Humpty Dumpty Syndrome -- Getting Yourself Together

Remember the old nursery rhyme?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

If you are old enough to recall this childhood rhyme, you are old enough to have had a few great falls of your own. Many people in our society today feel fractured and torn, pressured by the strains of everyday living, overwhelmed by the amount of pressure and speed of change in our modern world. Stress in one form or another is behind all the major killers of our time, and we simply don’t know what to do about it. After all, if Humpty Dumpty couldn’t be put back together again, even with all the king’s horses and all the king’s men to help him, what chance do we have?

Recognizing that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men have been replaced by the ever-expanding personal development and self-help industries, you realize that there are many guides and gurus to consult and a plethora of how-to books filling the bookstore shelves. There are groups and gatherings, programs and protocols, principles and practices all designed to help you “be all you can be.” There is helpful advice all around you, enlightenment is at hand, but still, you fall in greater numbers than ever before.

Access to the multimedia world of motivation is often not enough. So how do you live your life to the fullest? How can you convert good advice received into dynamic action taken? How do you manifest your true intentions and align with your highest purpose?

To do this, you must convert from the temporary, state-dependent world of external motivation and embrace the constant, enduring world of internal transformation .

Emergent research in the field of neuroscience holds the key. According to neuroscientific research from the last fifty years, much of which was done at the National Institutes of Health, the organ in our head we call the brain is a multifaceted entity and actually represents our development as a species and as individuals. Scientists have discovered that the heart directly influences the activity of the brain and that the brain itself is not a single neural control center, but a minimum of three distinct yet interrelated centers. These are each encoded with specific biological functional capacities and are progressively distinguished from each other in evolution and embryology.

The most primitive component, the reptilian brain, is found in all animal species and is largely concerned with survival. This part develops in the human embryo in the first trimester and comprises the autonomic tools for health maintenance and survival. This is also where you find the sensory motor system for coordinating movement, posture, and balance. It is the main focus of the developing infant in the early months.

As species progress in complexity, as the embryo enters its second trimester, these events are paralleled by the emergence of the old mammalian brain, a center containing, among other things, the limbic system, which is responsible for emotions and feelings.

As the embryo develops into the third trimester, as the moving, feeling child begins to think for itself, the new mammalian brain appears. This is where the human species distinguishes itself from the rest, with the neocortex representing the faculties and function of logic, reason, creativity , and imagination .

Each area of neural function has its specific tasks as well as an integrated role in the whole system. Each level develops when it is needed, building on and adding to those that preceded. Eventually, a complete and coordinated organic system emerges to facilitate the individual in all aspects of his being. At least, that is the theory!

Surely three brains would be better than one; after all, isn’t that what elevates us to the top of the food chain? Don’t we outperform the reptiles and other mammals because of our cranial complexity? Didn’t our big brains give us electricity and cell phones and iPods?

The problem is that this complexity can cause conflict and that chaos ensues when there is a lack of coherence. Think about it: these three brains, the paleo-, meso-, and neocortex, secure your survival, govern your emotions, and endow you with the capacity for rational thought, imagination, and creativity . While your primitive brain might tell you that you simply must survive, your thinking brain can encourage you to recognize your own divinity. Who should you believe? Who should you listen to?

When you try to apply the methods of manifestation you have learned, where should you apply them, and which area do they address? Before you know what will work for you, you need to determine where you are operating from. Are you coming from a place of deep insecurity, operating mainly from survival mode? Are you missing out on fulfilling relationships because you are still suffering from a previous emotional hurt? Are your interactions with your team based solely on logic and lacking in interpersonal connectivity and depth? Where you are relating from indicates which brain is in play and determines which modalities will be most useful to you at that time.

Understanding addiction provides an excellent template for this concept. Programs that focus on logical processes are usually not as effective as those that incorporate emotional and spiritual aspects of recovery. Changing behavior through a rational grasp of the prevailing situation and circumstances of your life is a difficult, slow and laborious process but is more rapidly achieved when you feel and believe what you need and want to be necessary in your life.

When you seek to rise above, to change the circumstances without, it is necessary to first create coherence within. Coherence is the difference between a lightbulb and a laser. Coherence converts diffuse, scattered photons into powerful, energetic beams. Coherence enables focused waves of light to cut through metal, to heal injured tissue, and to carry energy and information across the universe. To create coherence, you must reflect inwardly, harness the power of you, and direct focused attention toward creating and achieving your desired and intended outcome. You must create coherent action between all three brains to design the lifestyle you deserve.

Becoming coherent in yourself, entraining your entire system to your highest purpose, will turbo charge any and all attempts to reach your highest goals. You must think, feel, and act in alignment to fulfill your potential and transform any life situation from chaos to coherence.

Look within to your inner world; learn to meditate, resonate, and attract; and remember how to pray. Put your head in the clouds, and keep your feet on the ground.

Remember that the way to a whole, healthy, and happy life is to let your heart decide what to do, let your mind figure out how to do it, and allow your spirit govern the whole process.

When asked who he would like to have been if he had the choice of being anyone from any time in history, George Bernard Shaw said he would like to have been the man he could have been. Coherent entrainment of thoughts, feelings, and actions allows us all to be all we can be.

** This article is one of 101 great articles that were published in 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health. To get complete details on “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health”, visit http://selfgrowth.com/healthbook3.html