Human -n- Monkey -n- Lizard Minds

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If you have followed the many threads out here in the Net you are familiar with the terms, "monkey brain, the lizard brain and the human brain." Since there are actually no real area's of the brain that fit these three exactly but many parts of the brain are involved with all three I decided to change my way of thinking so that I refer to, "the human-mind, the monkey-mind and the lizard-mind." For instance: 

• The lizard is the original mind we had as cavemen when we first took those fateful steps out of the life pool.
• The monkey mind came after when we evolved the need to create stories from our beliefs to create a reality to survive and evolve.
• The human mind is the one nature added to our minds to handle a more logical way of thinking to control both the monkey and lizard.

All three interact with each other to ensure survival in a more dangerous and complex time. These three minds or “Mind-sets” are trainable except the lizard-mind but the lizard-mind can be used when triggered to trigger training and practices and experiences that relate to the lizard-minds ability to survive related to the “flight-n-fight response.” 

The reason as simplistic as it seems for calling them “-mind” rather than “-brain(s)” is that in reality we are working with how our minds as to reality from beliefs, experiences and other stimulus collected and stored over our life times is more about that mind-state and mind-set rather than some inference to our actual gray matter we call the brain or its parts thereof. 

We refer to those brain parts such as the amygdala, etc., to educate and to understand but when the rubber meets the road we want our cross-country off-road tires to grab on to the many grounds we will traverse when we have to self-protect for self-defense. Having that knowledge and understanding provides symbolic relations or lines that connect all the dots for a better understanding of our training and practices, etc., because humans do better relating to what is stored in relation to what must be triggered and acted upon for survival. 

In my way of thinking, for this moment and post and thread until the universe changes again, I feel that we have to work with the hard-coded lizard-mind to take what is stored by nature in the lizard brain and massage that so when we train and practice we do so with some connectivity to the flight-n-fight responses or systems, because when the chemical dump, adrenaline, etc., hit we want that instantaneously triggered flight-n-fight response to have at its disposal the training, practices and experiences to adjust and allow us to act or respond with more than just freezing or taking flight unless those two stand-alone responses are the appropriate ones. Even so, you still want other responses there and available and doable in case freezing and/or taking flight are not appropriate, safe or secure.  

The human-mind is that logical, somewhat emotionally mature, mind and brain that we need to make such decisions in training and practice toward things like taking flight to avoid, talking to deescalate, or taking other actions to self-protect in the name of self-defense, i.e., those requirements of appropriate force levels and actions that meet the requirements of the law, the legal systems and the social morals, requirements and mandates we face when we are forced into survival mode. 

As you are already visualizing we have to train and practice such that the human-mind understands and accepts those necessary connections we need to make in our efforts so that the lizard-mind and the often interfering monkey-mind can work as a team to “get-r-done” at what ever appropriate means or methodology required. 

Now, as to that monkey-mind, the monkey mind is our emotionally driven often chaotic misdirected mind that can often lead to the very trouble we get in making self-protection necessary. The monkey-mind is troublesome while at the same time necessary to get things done right so learning about that one takes on a lot of heavy weight so that we don’t succumb to its rantings and ravings especially when the adrenaline stresses and effects hit is like a ton of bricks leading the tsunami wave that pounds us into the earth. 

You see, to get the human-mind on the right track and keep its wheels solid there and following the line to the proper end we need to ensure that the monkey works in a positive way to achieve a logical mind-state and mind-set so that when traversing through the mine field of the monkey-mind on its way to triggering the lizard-brain and lizard-mind there has to be a cohesive, appropriate and beneficial relationship between all three. 

It is believed that our beliefs, what they may be, slowly transform into a mindset, often negative, that directs how we view the world and we refer to that as the Monkey Mind. We call it this because it lacks emotional maturity and common sense and evolved less than other more recent brain enhancements of nature that govern our thought processes.  

The monkey-mind tends to blame outside forces, including other folks, for our problems. It wants to remain focused on how outside events and folks tends to cause our lives to not be what we want or expect. It tends to encode memories in a form that is all about criticisms and judgements we have adopted as our reality, our beliefs. 

