Change The Limbic Brain's Control Mechanism

It is true that many experience difficulty when meditating, as the inner saboteur impacts on the healing. This meditation will empower change with a deep understanding of how to free fear & choose happiness.

Transcript

I wanted to share with you a little bit more about meditation.

I've been speaking about meditation now for many,

Many years and transmitting the practice of meditation to thousands of people around the world.

And it's very,

Very interesting to be doing this simply because sometimes I realize that there are difficulties that people come across when practicing meditation that I wouldn't even begin to think about because of course meditation is not only a state of being but it's an enjoyable state of being.

And for some people meditation can get quite difficult or there are challenges that when people begin to meditate they realize that these challenges are difficult.

For example sitting still for some people that's just quite a challenge.

Being able to sort of relax and let go of just everyday mundane situations is quite a challenge to be still and to be open and receptive to inner peace can be quite a challenge.

And I realize that this is one of the major issues when people learn meditation that coming back to this wonderful state of being that creates happiness and that creates a sense of equilibrium and a sense of energy and a sense of healing is not only difficult for many people but doesn't really seem to be very much part of the experience of meditation at least in the beginning.

Of course if we continue to practice meditation very often we realize that the most difficult aspect of meditation is our inner saboteur rather than any problem with practicing meditation such as the technique or understanding meditation in itself.

It's quite easy to sit down and relax unless there is that inner saboteur that plays and plays with you in that way where it challenges you on all levels and makes things difficult.

That inner saboteur is something that probably many of us are quite aware of and usually we are able to sort of escape from that inner saboteur by doing things you know by going shopping or by distracting ourselves with all sorts of situations watching TV or going out and doing something or just doing whatever it is that helps you to get distracted from that part of yourself that is very very clever.

It's the ego and that knows how to create a challenge and the inner saboteur which is the ego knows how to play with you in such a way where if you sit in stillness the ego will just come up and begin to be very very noisy come up to the surface and begin to be very noisy in different ways depends.

For some people you just will sit and find it difficult to relax or for some people meditation turns into like thinking about things or daydreaming about things or just falling asleep.

The inner saboteur has many many ways of sort of projecting its energy into the actual situation of meditation and it's not like something that you can recognize oh there is the inner saboteur playing again it's an experience that somehow is very interrelated with what's going on physically,

Emotionally,

Mentally,

Energetically in the space that you create when you're in meditation.

So the inner saboteur is not like I don't know like a car that you see driving down the street and you can recognize how that is a car or that is the inner saboteur it's part of your experience and so it's very difficult to identify when you are in the midst of that experience when the inner saboteur is creating a reactive space within your experience of meditation it's very difficult to say oh that's the inner saboteur creating this difficulty because you are caught by the inner saboteur that's what the inner saboteur does best it's able to capture your attention able to capture your sort of energy and bring it down to a level of consciousness that is sabotage that is challenging and sabotages your positivity and your well-being which is part of any person's meditation experience if we can let go of that program that I call the inner saboteur.

So it's been very interesting to observe the inner saboteur in its multitude of dimensions and expressions and projections when working with people because everyone is different the inner saboteur for each person depends on their culture depends on their psychology depends on their personality depends on the situation that they're facing it depends on so many things and it depends a lot on the way that you meditate it depends a lot on the way that you understand yourself and can utilize those inner resources of wisdom to help you to understand that the inner saboteur is not the actual experience it's just a game that you need to transcend the game that the mind is playing that you need to transcend and come back into a state of equilibrium where you are more receptive to your truth the wisdom that lives within you rather than the reactive state of mind.

