Oh Reptilian Brain, What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Do you have a Reptilian Brain? Is that a weird question? Is that a weird thought?

I can assure you it was a weird question and a bizarre concept to me the first time I heard it. However, I have come to understand through research and different presentations that I have a reptilian brain from time to time. I also discovered that you too - yep YOU TOO - have a reptilian brain.

I know... did she just insult me? NOPE. It's true. We all have a Reptilian Brain. It's our fight or flight response. Our gut instinct. Our first reaction. It's the part of our brain that sometimes gets us into trouble. It's the part of our brain that saves our lives in certain situations. The Brain

Our Reptilian Brain is a good thing. It's first job is to help us survive. It protects us from threats that come from outside and it allows us to adjust to changes in our circumstances. According to www.copingskills4kids.net there are a total of 8 functions of the reptilian brain. You can read about it by clicking the link: Reptilian Coping Brain



The great part about our brain is that our Reptilian Brain does not have to work by itself. We also have our Neocortex (thinking brain) and our Limbic Brain (feeling brain) that help our Reptilian Brain  (instinctual brain) regulate and process information. So when we are dealing with a situation where our Reptilian Brain tells us to scream, stomp our feet, bite someone's finger... because they made us mad (for example - not that we'd ever really want to do that, right?) our emotional brain and thinking brain can stop us from acting inappropriately or in a child-like manner. The emotional brain can tell us we have the right to be mad while our thinking brain can provide us with better way of dealing with it than our gut reaction from our Reptilian Brain.

Sometimes however, we don't allow our feeling brain and our thinking brain time to respond and we respond with our instinctual or dinosaur brain. In those cases we sometimes end up responding poorly and later feel bad, embarrassed or sheepish. In order to avoid these inappropriate, humiliating and child-like reactions we can learn to cope through a variety of ways. Learning to Cope by Copingskills4kids has a variety of suggestions and some links for educational pieces. However, in short, we can learn to cope by watching others and seeing what works for them, we can try different strategies and keep the ones that work and throw out the ones that don't and finally we can make a conscious effort to learn coping skills from our teachers, guidance counsellors or online sources.

It's important to realize that even adults who have learnt great coping skills still sometimes allow their Reptilian Brain to respond and end up looking foolish or embarrassed. AND at times the commands from our Reptilian Brain are the commands we need to follow. For example, if you are crossing the street and you see a car coming that doesn't look like it will stop your Reptilian Brain will tell you to RUN!! And you should. Your Reptilian Brain will also tell you to duck when a golf ball is coming straight at your head. And you should! Your Reptilian Brain may tell you to fight when some one is trying to mug you... you should just give them your money and run!

You get the idea. Sometimes it is worth listening to your Reptilian Brain. In fact, listening to your dinosaur brain may save your life. There are other times when you need to step back from a situation and allow your thinking and feeling brains to decide how you should cope with a situation.

There is lots of information on how to cope out there in the cyber world. Feel free to check it out. But remember to look for reliable sources and also... remember that parents, teachers, guidance counsellors, doctors and medical professionals may be even better sources from whom to learn about coping.

Picture sources:
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2015/05/07/8-reptilian-traits-in-human-beings/
https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-reptilian-brain-image26662837
http://www.shawnphelps.com/2015/10/15/got-hatred-dont-feed-your-reptilian-brain/

Here are a couple of videos from WellCast that may help. Check them out if you have time

Stress Relief Tips: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fL-pn80s-c

Anger Management Tips:                                        

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsVq5R_F6RA

Adult Colouring Books. Crazy Craze or Fantastic For You?

I have an adult colouring book. In fact, I have two. I also have an assortment of adult colouring pages I have found on free sites online. Now, this could just be a craze, a passing fad or adults longing for their childhood and the positive memories it held. But maybe it is more than that.

Maybe colouring is doing something good for us. Maybe, just maybe, colouring is doing something good for our mental health. Maybe colouring is helping us slow down, breathe, relax, recoup a quiet place and a slower pace that we too often lose in the busyness of life.

There are a number of articles being written about the medical value in colouring for adults and children alike. "Medical Daily" has a great 36 second video on four benefits of colouring two which can directly relate to students in school situations: training your brain to focus more effectively and helping to deal with anxiety or stress. To check out the video and the article on what is actually going on when we colour follow this link: Medical Daily The Benefits of Colouring

The Huffington Post has an article entitled "Coloring Isn't Just for Kids. It Can Actually Help Adults Combat Stress." In that article this quote sticks out for me "in simplest terms, colouring has a de-stressing effect because when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/coloring-for-stress_n_5975832.html 

That is encouraging to me. If we are focusing on colouring, we are less likely to focus on our worries. That is a great place to start our de-stressing, de-compressing, refocusing. There are time when we all need to do that. Some of us may even need to carry a colouring page or a colouring book around with us at work or at school and take a few minutes to refocus between classes or before a big test.


Of course, colouring may not be for everyone but you might be happy to hear (or read, as the case may be) that there are free online colouring pages for almost any interest and books to be purchased for all most any person as well. And let's say you aren't into colouring, some people find putting together puzzles has the same refocusing and de-stressing potential. The difficult part about doing a puzzle is that it is much harder, if not impossible to take with you! Personally, I find baking has a relaxing, de-stressing, refocusing effect for me. But, alas, one can't take the oven to school with oneself either.


Here is another link specifically for high school guidance counsellors... but if you read right to the bottom (or just scroll to the bottom) there are a number of links for free colouring pages from a variety of sources. Colouring For Teens a High School Counsellors Blog