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The Rational and Emotional Brain Battle

I’m going to go off on a tangent for this post; it’s completely unrelated to food, but very much related to health and well-being. I am watching a really interesting documentary called “This Emotional Life” on Netflix this week. It was first aired on PBS in January of 2010. That’s what made me think of this post.

The second episode (I will get to the first one later) is called Facing Our Fears.

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Overview of the Rational and Emotional Brains

The main topics in the segment are anger, fear, anxiety, and despair. Every human feels these emotions. So how do we deal with them? And why do we feel them? Apparently we have two parts of our brain; one is quite ancient and the other is fairly new. The older part (this part has been around since brains first developed) is the emotional part. The newer part is the rational brain. Unfortunately they don’t always get along very well.

Many many years ago, our emotional brain protected us from lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). Today our emotional brain protects us from angry cab drivers and rude people that cut in front of us in the line at the grocery store. We don’t need the same reaction for rude people as we do for bears. But (unfortunately) our brains do have that same reaction anyway.

Humans are still evolving, so maybe over time the communication and the relationship between these two parts of our brain will improve. But for now…

A Brain Metaphor

Earlier this year I went to see an acupuncturist. He gave me some very solid advice in the form of a metaphor.

The Brain as an Elephant…

Pretend that the two parts of your brain are an elephant and a rider. There is an end destination that they have to get to. The rider has to figure out how to get the elephant to that destination. There are lots of roads, but none of them lead where they need to go. To get to the destination, they have to forge a new path.

Some roads are already paved but do not lead anywhere worthwhile. Some of them just go off to randomness and others lead towards bad, scary places. The rider and the elephant should not take those roads, even though they are smooth and paved, because those roads don’t go to the right place.

If you didn’t figure it out already, the rider is the rational brain and the elephant is the emotional brain.

Day 1.

The rider starts to guide the elephant into the woods to make a new path. The elephant gets scared. The rider beats the elephant and the elephant refuses to go further. Maybe the elephant starts going in the wrong direction. The more the rider beats the elephant, the more the elephant resists. The rider gives up for the day and they both sleep.

Day 2.

The next day, the rider again tries to get the elephant to go into the woods. The elephant remembers the beating from the day before and associates it with the woods. He refuses again. At this point the rider will either beat the elephant, or soothe the elephant and let him stay where he is. If the rider beats the elephant, the elephant will run, spooked, down the paved road that leads nowhere good. If the rider calms the elephant, they stay where they are.

Day 3.

Let’s say the rider did not beat the elephant again. Now the elephant is remembering that maybe it is okay to go in the woods. Yesterday the rider was nice; maybe he will be nice again. The elephant is not fully at ease though, because the rider beat him a few days ago. Maybe they make it 10 feet. The elephant is still scared of the rider and hesitant.

And beyond.

Over time, the rider can choose to beat the elephant repeatedly and get nowhere (or go backwards, or go towards somewhere bad) OR the rider can choose to comfort the animal and treat him well. The elephant reacts the the way the rider treats him. The rider must realize that because he beat the elephant in the past, the elephant is not going to trust him for a while.

The elephant’s reactions are automatic and unconscious.

The rider is conscious and rational.

Our emotions are like the elephant, and our rational brain is like the rider. If we want to tame our emotions, we cannot beat them up first. We have to accept them, and only then can we begin to convince them to do what we want.

Beating the elephant is like beating yourself up for something that your unconscious did (or “made” you do). It is not helpful and not productive. Accept whatever it is about yourself that you don’t like – and then you can start to change it.

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Do your rider and elephant get along?

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Acupuncture Treatment: Stress and Hormones

This is an overview of the treatment for hormonal imbalance and treatment for stress. Acupuncture treatment can be very helpful for both. It’s an effective natural treatment for stress.

I’ve had a few people emailing me asking for recommendations that my acupuncturist told me. So I will just put them out here for you all to see. A lot of the mindfulness exercises can be good for anyone.

Acupuncture is great for: stress, digestion, hormonal problems, and more. I mainly went because of my digestion and a hormone thing!