Now in neuro psychology or in neuroscience this is very obvious you know if we could measure the activity of the brain we actually we can because today there are all sorts of technologies that measure this brain function in a way that was impossible 20 years ago it's amazing really it's quite exciting to to be a practitioner of meditation and very knowledgeable in the field of neuroscience and neuropsychology because you can actually see what is going on in the brain and address that from a real sense you know and because you understand what's going on you have a way of sort of bypassing that inner saboteur mechanism that's being played out in your meditation or generally in your life so we know this because we can measure the way that the brain functions when you're in meditation or when you're just thinking about things or when you're just asleep we have more insight into how the brain functions today than ever before and it's a very exciting field and you can be a pioneer in this field by recognizing what is going on inside of yourself you don't need to use these gadgets like MRI scans or all the various devices that neuroscientists use today because you're in touch with yourself you you know what's going on inside of yourself if you come back to the space of awareness or come back to the space of mindfulness which is meditation so if you create a sort of detachment from the inner saboteur from the game that's being played out your the reactive state of mind that perhaps is triggered because your inner saboteur is sort of making it very difficult for you to relax or let go if you recognize this through awareness then you are basically like one of these biofeedback machines and you're understanding what's going on and understanding is so so very important because it gives you the freedom gives you the possibility to be free enough to say if this experience that you're having for example the inner saboteur playing out all this little tricky games if that's what you want if if you don't want to experience that then you need to understand that you can change it you can change your experience you're empowered to change your experience that's what meditation is all about it's about empowering your experience so that your experience is more than just that experience that most people have of the mundane world you know where something nice happens you smile something not very nice happens you get upset you know where the where you're like a little boat in the ocean and depends on what sort of wave or what the weather is like outside of yourself that determines your psychology or determines the way that you feel about yourself about the world the way that you judge people the way that you think about things doesn't have to be that way so you are empowered to change this by understanding by coming back to self-knowledge and coming back to the understanding of how the mind function is one of the most powerful ways to to understand yourself so i mean i'm covering lots of ground here and i'm quickly going through one thing and then explaining another thing because everything is interrelated but let's understand the brain now this is a simplistic model of the brain that is very useful generally to understand just in everyday life but it's also it's vital to understand when you're practicing meditation this model um you're some some neuroscientists believe of course it's much more complex but this model gives you an insight as to how the brain functions so let's say we were we are able to divide the brain this physical organ that is so very important in the way that you feel and what you think about and the way that you focus on your energies and the way that your whole body functions depends on the coherence and the and the health of your brain if your brain is sort of lost in the inner saboteur game or if the brain is tired because you're wasting energy thinking about negativity all the time it's not going to help you very much really in the end to understand yourself or to connect to self-knowledge so the way to understand the brain is to understand that there are three parts to the brain this is a simplistic model but it helps you to understand things there is one part of the brain which is what i call the primitive part of the brain or the reptilian brain which just basically functions helps you to function helps you to walk helps just helps you to breathe helps the senses to function in that way you know it's the reptilian brain which is very useful and at some stage people thought that that was some part of yourself that you had no control over but now we know through meditational practice and through various experiments that neuroscientists have been inspired to and sort of research into because of people who meditate and practice yoga and we know that we can actually change the way that we breathe we don't have to just breathe in a certain way we can transform our breathing patterns so that they incorporate a space of healing consciousness mindfulness so that is the reptilian brain so when we are in touch with this part of ourselves and in meditation we very much understand that the reptilian brain and the energy that's transmitted to that part of the brain and is functioning because we get in touch with our senses we we ground ourselves into an experience where we're more in touch with what's going on inside of us and so we're we're communicating in a more coherent way to the reptilian brain and we can actually change certain things this is for another time but it's just so that you know even though many people believe that things are impossible to change when you are free of your negativity or when you are free of the inner saboteur or the