Focus by Pedram Shojai. O.M.D

Author:Pedram Shojai. O.M.D. [Pedram Shojai, O.M.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hay House
Published: 2020-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

THE SWITCH

In some ways, our nervous system is really quite simple. There are two main states of being that dominate our existence: peacetime and wartime.

The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) governs our “rest and digest” state of existence. It’s the peacetime economy, in which our immune systems are relaxed and doing their jobs, our guts are calm so we can process and digest our foods, we heal our cells, we can rest when tired, we have great sex, and we can make better decisions.

In this state, blood flows to the prefrontal cortex and helps us with discernment and the negation of impulses. It helps us remain rational and think through the consequences of our actions.

This is where we’re supposed to live 99 percent of the time. Our ancestors would do their thing, and occasionally, a crisis would either end their lives or leave them alive to enjoy another day. If and when a real emergency was upon them, they’d switch over to the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and execute emergency powers.

This would trigger all the stuff we spoke about with the amygdala. Blood would divert to the emergency “get me out of here” muscles in our legs to help us flee. It would drain from the front of the brain to the hindbrain, and we’d jack up the hormones cortisol and adrenaline to help squeeze emergency energy out to survive what’s meant to be a short, yet extreme, crisis scenario.

Either the lion got you, or it didn’t.

Either the midnight raid by the other village killed you, or you fended them off.

Our ancestors really only tapped the sympathetic nervous system a small percentage of the time.2 That meant most of the time, we lived in a happy, healthy, restful state where we nourished our bodies and made better decisions.

That is not the world we’re living in anymore.

We are constantly tapping the SNS and drawing blood away from the front of our brains. We pull resources from our gut and tap our immune system because we see everything as an impending crisis. We get tired, bloated, gassy, moody, and irritated on a daily basis, and we see everyone around us doing the same, and we think it must be normal.

But it is not.

It is killing us and robbing us of the amazing capacity we have to be human.

If we can’t access our prefrontal cortex, we are making decisions under duress and are losing our ability to say no to things that don’t serve us. It seems like a great decision to get out of immediate pain when you’re living in sympathetic dominance, except it isn’t.

The right decision remains elusive as long as you’re living on the wrong side of your neurology.

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