Eating recommendations:

07-veggie-coconut-oil-lamb 08-eggs-and-bacon1 feb152010006_thumb feb152010007_thumb

  • Eat: lamb and bison, lightly spiced. (Cinnamon and chili are good.) (This is for the hormone thing.) (I made lamb here and here. Used spices here.)
  • Eat: Eggs and bacon. Alternate between turkey and regular bacon so I don’t get bored. (Reasoning: animal fats are good for hormone regulation as long as they are from free-range/organic animals.) (Also for hormones.) (I made bacon here. Eggs and bacon breakfast here.)
  • Eat: black beans with some coconut oil. (For hormones.) (Ate them here.) (Coconut oil here.)
  • Eat: lemon rind/zest in cooking; oranges. Something about the rid of these citrus fruits is good for digestion.
  • Eat: ginger and garlic. Good for digestion. Also very warming.
  • Snack idea: rice cakes with coconut oil.

It is good to keep a balance – meat and carbs are acidic in nature, so to balance them out, we need alkaline green leafy veggies. Lots of them!

Other recommendations:

  • Soak feet in hot water with lavender and epsom salts. Don’t let the water get cold! Do this for 20-30 minutes.
  • Take a hot bath after dinner with lavender and epsom salts.

Meditations to try:

  • Lie on your back (savasana). Breath in and out with your chest. Imagine your heart is expanding and making your chest rise. Keep focusing on the strength and power of your heart. (5-15 minutes.)
  • Sitting or savasana. Focus on an area of your body that may feel neglected or needing love. Imagine a tiny light the size of a dime radiating from the center of that place. Now imagine it growing and radiating out from that body part until it is big enough to envelop your whole body. Now take all that energy and begin to compress it back into a smaller and smaller light. Eventually the light goes back to the size of a dime (still in the same location). Repeat if necessary. (5-10 minutes.) I got this one from an intenSati class with Lindsay.

Books:

  • Feeling Good by David D. Burns. Cognitive therapy isn’t just for depression!

Have you tried acupuncture? What about other Traditional Chinese Medicine? (Coco has a good series on this stuff too.)

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Long Busy Day + Cake

Today was the longest day. The internet was down at work all day (and I was the one on the phone trying to get it back on again) and now I think my blackberry is dead! At least I have cake.

i love you cake whole foods

I bought this chocolate piece of heaven on Saturday during my Whole Foods trip with Marina; Bobby and I broke into it last night (it was one of my Valentine’s day presents to him). Then we had it again tonight – it is a chocolate cake with rich fudgey topping.

I wanted to share one of my presents from Bobby:

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Sabon soap! This one is a coconut and olive oil base, and it’s vanilla and coconut scented. It’s great for the skin. I adore Sabon and it’s closeby.

After dessert (pictured above) I had dinner:

bacon veggies cream cheese

  • goodies: bacon and coconut oil and whipped cream cheese
  • healthies: Brussels sprouts, broccoli, peas, and corn
  • spicies: cinnamon, chili powder, garlic powder, and Kikkoman ponzu sauce from Foodbuzz (love this stuff!)

I also had some black beans. My acupuncturist told me to eat black beans so I obliged. I topped them with some maple syrup, salt, and more whipped cream cheese (Heather, I blame you for this addiction!). I think I will have to try without the syrup next time – too sugary.

black beans maple

Moving on… I wanted to do an exercise update. I am back to my gentle routine of walking, and I couldn’t be happier. I walk to work in the morning (2 miles) and I try to get in another half mile or so throughout the rest of the day (running an errand for example). I haven’t been doing as much yoga. I did do my DVF exercises (Diane von Furstenburg exercises) 3 times this past week though. They are relaxing stretching moves.

Just goes to show, you don’t have to exercise a lot to stay thin! Moderation is the KEY. (I can say this but moderation is still the thing I struggle with.)

Another cool thing I’m doing right now is soaking my feet in hot water with epsom salts and lavender (it’s a lavender oil that the sweet Clare sent me for Christmas). Both Coco and my acupuncturist recommended this, so I figured I’d give it a shot. It’s relaxing but the water cools quickly and I have to keep reheating it.