ego mind or the negative program or the paradigm that you believe to be whatever and the reflection of the truth in the world when you're free of these things then you know that you can reach the space inner space of empowerment that transforms many things including not just the reptilian brain but the next part of the brain which is the one part of the brain that is the reason why many many of us get very lost in meditation why the inner saboteur plays out its interesting games this is known as the limbic brain now the limbic brain is that part of the brain you can understand that part of the brain that's impulsive you know just once instant gratification you know when you go shopping and you see something that you want to buy and some part of you just says I want that that's the limbic brain you know being activated and it's very much to do with needs and desires it's very much to do with judgments it's very much to do with reactivity because this part of your brain controls the fight-or-flight mechanism in neuroscience the fight-or-flight mechanism is part of evolution you know the way your brain thinks perhaps you know in the past when you were in a difficult situation your or your ancestors were in a difficult situation you know you see your ancestors saw this big tiger the fight-or-flight mechanism which is connected to the limbic brain was set in motion you know you either run away or you fight this little creature or big creature or dangerous creature or whatever some people you know were it wasn't just a tiger you know if you saw a scorpion or if you saw a little tarantula or if you saw a snake saying fight-or-flight mechanism is triggered because it's to do with survival the limbic brain is very much to do with some survival this is why it's connected to needs and desires because there are some needs and desires that are very useful and essential to staying alive you know to eat you have to eat to breathe to drink water you know to find safety to sleep in a place where you won't be disturbed by all sorts of things well today civilization it's different but you know our evolution has formed our brain to think and behave in a certain way and despite civilization being or so-called civilization I'm not sure if today we are more civilized but so-called civilization and being like very much the reality for most people our brains haven't evolved so quickly so we're still sort of caught in that dimension of time where fight-or-flight plays a very important role in the way that we think the way that we feel so we can react to situations in a way that's very negative because our fight-or-flight mechanism controls our emotional reaction and we become very reactive to the external situation say if someone or you feel that someone is threatening you it may have nothing to do with what's going on but you feel this then it sets in motion the limbic brain that sets in motion the fight-or-flight mechanism which sets in motion the inner saboteur see this is part of ourselves that sometimes it's programmed to react in certain ways when information doesn't fit into the picture that the brain can comprehend or can process and so for example if someone doesn't really do anything but you observe some sort of signal or your your reactive process sort of connects to some sort of signal that is happening around you and you project it onto the person that is saying something perhaps saying something nice but you hear it in a different way then the limbic brain will react to the situation and the neocortex which is the other part of the brain this is the evolved part of the brain the brain that helps us to think you know that's connected to being able to see things in perspective won't really think if you're reacting because it will begin to just react and there is no space for you to think about the situation you just feel overwhelmed by that reaction and the limbic brain makes you sort of it helps you to feel overwhelmed because you know whatever emotion or whatever thought that is happening is is needing an immediate response so it's almost it's not like you're thinking about the situation and sort of trying to see if really what what's going on your perception is has anything to do with the truth of matter it's just there is a reaction that happens immediately and usually the reaction happens because of the inner forces that we are not in control with the subconscious now now it's when now things get more complicated so the limbic brain very much is isn't very much connected to the situation that we perceive as such but it's connected with our perception that has very much to do with the subconscious so you know if we react in a negative way very often we react in a negative way because we remember or feel a memory that comes from the past that comes to the surface and then we sort of project it onto someone else and all of a sudden you know we're reacting and we're not listening to the person we're just listening to our own inner reaction and so we're driven by the limbic brain rather than the neocortex now that you understand all this and it may be difficult to understand this in practice but at least you understand the concept of this that gives you a certain amount of wisdom or knowledge that helps you to sort of comprehend that every situation every unique situation every little experience that you're having is so much more complex than your perception it's filtered through many layers of your being including many layers of your brain that then transmits the information in a certain way that we call reality or we believe to be reality what is real is that real when the limbic brain is caught by the inner saboteur or some sort of unconscious mechanism