to talk about what was happening for me.

American neuroscientist Paul Maclean developed the Triune Brain model in the 1960s, and it has been widely accepted and used as a great way of explaining what happens. As neuroscience has progressed and new findings about the brain have come to light, many now challenge his views on how the brain evolved. However, as a metaphor I still believe it is resourceful. .

The Triune Brain, Dr Peter Maclean, 1967

At a basic level, we are animals, and as such we, like animals have a survival instinct. This means we need to be able to eat and drink, have shelter from predators and the elements, and we need to be able to mate successfully.

At a fundamental level, we need to feel safe. You may have heard of the fight, flight or freeze response. This is when our bodies react automatically to a given threat. When we perceive danger, our bodies flood with adrenaline, allowing us to take evasive action. What can happen is that blood and oxygen are redirected to the extremities so that we can run or fight. This means that we lose blood and oxygen from the part of the brain where we make sense, problem solve and make decisions.

Reptilian Brain

Maclean believed that our most primitive brain was formed first, and he called it the Reptilian Brain, and this was responsible for keeping us safe.

Nowadays, the things that threaten us are not likely to be life-threatening, but they can feel like they are. When we are overwhelmed with money or time. We might perceive that we won’t have enough money to pay our rent/mortgage, which could leave us without shelter and leave us feeling vulnerable, which could activate that part of our brain.

If we are running out of time we may not eat or drink, which if that became a habit, could be interpreted as us being at risk of starving.

Now even if this is factually correct and you are at risk of losing your home or not being able to eat. To solve the problem you need to be able to think with clarity and operate from the neocortex part of the brain.

How you talk yourself, about yourself and your situation can impact how your own system responds to any given situation. You can therefore influence how you respond by consciously paying attention and listening to what you say and do and the impact it has. You can also consider what you might need to see and hear to settle that part of your brain.

For example what is often happening is we are reacting to what might or could happen rather than what is happening. Simply training your attention on what is happening now could reassure that part of your brain that in this moment you are not at risk. By training yourself to listen, you can increase awareness, and that gives you the opportunity to change the story you tell yourself if it is not serving you.

choice to update the narrative. Whilst it can be difficult to think of these things in the moment, it is worthwhile reflecting particularly if you start to notice patterns of behaviour where you repeatedly react in a certain way or in relation to a certain thing.

By taking time out when you are not stressed, you can explore what triggered the response and what you would have needed to see and hear to settle that part of your brain.

Mammalian Brain

Maclean suggested that that our brains evolved from the Reptilian Brain first to the Paleomammalian Brain (or mammalian brain as I refer to it in my book) and then later to the Neocortex Brain, each development making us more sophisticated in our ability to process thought and language.

Again, many now challenge the notion of this linear evolution, but understanding what each part of the brain does and how you can influence the response can be really helpful.

The mammalian brain is focused on safety in numbers and the importance of being part of a group/tribe/community/family/team where you feel safe and as though you fit in and belong. To survive, we often need to know what the rules are and how we do things around here. The challenge most of us face is that we are often making up what the rules are unconsciously. This part of the brain is a pattern spotting mechanism and so it is tracking what happens, in what order and whether that results in your being safe.

Our brain also makes things up and fills in the blanks.

Add into that we as humans also make make assumptions and judgement based on our own life experiences quite often the data we are using to make decisions is often not accurate or helpful.

Caitlin Walker, Author of From Contempt to Curiosity – Creating the conditions for groups to collaborate, talks about three kinds of rules:

• Shared rules – the ones we verbalise.
• Unshared rules – the ones we have but we don’t say out loud

• Hidden Architecture – rules we don’t even know we have until the rule is broken.

Think of a time when you have been in a new environment and consider what kind of questions you are asking or what you notice. When attending training sessions you might hear a delegate ask when it is okay to ask questions and another might need to know when there is going to be a break.

The mammalian brain tracks patterns to predict what might happen and to ascertain what might be the rules so that you can feel safe. Once a rule or pattern have been established it will often become more settled. But equally when a rule or pattern of behaviour unexpectantly changes it can activate the flight, fight or freeze response.

When you are invited to a party, do you ask what the dress code is? Do you like to know where it is and who else is attending? These are the kind of questions your mammalian brain will be asking to keep you safe. The story you tell yourself when you don’t know the answer can often determine how your system responds. For example if you were to talk about how awful the party was going to be and how nervous you were about meeting lots of new people versus saying how exciting it will be to meet new people, it could impact how that part of your brain responds.

Take a moment now to consider when attending an event where you are meeting new people, what would you need to hear and see to reassure that part of your brain that you are safe?

Neo Cortex Brain

And sometimes the reaction just seems to happen. It can feel almost instant which is why it is worth getting to know your patterns and start to track what happens just before. Often what is happening is our sense are noticing things that we are not consciously aware of. It could be something you heard, saw, felt, smelt or tasted. It can activate a memory, a connection, a story and then a response. When you learn to listen to your own system you can start to understand what the trigger or rule is. Quite just by listening to what happened it changes. Other times you might need to consciously choose to change your story in order to change the response.

The more self-aware you are the more you adapt you can be at staying in your neocortex brain. This then enables you to think with more clarity and confidence, solve problems, make decisions, plan and work in partnership with others.

I talk more about this in my first book “Manage your critic – From overwhelm to clarity in 7 steps” for a signed copy you can order a copy here. 

And please do join our free community on Facebook here.