Instinct - Uncontrolled And Always There

Some people call the instinct the automatic pilots of our mind. To understand it better we should start with a definition first. The definition of instinct is genetically hard-wired behaviors that enhance our ability to cope with vital sudden environmental changes. Other instincts, including denial, revenge, tribal loyalty, greed and our urge to multiply. It is important to realize that it is uncontrolled by your consciousness.

Transcript

Instinct.

Uncontrolled and always there.

Some people call the instinct the automatic pilot of our mind.

To understand it better,

We should start with the definition first.

The definition of instinct is genetically hard wired behavior that enhance our ability to cope with vital sudden environmental changes.

Other instincts including denial,

Revenge,

Tribal loyalty,

Greed and urge to multiply yourself or better and easier say the urge to have sex.

It is important to realize that it is uncontrolled by our conscious.

Instinct is basically founded in the roots of the human mind but it developed through time.

From childhood on we feed the instinct with information,

Practical instruments and the need of using it.

Religion and philosophy do not deny it existence but often have a negative opinion about it.

Because our instincts as it is not only a protection but leads to unexpected events sometimes.

But nature did give our instinct for a reason and by developments as every animal seem to have it.

From the animal state until our current development these brain functions have proven to be valuable and a need of the survival of the human race in total.

My vision is that the brain and its development for thousands of years had a reason and our instinct is still an important part of our being and our survival.

The instinct is a part of evolution and also our future.

There is no future without a past.

Our instinct is mainly located in the so called reptile brain.

This is a part of the brain in the basis of our head and it is at the beginning of our spine.

It is a small part filled with uncontrollable impulses that keep us going.

Our life depends on it in many ways.

It is the first few years of our life that the instinct gives us direction and teach us what we need to do to survive.

Call it our automatic pilot as said in the beginning.

It has software written down for action,

Survival,

Skills and special functions.

This part of our brain makes the decisions.

Do we run or do we stay?

Is it sexual attractive or is it not?

Is it possible life partner or not?

Eat it or not?

Sleep or stay awake?

And so on.

It seems to be a simple yes or no decision maker.

Black and white and no shades of pale.

Your instincts need to be fast acting and reacting on everything that comes around.

Before your brain can comprehend a situation,

Your Pons Medulla,

That's that part we are talking about,

Did already analyze it and decide in a black and white action or no action.

If that decision is made,

It let the information moves on.

But when the instinct is troubled and disturbed,

We get mental problems.

The Pons prevents self harm in mentally healthy people.

Be aware that there are cases which oppose this,

But I don't deal with it in this lecture.

Can I stimulate my instinct?

And the answer is a sure yes.

To provoke this I give you some examples of my own life and training.

Our basic instinct on danger is to fight or to flight.

You stay and fight or run and try to escape.

One of the most important ingredients of this reaction is the level of fear that you have.

If you are a person with a lot of fear,

You choose the option to run,

But also it's possible to freeze.

And when you freeze instead of running,

The body is not able to move and you stand there waiting to be eaten.

This interesting reaction is a development of evolution which will deny the weak elements to live on.

Our nature is cruel and merciless.

The weak must be eliminated to make place for the strong and the vital people.

When you train fighting arts,

In my case it is Muay Thai or better easier say Thai boxing,

You learn not only to give punches and kicks,

But also to receive them.

One of the parts of the training is to control your fear,

Your pain,

Your suffering.

In Thailand they teach me to smile during the training and battle and hide the pain.

Showing pain is dangerous in a fight as you tell the opponent that you are hurt and that his actions did have a strong effect.

When you smile,

You lift up your morals and in your brain it gives you a positive image and you give a masking signal to your opponent.

During the years of training you learn to conquer your fear of getting hit.

The natural reaction of being hit is to defend yourself,

Getting angry and respond emotionally.

That is an instinct reaction.

You want to fight back immediately.

This is not possible in a combat situation.

Starting actions through instinct are dangerous and irresponsible in this kind of situations.

You have to train your instinct not to act instantly.

During a fight you have to react by reflex.

By training certainly routines again and again they become a part of your instinct and also conditioned reflexes.

These conditioned reflexes can suddenly jump out at the moments that your instincts tell you.

Use it right now.

In my research I found the fight as an example of being a time that all these natural programs come together and do what is needed.

Outside the battle experience there are only few moments all instinct elements work together and they come in action.

All these moments contain the elements action,

Danger,

Fear and a need to control for instance like a fire brigade,

A rescue team,

A critical and first aid situation team.

This is also the reason why the spiritual,

Religious and other thinkers did not discover the importance of the instinct.

They are not interested in these primary human features.

Fighting is an ultimate and uncommon experience which takes years of training and mental exploring yourself.

It's physically and mentally very demanding.

During training and competition you have to ask the maximum of yourself and always try to go over the edge to become better,

Harder,

Faster and more dominant.

When you're young it is easy to compete wholeheartedly and with full power but when you're getting older your body and mind teaching you a different story.