To suppress its influence we need to stop blaming others and outside sources and take responsibility for our circumstances, all the while the monkey-mind will gladly and enthusiastically remind us about those things that cause us shame and loss of face creating beliefs counter to those of benefit. 

Our human-mind on the other hand is an emotionless logical mind, an observing mind if you will, that does NOT look outside our self for the troubles of life but instead remains steadfast on an objective perspective, uninhibited by judgmental pressures that arise from the monkey-mind. The human-mind, when not obscured by the antics of the monkey-mind, is objective and understands the source of our stressors both negative and positive within each of us. It offers us the wisdom through its experiencing and learning from the monkey mind but with understanding, recognition and acceptance of the limitations that come from a monkey-mind state of mind. 

When the monkey-mind dominates, it uses self-judgements to create drama, drama is the form of stories it tells us to ensure its agenda takes precedence over that of the human-mind, often to our detriment. Add in emotions, feelings and moods, it fuels this critical and judgmental story line putting in all sorts of plot twists and turns into the life and this non-stop chattering also full of opinions and distractions to counter anything the human-mind will present. 

The human-mind, the observer, is like a recording devices that records what is happening but without judgement and when you can promote the human-minds thinking processes you can train yourself to question everything the monkey-mind triggers and then decide how to act and change accordingly. 

The monkey-mind frets about problems while the human-mind works to shift your focus toward solutions to said problems because it looks, listens, and feels for a path away from the anxieties and stresses of life. 

What makes training and practice in regard to the human-mind and the monkey-mind so difficult is that each person's monkey-mind is unique, shaped by the individuals experiences of life. This is why the first step is to recognize that our entire experiences of life influence the human-mind and monkey-mind and each experienced moment and situation triggers the monkey-mind to chatter incessantly, increasing the force level of our anxieties, to the point where we will do just about anything to shut it all up. 

Here is the Human-Mind:

• Exudes calmness and clarity; 
• focuses responsibility inward; 
• remains present in anxiety-stress-inducing situations; 
• states the simple facts;
• sees everything as a situation that is unfolding; 
• accepts what is and explores possible changes; 
• understands that the story is just a story; 
• assumes there is something useful to learn; 
• asks questions and considers others points of view; 
• leaves space in its thinking; 
• allows you to respond at your own pace; 
• creates new possibilities. 

Here is the Monkey-Mind: 

• Pushes drama-trauma; 
• focuses responsibilities on others and outside sources; 
• panics and feeds anxieties; 
• makes drama and stirs up emotions; 
• sees everything as an emergency; 
• wants things changed - NOW
• confuses the story with reality; 
• assumes it knows the truth; 
• jumps to conclusions, judgements and immediate opinions; 
• is consumed by nonstop stream of thoughts; 
• rushes and pushes for instant reactions; 
• keeps creating the same results. 

Compare the lists and you can begin to see how it is critically important when violence and conflict are involved that we achieve some semblance of training, understanding and acceptance of the minds we deal with especially in stress conditions. 

“Beliefs are Reality; Realities are beliefs.” A belief is a recurring thought you always assume is true; it seems obvious and you never consider questioning it. All humans hold a mind-boggling range of beliefs that create our reality. If you want to change your reality, you are going to have to change some of your beliefs. Our beliefs are stored in our memories and are those that allow us to survive in some way or form. They affect how we respond to a situations, because different people react differently to the same stimulus because of the varying beliefs each of us has that makes our reality. 

In situations and circumstances can literally be the same but due to beliefs and personal realities everyone can and do have different experiences because we all view events through a different set of beliefs. Each person who experiences the same basic situation will have very differetn sets of beliefs and, hence, a very different perspective. Why? Because each of our beliefs create its own reality from the same, very simple, raw material. 

For instance: “Anger”, anger can occur because of some boundary we set from our beliefs that if crossed triggers our anger. We attribute that anger to the other person or situation, but the truth of it is it comes back to some issues within ourselves. The collective social beliefs often exacerbate those feelings, emotions, and moods such as anger. When we get anger we almost always lay blame on some outside source, but in reality, we are angry at ourselves for that belief and source as they relate to one another. 

