Imagine you’re a kind, submissive sort of mouse. Feel your whiskers sense the temperature and surfaces of your environment. Swish your body-length tail around. Test out the strength of your legs. Now, imagine you’re dropped into a cage with aggressive mice, and despite your amazing ability to jump 18 inches, you experience what scientists call a “social defeat.” This would…
Inspiration for living an empathic life
Back in the 1960s Dr. Paul D. Maclean devised the Triune Brain model as a way to explain the brain’s evolution while reconciling rational human behavior with more primal and violent outbursts. The Triune Model suggests three parts to the brain: Reptilian (posterior, brain stem): the source of instincts Paleommamalian (mid-brain): the source of emotions Neomammalian (cortex): the source of…
A transformative process for healing and empowerment with your subconscious mind
Sondra Barrett is a biochemist whom you are as likely to find meditating or performing a qigong movement to drum music as peering into a microscope. For her, the visible and the invisible are not so much reflections of each other as places along a great continuum. Biological cells are more than the basic constituents of life, she says in her…
From sick and stressed to healthy and happy
By Jason Drwal Kevin Schjerning, a 48-year-old film and video editor, doesn’t simply dislike social gatherings; he finds them overwhelming. “I basically feel claustrophobic,” he says. “I have to get out of there.” An estimated 22 million people in the U.S. have social anxiety disorder, an intense and disabling fear of being judged or humiliated in social situations. Living with…
The neuroscience of love
Specific steps to boost your brain power We’re all typically willing to invest in our greatest resources for success. That’s why we should take the time to invest in our minds, making sure it stays clear and focused. Knowing how important this is, it’s easy to prioritize taking care of our mental state without guilt or uncertainty. Let’s remind ourselves that…
