On Using Our Prefrontal Cortexes

 

    I was able to get gasoline for my car yesterday.  So I'll be able to meet friends for a gravel bicycle ride tomorrow, north of Charlottesville.  I can easily get there and back on the gasoline in my tank.

    It was hard to find a station that had gas.  That's because so many people had thought there was a gas shortage and had panicked, waiting in long lines to fill not only their vehicles' tanks, but also auxiliary containers..  They were panicked by the news that the major gasoline pipeline for this part of the country had been disabeld by Russian criminals who had hacked in with ransomware.  In fact, if the pipeline had been disabled as long as tomorrow or the next day, there would have been a disruption in gasoline supply.  But, in fact, gas began flowing again through the pipeline two days ago.  And, in fact, there was always enough gas available for normal consumption.

    But many people didn't respond to these facts.  Instead, many reacted with fear and panic to a gasoline "shortage" that didn't exist.  Their amygdalas took over, the part of our "reptilian" brains that react to fear and anxiety.  Their panic buying and hoarding of gasoline created a shortage!

    This kind of immature, reptilian reaction takes over our culture all too often.  We can't avoid feeling fear.  Out feelings are our feelings.  Some feel fear frequently.  But think of how much better off we would be, as a society of diverse people who need to live together, if we would be more mature, recognizing when we feel fear and anxiety and, instead of reacting to those feelings, using our prefrontal cortexes to respond.  As Tiffany Shalin helpfully describes it, in her book, 24/6, "The prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain that literally thinks things through and lets you make good long-term decisions.  It's the control panel, overseeing what's known as 'executive functioning,' of your thoughts and actions.  Neuroscientist Adele Diamond calls these executive function skills 'self-regulations.'  They're the skills that allow us to focus our attention, remember lists, and juggle multiple tasks.  They give us the ability to filter, prioritize, and control impulses."

    We can't help feeling fear and anxiety.  Our feelings are our feelings.  But when we use our prefrontal cortexes to resist the reactive impulses of our amygdalas, we can respond by practicing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

    Those practices reveal the fruit of the Holy Spirit, active among us, as St. Paul describes this, in Galatians 5:22-23.  It seems to me that, as we engage in lives of contemplation that allow the Spirit to open us to bearing this fruit; and as we think and act by these practices; we will be better off as a society of diverse people who need to live together.

-- Andy Ballentine