Neuro-Wellbeing & The Developing Self

Who pushes you the most in your life? Take a minute and think about all the things you want to achieve. Who forces you to work harder than you can? If the answer includes yourself, then you came to the right place. Chuck Yeager once said: “You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up, but you don’t give up.” Respecting yourself doesn’t mean giving up, it isn’t a sign of weakness. In fact, taking the time to better understand your neural anatomy and capability is the best way to find how you can still achieve your goals without feeling like you’re asking too much. Let’s talk about how we can find the sweet spot between pushing ourselves, and making the most out of our hard work by looking into the master behind all intelligence, and all capability: The Human Brain.

1. The Prefrontal Cortex: The Brain’s BFF

The prefrontal cortex is located right behind our forehead, and it’s literally the brain’s best friend. It is in charge of helping us stay organized, focused, and aware. When you’re trying to reach a goal, like getting fit, or learning an instrument, or getting a better grade, the PFC is what is planning our steps, and helping us stay focused. Say you’re trying to lose weight, and that big tub of chocolate ice cream in the freezer is calling your name. It’s the prefrontal cortex that keeps telling you about your goal to be fit, and pushes you to have a salad instead. This element of our brains, is necessary when we’re trying to figure out how much longer we can work, and how much work we can put it.

2. The Basal Ganglia: Our Habit Correspondent

The basal ganglia is a part of our brain that helps us make trying into something that actually happens. When you practice repetition, the basal ganglia is what make those patterns stronger until they become something you don’t even think about. Think back to when you were learning to write your name; it was hard and pretty messy in the beginning. Now, if you had to write your name down for something, you probably don’t even think twice about it. The basal ganglia makes habits easier. When you’re trying to push yourself to work harder, make sure you’ve built healthy habits that can help you do so. When I was trying to finish off a big course in one month, I built tons of healthy habits to make this goal possible. I used a planner filled with specific steps on what I’d need to do, I woke up early, and I studied the content for hours. The reason my brain could get all that work done in a short amount of time was because of the basal ganglia. So pay attention to that part of your brain when you’re trying to get your goals achieved.

3. The Limbic System: What motivates us

The limbic system is the emotional core of our brain, it plays a big role in motivation. The amygdala and hippocampus are part of the limbic system, that helps us deal with emotions, look back and reflect why something should matter to us, and feel the excitement of our hard work paying off. When we feel happy about a goal or glad about an achievement, it’s the limbic system that’s working. It gives us emotional encouragement to push our limits, get back up when we fall down, and stay mindful about the bigger reason that sets the stage for our hard work to play through. Did you ever get a feeling like you needed to stop and take a break, but you wouldn’t listen and you end up burning out? I know I have, and that’s when I wasn’t listening to my built-in therapist, the emotional center of my brain that looks out for me.

In summary, it’s normal to push yourself, and it’s very normal to push yourself too hard at times. But when we already live in a society that is constantly demanding more of us, we don’t need to be the people that are pressuring ourselves even more. Someone once told me, the longest relationship you have with anyone in this world is yourself. That’s why it’s so important to look at yourself in the mirror, and find your limits. Don’t push yourself, encourage yourself. When you finally get that goal done, think about the systems in your brain that carried you along the way. If you fall on your face as much as I did, you’ll learn that sometimes you need to take a seat.

Until next time, R.J.