Sree's next Newsletter

Hand Model of the Brain.

In last week’s post, I used some language a few readers found jargony :). So, I wanted to start this week by reviewing Dr. Dan Siegel’s hand model of the brain.

If we put our thumb in the middle of our palm and curl our fingers over the top, our face is in front of the knuckles, and the back of the head is towards the back of our hand. Our wrist represents the spinal cord, rising from the backbone on which our brain sits. If we lift our fingers & raise our thumb, we see the inner brain stem in our palm. If we put our thumb back, that is the limbic area; curl the fingers over, and we have the cortex. The brain stem ( palm ), the limbic area( the thumb), and the cortex ( the folded-over fingers) are referred to as the triune brain. He describes this model that he developed in this YouTube video. It is a short video. I encourage you to watch. He also explains why understanding the structure of our brain is important.

Back to an understanding of Memory

Last week’s newsletter described implicit and explicit memory. I wanted to explain those terms a bit more.

There are two layers of memory: implicit and explicit.

Implicit memory records emotions, perceptions, bodily actions, and physical memories, such as that feeling in your gut. These are recorded as early as the third trimester of pregnancy and continue throughout life.

Explicit memories are created after the hippocampus creates connections between different parts of the brain. The hippocampus creates factual and autobiographical memories. It has associations with our implicit impressions around an internal sensation. For example, the word "tree" brings up images, feelings, and associations we have around this word. Autobiographical memories have a sense of the self and a sense of time. It has a different circuitry of neurons that integrates implicit memory and creates a single episode of you in time.

As Dr. Seigel describes in the video above, integrating the brain stem, the limbic area, the cortex, and the body results in emotional regulation. Mind-body techniques such as meditation, mindfulness, and EFT help us achieve this integration. Stress messes with integration.

Are we addicted to Stress?

In his book, “Getting Over the Habit of Being Ourselves,” Dr. Joe Dispenza describes how we get addicted to the level of stress hormones in the bloodstream. More on that next week.

We are in a period when connection and community are more important than ever. This blog post from the Heartmath Insitute describes one way to do that.

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