A reptile is controlling you! I know it’s hard to believe but really it’s true. The lizard brain as I like to call it, or reptilian brain, always wins until you learn how to tame it.
You see the lizard brain is all about survival; it’s heavily invested in activities like:
Eating
Attacking
Running away from danger
Surviving
Limiting
Planning Revenge
Getting Sex
This brain is all about fight/flight, polarity, it’s do or die. It’s purpose during earlier times was to save your life, and it’s great for life and death situations; it’s just not so good for daily living.
The lizard brain prevents you from taking risks, it stops you from being the boldest, brightest, bravest, most outrageous, most authentic, and transparent expression of who you really are.
It limits you.
The lizard is what makes it difficult to do what we say we want to do. It’s what keeps New Years’ Resolutions from sticking. It is a real part of your brain and this part is known as the amygdala.
It’s hard to stay quiet and ignore the lizard . . . but you can learn how to do it . . .
When you do, your lizard can become a great asset, as you learn to navigate the waters of life that your lizard has been controlling.
You will no longer need to appease or please the lizard.
The lizard brain shows up and wields its influence in a number of ways.
See if you recognize any of these:
You say you want one thing, but your actions are not aligned with that desire.
You say you want to be successful, but you never finish the project that would create success for you.
You say being healthy and fit is important to you, but you do not take actions that contribute to your health and fitness.
You have a great idea for an invention or product that would add value to a certain group of people, yet you never get
past the start-up phase.
You say you want to lose weight, but you are unconscious about what you eat.
Some of us have a lot of never ending conflicting intentions, while others only have a few . . . and in all of these there’s one common denominator besides you. Do you know what it is?
It’s the lizard!
One of my favorite writers is Seth Godin. Seth often writes about the lizard and in one of his recent blog posts he had this to say:
“The lizard is a physical part of your brain, the pre-historic lump near the brain stem that is responsible for fear and rage and reproductive drive. Why did the chicken cross the road? Because her lizard brain told her to.”
The lizard brain has a job to do. Its job is to keep us limited, and to that end, it has taken on the role of social survival strategist, remembering the times we looked bad or foolish in a social situation. The lizard brain is not known for its ability to utilize critical thought. In the world of the lizard brain, things are polarized and it’s never the lizard’s fault.
Whenever resistance is showing up in your life, it’s likely that the source of the resistance is the lizard itself. Resistance is the voice, the inner critic that tells you all the reasons why you cannot do something, and gives you all the excuses why it won’t work.
One of the key observations of the lizard brain is that the dialogue often contains the word we, and/or the phrase what if. A more sophisticated lizard may even say “let’s-”
Here are some examples:
What if we fail?
What if someone laughs?
We can’t succeed, someone else has already done it better.
What if someone doesn’t like it?
Let’s go to Starbucks!
We should really go out and get something to eat.
We should go to the store.
We need to . . . (fill in the blanks) The objections are endless!
The interesting thing is that it operates as though there are two of you.
I think you get the idea here; the lizard brain is a huge distractor from passion, purpose, focus, and delivery or shipping
as Seth Godin says.
This quote says it all!
“If you are not conscious of all of the different parts of yourself, the part of yourself that is the strongest will win out over the other parts. Its intention will be the one that the personality uses to create its reality.”~Gary Zukav, Seat of the Soul
Seth Godin goes on to say;
“The amygdala isn’t going away. Your lizard brain is here to stay, and your job is to figure out how to quiet it and ignore it.”
As I work with clients these, days it seems the bigger questions for most of us are:
- How do I share my genius and connect more with life?
- How do I break out and challenge the status quo?
- How do I move past the limitations of the past and embrace the fullest expression of my gifts?
- How do I honor and love myself without sacrificing myself?. . . and of course this one from Seth Godin . . .
- How do I ship?
The short answer is tame your lizard brain!
Now that you know about the lizard brain and it’s game, let’s look at some ways to quiet and ignore it. Here are my top 7 strategies that will allow you to quiet and ignore the lizard brain.
1. Get that awareness always precedes change; Just knowing about the lizard, and how it operates, is the first step in quieting, and ignoring it. Learn to ask yourself who is speaking? If the voice begins with “we should or what if” the lizard is speaking, and your focus is splitting from the actions that will move you closer to what you desire to the distractions that will take you off course.
2. Notice resistance. You can’t do this because . . . this is the inner dialogue with all the reasons why not. The reasons are endless. My friend Sunie suggested saying this; “thanks for sharing, what else have you got?”
3. Notice the type of fear that is showing up and act accordingly. There are different types of fear; Rational fear . . . like being on a dark street and feeling like you need to be alert is very valid. Rational fear can save your life in situations of physical danger. This is the lizard brain at its best. This is what is was designed for! This is when you want the lizard in control.
Irrational fear has a what if energy to it and it’s useless. It is the fear that creates stuckness and immobility. When you are feeling stuck, you are unable to take action that takes you out of the same old, same old. Often these fears are laid down in patterns as a response to a memory of a situation in which you were embarrassed, ridiculed, or otherwise experienced something you interpreted as an insult, or injury.
There’s a big emotional component to this and the goal is to never go to that hurt, or injured place again. It’s all about survival through limitation.
The next type of fear is intellectual fear this fear does not scare you or immobilize you. A certain amount of fear of the unknown or apprehension is to be expected.
4. Take extremely good care of yourself. For you to effectively tame the lizard brain you must be feeling good. Feeling good is a function that is based largely on the choices you are making. Things like getting enough rest, fresh air, sleep, time in nature, exercise, quiet time, celebration, good quality food, all support feeling good. The better you feel the less powerful the lizard is.
5. Ask yourself the following two questions whenever you are considering taking action on your desires; Is the action I am taking, and/or the choice I am making moving me closer to, or further from my desired end result? Is the action I am taking, and/or the choice I am making, loving of myself? If the answer to either of these questions is no, consider not taking the action and reconnecting with yourself and your values.
6. Notice if you are comparing yourself to others and you are coming up short. The lizard brain wants you to play safe and small. It’s interested in maintaining the status quo. It doesn’t like change and making you feel badly about yourself, or less than another has been a highly effective strategy for the lizard. When you are thinking about what you are lacking, you’re not thinking about your creation and gifts. Your job is to get that you have value, and that value is no less than any other person or thing that exists on the planet. Value is an inside job, and it starts with you choosing to value yourself.
7. Notice your energy; are you expanded or constricted? Constriction is a function of the lizard brain, expansion is a function of the higher mind, the neocortex. The neocortex is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, language, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, and conscious thought. If your energy is constricted, move, change positions, ask yourself what the story is that you are telling yourself. If you find you have been hi-jacked by the lizard . . . choose to escape!
While these top seven strategies may seem simple and obvious; implementation of them can be a bit tricky. You have to start somewhere though, and if you can implement one of these strategies a week, you can make great headway towards the goals of taming your lizard.
If you are like me and you don’t want to go at it with baby steps, you can get great results with my proprietary process called Consciousness Shifting. This simple energy shifting process is the fastest, easiest way, most elegant way to create fantastic results for you that are lasting. Book your free session w/me today to see if Consciousness Shifting is a fit for you! www.karenvizer.com/discovery
And join me Tuesday June 29, 2010 at 1PM PT for my free tele-seminar:
“How To Tame Your Lizard Brain”
Come experience energy shifting yourself and begin to tame your lizard brain!
You will be surprised where the lizard is lurking!