| The Developed Brain | The Ancient Brain |
| Reason | All/Nothing Thinking |
| Logic | Knee-Jerk Reactions |
| Empathy | Irrational Thinking |
| Compassion | Paranoid |
| Caring | Speaks Before Thinking |
| Kindness | Lacks Control |
| Objectivity | Self Serving |
| Critical Thinking | Confuses Force for Power |
| Innovation | |
| Considers Others | |
The ancient brain is also called the “fight or flight” reaction to changes. During this presentation, I recalled a personal, real life, situation of an incident that wasn’t really appropriate to share with co-workers. But I’m going to share it here at my blog and I think some of my co-workers will appreciate my interpretation of the presentation.
Situation:
Finding a perfectly formed turd (looking like this 
minus the eyes and smiley face) on the floor of the hallway.
All my ancient brain would tell me to do is "FLIGHT! GET AWAT FROM IT!" I certainly wasn’t going to fight the little turd regardless of how perfectly formed it was. The knee-jerk reaction did happen accompanied by a gagging reflex of dry heaves. The irrational thinking and paranoia materialized in uncontrollable screaming out “Oh, MY GOSH! GROSS!!!” Which could also be included in speaking before thinking “THOMAS HENRY SCALES! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO POOP IN THE POTTY!” I was obviously losing control of my youngest child’s bowl movements. As self serving as I could, I stared down at the 3-year-old who was actually quite mesmerized by his own creation. By confusing force for power, I would grab his arms and sit him down on his “time-out” chair and hopefully remember to wipe his bottom before doing so.
And I went back to the crime scene. Trying not to take a deep breath, my developed brain’s first realization was that, the child was left without a training diaper in hope that he would take the initiative to sit on his potty chair. Obviously it was easier to squat down to make the delivery. Understandable, no? The next step was to focus on the objective: remove the subject and deposit it in an appropriate vessel. Before the small waste could be safely removed, a yellow crime scene tape was placed around it. (Critical thinking, right?!) Ok, ok, it’s not yellow and it’s not a tape; it’s newspaper rolled up into tubes. The 10-year-old had been sternly warned to not come near the crime scene. The 3-year-old watched me curiously and no doubt he was wondering if his punishment would be extended to more than sitting on the timeout chair. I put on the gloves, grabbed the paper towel and faced my child’s handiwork.
The amount of empathy and compassion I had for myself was quite touching. My actions were swift and precise; I bravely picked up the guilty being and flushed it right into the toilet. Unrepentantly sprayed the wooden floor with half a can of Lysol and wiped it with freshly cleaned towels. Used two kinds of antibacterial soaps, I washed my hands and arms. To entirely erase the memory of this incident, I sprayed air freshener in the hallway. I would say that I was kind and caring to my family and that I certainly do have a developed brain.
I think I've gotten this "Unexpected change and the brain" thing down. What do ya think?
