The Mechanics Of How To Be Stupid

You have a higher brain that is intelligent.  If you cut it off (or "hijack" it), you will be operating at the level of Dumb And Dumber.  [Dumb and Dumber on the site are the two lower, primitive brains: the reptilian brain and the limbic, mid brain (aka "the monkey mind").]

It is imperative that, except in simple cases where there are only mechanical, passive needs being engaged in, you have access to your higher brain, as otherwise it is an animal brain (note how you sometimes engage in "shameful" animalistic ways when you are in that brain) and/or a child level brain running the show - that is not a good idea!!  A monkey or even a sweet child will not do a very good job!  (Note that there is Zero Fault/Blame in this, and that we are just humans acting as humans do, until we master ourselves by using the higher brain for what it is best at!!!)


HOW TO GO INTO "STUPID"

If we allow false fear thoughts into our brain, we trigger the fight/flight response.  That response sends blood to the big muscles needed to fight or run while it shuts off all functions not necessary for immediate survival.  The immune function, the digestive function, many organ functions...and the higher brain (as it thinks "too slowly" for survival).

The body/mind also goes into a state where it MUST react to the body being out of balance (i.e. not in well-functioning homeostasis).  In order to restore balance and functionality in one way, the body must take resources from other parts of the body.  [Remember the human body is designed to be small and nimble, so it can't have too many big reserves on hand - it must be totally efficient with its scarce resources.  If we are "smart" about this, we learn how to manage our way around violating the scarce resource limitations, such as avoiding getting into harmful dysfunctioning in the first place and not allowing it to continue to be abused.]

If we let ourselves go a little out of kilter, the body can handle that.  But as it goes further out of balance, it starts taking too much from other areas - and then those areas become more and more dysfunctional, until we are in a downward, accelerating spiral, that is exponentially more damaging.  We must, asap, as early as possible, stop (intervene in) that cycle.

Unfortunately, the brain goes into lower functioning and "energy conservation mode" to save itself from destruction or diminishment - it shuts down or, largely, "off".  So, it is offline, leaving only Dumb and Dumber in charge!

The cute expression here is that it gets "hijacked".

The irony is that when we are in our lower brains and not using our higher brain we are relatively incapable of handling the hijacks!  


THE WAY OUT

The only way out is to make our decisions (and do our necessary learning) while in the higher brain.

That is what I call "pre-decisions", so that we do not have to decide when we are in an incapable state of brain functioning.  And then, after the pre-decision, our higher brain must engage in "training" the child brain or monkey mind so that it will automatically follow the pre-decided action.  And, of course, since our brains are 99+% mechanical, we must use mechanical strategies to do that.  The key one is, as you might guess, repetition.  Having a place to look for a reminder when you are incapable of much thinking is another strategy.   However, to do that, one must set up a system of retrieval, such as a simple system on the computer or in a Reminders Notebook.

The key concept you should get from this is to not fault yourself for this very human mechanism.  [If we fault ourselves, we trigger the downward spiral!] 

When we fail to pre-manage this in our higher brain, we will be reduced to doing "stupid stuff", even animalistic gorging or gross behaviors - we are not "to fault" for it...we just need to mechanically reengage our higher brain as soon as possible and also devise strategies to prevent the initial hijacking.  That is what The Site is all about.

One of the key strategies was the subject of the last blog posting about resets to stay in homeostasis.

Also, as you are likely to have not studied the site's materials on understanding how the brain works and how to work it, you should read, study, learn, and implement the materials, starting with Your (Bio)Mechanical Brain/Body - Summary - See It For What It Is, Create It How You Want It To be -
and, yes, you can intentionally and effectively create your brain functioning as you want it to function.  That is vital, as it is what leads you to being able to create a great life.  You must not short yourself on this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!