Transcending my (our) Lizard Brain(s)

[Revolutionary Think]

2024 has been a year of transcendence for me mentally and emotionally. I quit most of social media, I got a job I love, and the things that used to frustrate me so much in the past I learned not to take them so seriously and let them hurt me so much. I whined and complained less and I became thankful for my situation. I learned how to deal with problems more effectively etc. 

I bring this up because I just saw 2 of @Leo Gura's quotes on his blog and they're so relevant to my life right now. The one about the disadvantage of leftists over conservative and the one about social media basically appealing to the lowest form of reasoning and logic we have and appealing to emotion. That's when it hit me. I spent so much of my life online, forums, social media etc. trying to get other random people who'll I'll probably never meet face to face in my life over to my side of thinking... and for what exactly? Then it HIT ME if I have no direct control over it why am I getting so worked up over it? Even if I do have direct control over it I'd rather do something about it than complain about it. Which brings me to my next point. Lets said hypothetically I manage to change Leo Gura's mind and he supports Israel. What then? Is he going to solve the conflict? Will he change anything in that part of the world? No. So again why do I care so much? 

The more time I spend working on myself and actual doing things that concern the building blocks and improvement of my life instead of getting caught in sisyphean conversations on the internet the happier I become. Therein lies the solution. Take the power away from my lizard brain and give it more to my transendant brain. I also wonder why we let our lizard brains take over when we're online instead of when we're out and about. If I were walking on the side walk minding my own business and some rando wanted to have a debate about Israel and Palestine or even if some rando was trying to preach about which side is better or worse I'd most likely ignore then and go about my business. Nowhere was this more apparent to me than when I worked at the airport. I saw people at LAX with shirts supporting Palestine and people who wanted to fly out to Israel. Not once did I bring up the topic of the conflict I just did my job and sent them on their way. 

Now my theory about why we let our lizard brains take over when we are online and why we try to suppress them more out in public goes like this. It seems most of the time we are being our screens in our own home we see it as our territory. Even though the other person is behind their screen in another location. So it seems our screens our part of our homes. When that happens the thing coming from the other side that might be vehemently against our way of thinking comes into our own home we get territorial and attack. That's when the online space descends into anger, hate, and profantiy laden tirades. It's rarely we see this type of behavior spill into physical spaces like cafe's, parks, stores, shops, and sidewalks (people don't feel as territorial). Anyway that's just a theory I have. 

These days I hardly deal with the online world anymore. I am here because I think that this space in the online world is a more developed space than most I've seen. I may vehemently disagree with Leo and most of the people here on Israel and Palestine but, my opinions on that issue are not who I am as a person and what represents me. Humans are complex and multifaceted and the internet we get a distorted view and we see each other as one dimentional. 

The point is even though it's not enlightenment I feel enlightened with this new transcendant brain I developed. This brain or mind gives me the ability to get out of my own lense and see the frame. I used to get so angry that my family was so loud and rambunctions but, with my transcendant mind I see them as just any other family. If I looked at a random families behavior and didn't like what I saw it wouldn't exactly effect me that much. So in turn why do I let my own family effect me that much and just like that I actually don't let it. If I ignored a random person's opinion I don't think of it much but, when someone ignores my opinion I get flustered. Well to that other random person I'm just another random person. When I see it this way I keep my anger and frustration in check because I'm finally looking at the frame and not one tiny part of the picture through my even tinier lense. 

This has helped me in my life immensly to control myself and strategize. Putting my emotions aside and thinking about things through a grander more universal perspective so I don't sweat the small stuff if you will. To the world I'm just that random person I pass by on the sidewalk or in a car. They don't know my history etc. so that means at any given moment when I take control over my life I have a chance to study the situation and but, my biases and personal history aside so I can make the best choice and put myself in the best position. It wasn't exactly that easy to find this place in my mind where I put all my desires and wants on the side to do this but, I got here eventually and I am thankful for it. Heck at this rate it's ironically that Leo is putting out less content because it feels like I've transcended him and this community. If actualized.org were to disappear Tomorrow and all of Leo's content was lost to the wind I'd be ok with it. 

It really feels special to reach this place in my life. Don't get me wrong I'm still a human I haven't got rid of my lizard brain so much as I've learned to control it and harness it in a way that can serve me the most. I'm the master of it. It's no longer my master and that's the best news.