that's being triggered in that moment or subconscious inner force that's being remembered or coming up so that it colors your perception of the situation is that reality see when you begin to question reality in this way you begin to question the very structure of your experience and that is a good thing perhaps it's a little bit confusing in the beginning but it's a very good thing because when you begin to question things that's when you can begin to understand that the answers aren't as simple as perhaps what's been manipulated into your thoughts or your feelings what's been socialized into your sort of personality you know we could we could be a depressive sort of person and perhaps because you're a depressive sort of person you you have the tendency to see things in a negative way and people around you and sometimes sort of create support that structure it's called constellation support that structure so that that structure seems like it's the most natural way of thinking feeling or perceiving the world but now that you are able to question if that is truly reality is it really real or is it just part of the mechanism that's translating the experience and then translating it in a way that connects to the inner saboteur that makes you think or feel in a negative way say depression depression is not a natural way of thinking negativity is not a natural way of thinking we are naturally positive even if we haven't experienced this for years we are naturally positive naturally inclined towards connecting to a part of ourselves that is compassionate loving and kind i call this the heart and so when we are able to create this coherence meaning we're able to connect with heart thinking rather than reactive thinking which is connected to the limbic brain then we are practicing meditation and that is very good to remember because when you think or feel that your meditation is complex or you're not really doing the right thing or you're not experiencing meditation as you should remember that that is a perception it's not really the truth of the matter it just means that the energy is being manipulated in such a way to move to different parts of your brain structure that you have control over as we know from neuroscience we have a lot of control even over the reptilian part of the brain can you can you believe this like people can heat up their body people can sit i remember being up in the mountains and believe me i'm i'm the type of person that you know as soon as it goes under like 25 degrees celsius i'm cold you know so i need the temperature to be warm you know i'm very sensitive to the cold and um that's part of the limbic brain control mechanism and i remember in the monastery when i was sitting in meditation just experimenting to see if meditation gave me sort of empowered me to work with the limbic brain and change my perception and my experience of cold weather and up in these mountains it was very cold lots of snow and i remember i only had a t-shirt and i had no shoes i was walking in the snow barefoot and i was as warm as you would be in the tropics because i was breathing in a very specific way in a meditational way that allowed me the freedom and you have that freedom everyone has this freedom allowed me the freedom to work from a part of my being that mostly most of most most people just don't experience because we we don't have a connection there is not enough coherence within us to allow us to communicate to this part of the brain but because i was sitting in meditation for 12 hours every day you know it was easier to recognize the limbic brain and the way that the limbic brain functions through what i call biofeedback in your meditation and you can change this now if you can change the limbic brain i mean the reptilian brain then you can for sure change the limbic brain and for sure change the way that the neocortex understands situations so you are free whatever your mind tells you you are empowered to choose between negative and positive fear and sense of nurture sort of feeling that you're not loved separation and love or connection you have that choice it's inbuilt into your whole being even if you haven't experienced this for many years that's not the point the point is when you trust that you have this that you're empowered to connect to this part of yourself then the brain function begins to change and this is what neuroscientists have discovered that when we begin to explore the freedom of choice that we have in meditation which is a movement towards a state of consciousness that is not recognized by most people is not experienced by most people that's a state of consciousness that is deeper than the mundane deeper than the paradigms that we live by that society says you know this is the way everyone should think worry about your work and worry about this and worry about that when you come back to a state of trust and positivity that allows you the sense of freedom to choose your experience and of course you will choose happiness because that is the natural inclination of the heart you know the heart wants to be in a state of bliss and joy and happiness and of course you will choose that why would you choose to empower the inner saboteur when you know that is just a part of the illusion that the mind is creating for you because of all these situations that the mind has come to accept as reality and has developed around you know your mind and the way that you use your brain is the same as the way that you use your body when you use it in a certain way for years and you develop a certain habit and it's very difficult you know for the mind to change but you can change habits in the end of course you can change habits 99.