We should see our anger as a trigger to tell us taht there is something conflicting going on inside our heads. We are letting others actions or outside situations to affect how we view ourselves, we can then shift away from the actions triggered by anger and go about using our human-mind to retrieve actions and thoughts of a calmer and reasonable nature. We then can track the emotion and its related belief to quickly assuage it before it gets unloaded onto other people. 

Humans create repetive, reactive patterns, and we have difficulty recognizing where they come from and the why they are there. 

To combat such things we, “must learn to recognize, accept and understand how we filter other people’s comments and other situations through the monkey-mind’s voice tempered with a dose of human-mind logical so when we hear or see or experience something negative we can change the auto-reaction we normally experience as if we faced a threat. Most threats are a product of our beliefs and reality. 

In short, “Take and own our experiences!” The monkey-mind is convinced that our source of happiness and unhappiness are everywhere OUTSIDE ourselves. The monkey-mind constantly bombards us with thoughts that want to blame situations and other people for how we are feeling. 

One of the many ways we learn to combat the monkey-mind is to “breathe!” By breathing and focusing on our memories we can bring back the situation and event in our minds-eye while relaxing our muscles and our minds with meditative forms of breathing especially in every day non-violent situations and events we experience every day so when more stressful and dangerous events occur we have a chance to alleviate the higher stress-induced physical and mental responses. 

Bringing our attention to our bodies is one of the most effective ways to ground ourselves in stressful and anxious moments. Connecting with memories of more relaxed times allows us to slow down the barrage of chattering thoughts so we can objectively look at things. In this manner of practice we can open ourselves to a calmer, more present moment uninhibited by the voice of the monkey-mind. 

It is good to understand going in that our monkey-mind is and has been a dominating thought process for most of our lives. It does not mean that the monkey-mind is going to just change and stop its chattering but if we learn to be present in body and mind with the knowledge and understanding of how the monkey-mind works, especially with the lizard-mind and the human-mind, we can break in when it is triggered and can break the cycle of flight-n-fight responses or at least through training trigger those flight-n-fight enhancements to act accordingly. 

This is so important because the fight-n-flight reflex when triggered, often before the human-mind can even realize it has happened, goes through the following phases at the speed of light: 

1. When hear the words or see the situation; 
2. We listen to the monkey-mind translate what it THINKS those words or situation mean; 
3. We respond to the unspoken message of the monkey-mind as to what the other person or situation really meant often not the actual meaning and intent of the person or situation. 

This occurs in milliseconds, so fast the human-mind cannot track it or often is even aware it has occurred. This is the monkey-mind and the training and practice, especially for self-protection in self-defense, must address how that mind works to learn how to change the outcome of such things. 

First, remember, the lizard-brain (mind) is like read-only-memory in a computer, the type of memory once set is unchangeable so that one must use other memories to “enhance those flight-n-fight responses” to naturally glide into words and actions appropriate in the moment. 

Second, remember, although the monkey-mind is changeable it has a resistance level unparalleled in our conscious world. It’s sole purpose is to place its beliefs and agenda’s over and above those you would find if you took the time to logically and emotionally mature way consider response to stimulus both external and internal. You CANNOT ride yourself of the monkey-mind and its chattering but you CAN learn to stop actions while you use the human-mind to consider your chattering thoughts, emotions, feelings, moods and their related beliefs so the human-mind can consider and create things appropriate to the moment. 

Third, remember, the human-mind is the latest modification to our brains from nature due to the changes and evolutionary effects of our times, i.e., the industrial revolution to the internet/technological revolution and so on, to allow is the abilities to survive in a ever changing universe. We just have to step in and make sure we can make the most of our three minds to achieve a balance that allows that survival. 

Shannon, Jennifer. “Don’t Feed the Monkey Mind. New Harbinger Publications. April 2017.

STAY TUNED, MORE TO COME ON THE SUBJECT…

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