I am off to do some work that I did not get done today (no productivity since there was no internet). I’m glad I have blogging to de-stress 🙂

What’s your de-stressor?

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Bring It ON! (Fat, that is!)

Look what I had for breakfast yesterday:

This was:

  • 2 pieces of organic, free-range (pork) bacon (from Whole Paycheck)
  • 2 organic, cage-free eggs (also from Whole Paycheck) cooked in bacon fat

This meal was inspired by both Heather’s manly breakfast and my acupuncturist. It seems that my new motto is “eat more animal fat“, and it is working for me. Some people seem to do fine without – my sister is a vegetarian/vegan and my brother is vegetarian and experimenting with adding in more raw foods. My mom was a vegetarian for most of her 20’s (including when she was pregnant with me!) and my dad follows the accidental vegetarian diet because he lives with so many vegetarians.

My dad actually ends up eating more meat than the rest of them (in the form of lunch-meat on sandwiches, the occasional meat chili, and sometimes some bacon on the weekends), and… well – I take after my dad. We look alike, we talk alike, we think alike, and when we hang out together we usually end up working on some project (reorganizing something, or nitpicking about the way something has been put together, or making a mess unintentionally as we try to fix something) and not talking that much – but that’s how we like it.

Anyway, this is not about what we do, but rather how our food needs might be similar as well. That side of my family has digestion troubles (to put it mildly!) and I seem to have inherited them. They flare up when I am not eating meat. (Last time my stomach felt good was when I was driving across the country – and eating meat at almost every meal.)

Anyway, onto another meal (dinner).

This was…

  • organic ground lamb from Whole Foods (you actually can’t see it much, but I probably had 4-5 ounces)
  • garlic + frozen veggies (broccoli and an Asian stir fry mix) cooked in coconut oil
  • topped with cream cheese (this is full fat by the way)
  • spices: pepper, ginger powder, cinnamon

This is an acupuncture-inspired meal. He said to try eating lamb, lightly spiced. Also garlic (good for digestion), ginger (warming and good for digestion), and cinnamon (just good – I don’t remember why). He also recommended coconut oil, so I threw that in there as well.

I made this beauty for lunch yesterday:

It was…

  • veggies cooked in remaining bacon fat and coconut oil (frozen broccoli, fresh okra, green peas)
  • cream cheese topping

Coconut oil is a great source of saturated fat (NOT always bad for you), great for the skin, doesn’t create harmful byproducts when heated, reduces stress, and aids in weight loss (these are just google results).

Speaking of weight loss… Did I mention I lost 2-3 of those pesky intenSati pounds? This happened in one week, and I didn’t eat fewer calories (if anything I ate more). What I did was eat more fat (and meat) and fewer carbs (but not no carbs! I still had lots of oatmeal and rice, and of course many many veggie carbs). Fat can be really good for you.

I am actually off to a blogger brunch that has been postponed for far too long… So I’ll update on that later.

What are you plans for Valentine’s day? We actually don’t know yet!!

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Vegetarians Beware. Yummy Thai Food.

I mentioned yesterday that my very cool boss bought us lunch, but I neglected to tell you what we ordered! We ended up ordering delivery from Spice over on 8th Avenue. Spice is a very yummy Thai restaurant. I have been to the location at Union Square and I really liked it.

I ordered the Hawaiian Ginger and Pineapple Stir-fry (with onions, carrots, and mushrooms) and I ordered it with beef. Would I have preferred this to be organic beef? Of course. Did that fact that it wasn’t (I assume) stop me? Absolutely not. It was yummy and exactly what I was craving.

I also ordered the spring rolls (fried). I had one of them and gave the other to Bobby. They came with a very good sweet sauce. I have no idea what was in it.

Last night I used the leftover beef to make a stirfry with some veggies.

I have been using frozen veggies because they make cooking prep so so so much faster. I don’t have that much time to cook, and time will deter me from cooking (I’ve been doing takeout a lot). I cooked these in some butter and spices. Yum!

Are there any tricks you do to make cooking easier? Chopping veggies in advance? Making big batches and eating leftovers?

P.S. I had another acupuncture appointment today and I will definitely update about that soon. I need to sleep now!