9 percent of people can change habits you know it's hard work for some but if you have the right knowledge it's not very difficult it's actually easier than you think especially when you start using what I call micro steps little steps one little step at a time everything changes rather than try to change the whole world or I didn't change yourself so that you are perfect you know and living up to some sort of ideal you recognize yourself from within the state of awareness knowledge consciousness and begin to help your brain to function from this state of consciousness by creating coherence which is sitting in meditation sitting in meditation and stillness of course I want to explain a lot more to you and but I hope that this has inspired you to understand and to recognize that you are free you're much more free than people will tell you then perhaps you've learned at school perhaps even from your parents you know parents can sometimes say things that they understand not to be the most positive later on in life but you know parents are people so they sometimes say things to little children that don't help them to see the world in the best possible way it's just because their parents did the same their parents did the same and goes back you know our paradigm of life isn't always based on positivity sometimes it's based on fear sometimes it's based on negativity negative perceptions but now you know that this is just a choice a matter of choice then if you have the right tools if you know how to use freedom in such a way so that you can choose to let go of the inner saboteur that part of yourself that brings you down that brings consciousness down that limits consciousness to thinking in a certain way that sabotages your choices and says to you no you can't or you'll never manage you know that sort of program that runs in the back of your mind sometimes that inner chatter that's always saying negative things so that you you know it's hard enough to let that go you know and to be and be free enough to sort of see what's going on around you because that inner chatter can get quite intense if the inner saboteur is very well developed and if you have negative experiences in life in childhood traumas or if you have negative experiences that you are experiencing right now you know with your boss or money problems or health problems or challenges you know the inner saboteur gets very very intense and of course it's difficult I understand totally if if you don't quite believe that you have you're free enough to let that go but you are and this is why I would like to share with you some tools I want to share with you one tool now that can help you help you in help you empower this state of freedom or the state of awareness where you can choose more easily that which is brings happiness that which brings you to a state of equilibrium and it's very very simple I call it gratitude it's been well researched by neuroscientists gratitude it's very positive every time the inner saboteur which is connected to the limbic brain sort of manipulates you to think or feel in such a way where the information that's being transmitted in your brain is negative and you need to immediately react to the situation breathe in take a deep breath deep full breath breathe in relax the body open up open up and just think of something that you're grateful for doesn't matter what can be something as simple as today it was just lovely to be able to step outside and breathe some fresh air or today it was just lovely to be able to listen to the birds sing you know the more simple your gratitude connection is the more powerful it becomes you know it doesn't have to be ungrateful because I won the lottery or I'm grateful because someone offered me the best job ever my dream job little things remember micro steps those micro steps help you to quantum leap into a state of consciousness that allows you that empowers you to choose from within this state of coherence rather than from the space that the inner saboteur creates when connected to the limbic brain so micro steps every time you find yourself caught in a negative spiral you can breathe in open up relax the body let go you know just for a split second let go of that thought your attachment to that thought the importance of that thought it's a bit of a trick really because what you're doing is not satisfying the limbic brain to fall into immediate satisfaction you know immediate gratification because that's what the limbic brain wants yours sort of bringing the energy away from the limbic brain and moving it towards the neocortex where you can think from within the space of consciousness or you can feel from within the space of consciousness it's wonderful it really works so when you do this when you let go of the tension when you relax into the space of openness and you connect to the powerful healing mechanism that is gratitude you immediately come back to this space that is so very powerful and important and part of part of what it means to be a human being you come back to the heart this is the space where you feel a connection to the world where you feel a connection to what is going on where you feel a connection to yourself and the positive empowerment that happens when you're free and able to see things from a different perspective than the one that's being manipulated by the reactive process that perhaps happens even when you sit in meditation this happens I remember sitting in meditation and all sorts of things would happen good things not so good things you would remember a little incidents that you just totally forgot about and that would bring about a reaction sadness or a feeling of being unhappy because why you'd ask yourself why did this happen to me why especially me you know everyone goes through situations that are traumatic of course you know it's part of growing up but when you remember it from the intensity of a meditational space then it's very easy for the limbic brain to react in that mode that creates inner sub the inner saboteur so it's very very important to utilize this practice that I've just shared with you to to transform the space so that you are free enough to make a choice because the limbic brain will always make the choice for you if you allow it so if you use this method of transformation then you have a choice and you really do have a choice I know this from my own experience I know this from working with thousands and thousands of people I know this from the information that has been so very well documented and researched by neuroscientists this empowerment is not just some sort of hopeful daydream type scenario it's real but you can only know this from your own experience so I invite you to share this video with people to share this information with your friends your loved ones and most important most importantly to practice this to practice this and see how powerful this information is you

Reviews

To learn so much about the function of the brain at age 70, opens up new paths of adventures to explore. Thank you for unfolding my capacity to be more.

a great talk but not a guided practice

Excellent. Every time I make a little change...my limbic brain goes into overdrive. This is timely and most help full. Thank you.

This is great introduction to meditation and challenges people face in the journey to meditation benefits. Thank you for a inspiring understanding.

Breathe in, soften and relax, let go of the attachment, feel gratitude for something small. Be free.

Wonderful talk, gets to limbic info about halfway thru. Would be helpful to have a companion meditation to actually guide us on"how", to model it for us? Thank you!