At a certain moment you enter a state of understanding and feel that competition is no longer needed to prove yourself.

The competitive element loses its importance when years later you start again to try sparring that is a simulated fight between two persons as a training session.

You discover that the instinct is no longer truly connected and your actions are delayed.

This proves that it is possible to train the instinct but a level and degree of action will decrease when you do not train or don't use it for a long time.

Instincts seem to lose its powers over the years.

Our natural loses its temperament.

We become softer and less reactive.

When growing older we get less able to defend ourselves and due to a lowering effectivity of our instinct we are an easier victim for predators.

During the ageing process we become physically vulnerable and with a decreased instinct we lose the ability to react fast in dangerous situations.

When you hear this let it be a warning to yourself.

Year by year you lose a bit of your core abilities that nature gave us.

Your instinct is replaced by other features as reasoning,

Debating,

Inside vision in situations,

Predictions of circumstances and being careful.

To replace your instinct completely you have to focus on prevention and protection.

Something you see happening all around us.

People are preparing themselves with alarm systems,

Weapons and other ways.

The weak think they become stronger but in fact their fear is hiding behind a growing tower of uncertainties,

Insecurities and preventions with our fake mountains and imaginations.

Strength does come through passing the battles of life,

Surviving the troubles it brings.

Solve and learn and facing your personal fears.

Instinct did survive all changes and will even survive us.

Give it the right place in your life and face it as a part of yourself and your development as a human being.

Question and answers.

Question one.

My spiritual teacher told me to disconnect from my animal brain and focus on the higher levels of development.

Is that correct?

Answer one.

My answer to this is some kind of a riddle but I cannot do it otherwise.

You need to give it time and think about it carefully.

When you eat you finally end up going to the toilet.

The food is considered by all a highly important addition to our life.

It's important and valued to body and spirit.

On the other hand the excreted physics are considered the lowest of all.

It is dirt.

It's hardly possible to get lower than that but the highest cannot do without the lowest.

Otherwise you become completely congested and you die.

Question two.

I'm a very intuitive person.

Throughout my life I let me lead by my intuition in all important decisions I made.

This made me a rich person.

Hey,

Am I doing right?

Answer two.

You know if you are doing all right when you are happy and feeling well.

You have to separate intuition from instinct.

I have a lecture on intuition also but let me now answer the question.

Fact is that some people are able to use their intuition more often than others.

These personality have the lucky ability to construct possibilities from less information than others do.

They smell opportunities and can call this intuition.

It is hard for me to say if it is really intuition or a high skill in business or other things.

Sometimes we call something a name but I'm not sure it is exactly that what the name covers.

Question three.

You mentioned that fear and instinct are closely involved with each other.

Can you explain me how close?

Answer three.

Fear has many causes and reasons but not all fear is the same.

The roots of fear are different.

Some fear is caused by experience,

Others by birth or even chemical reactions in the brain while others they start physical.

There are many different forms of fear.

Some fear has a direct connection with instinct.

Let's name a few.

Fear of darkness.

The body reacts physically and the mind panics.

Fear of snakes.

The body wants to run away or got freeze.

Fear of aggression.

The body responds as if it is under attack or fight,

Freeze or flight.

The instinct takes over the moment the fear appears and touches the brain.

At such moment the brain is no longer able to function correctly and most of the actions are decided on an animal level brain.

It is possible to train and control these fears by for instance a good psychotherapy,

Meditation or sport but with good training and good educated trainers.

Question four.

All my life I react on the spot when I meet a new person.

In my head I divide persons in good or bad.

That's it.

I have no control over it.

The moment I place a person in the bed box I am not able to socialize with them.

I find this very disturbing.

Is this my instinct?

Answer four.

It is a problem that you have but this does not involve your instinct.

The action you describe is more considered a mental reflex.

Your brain is programmed to make a black and white decision on people.

They are good or bad.

No distinction.

This is a problem that can be solved by training under professional help.

You should seek appropriate support and your training will solve the problem over time.

The instinct is more a physical set to action reflex not a mental decision program.

Question five.

My nature is explosive.

When I do not like something I react directly and often without control.

Is that my instinct or my character?

Answer five.

Gladly this is not related to your instinct but due to your character and other elemental elements.

As a trainer and teacher I often had to deal with people with an explosive temperament.

It's most interesting that where others complain about such a person they were very responsive and cooperative during my lessons.

There is a special training to assist and channel this behavior.

I use shout and scream techniques,

Explosive actions such as running,

Jumping and working out on the boxing bag to channel the needs for outburst.

Most people consider the explosive actions as aggressive because they are shocked by them.

When the environment is prepared the effect of this explosive behavior,

The effect is very little.

Channeling,

Giving the opportunity to release the energy and vocal sounds help to get rid of the energy and will make you a more relaxed personality.

This is the end of this broadcast.

Thank you for listening.

My name is Arnoud van de Vere from the Netherlands.

Welcome to my other postcasts and be sure to listen in next time.

If you have any question do not hesitate me to send me a mail,

Get in touch and any other way.

Be well.