There are two
areas in the brain involved with experiencing.
The first is called the narrative circuit and involves judging whatever
you are experiencing through the filter of your past experiences, perceptions
and opinions. It’s the part of your brain
that’s activated when you are worrying, stressing and planning. The narrative circuitry is verbal and chatty
and it’s you can tell it’s been activated when you can’t enjoy your day in the
sun on the beach because you can’t help thinking about your job or the IRS or
your dysfunctional family. If you’re
washing the dishes and you haven’t noticed the feeling of the water on your
hands or the smell of the dish soap as its molecules hit your nostrils you are
probably dealing with an activated narrative circuit. For the wannabe brain scientists out there
the specific areas of the brain that are associated with the narrative circuit
are called the “medial prefrontal cortex” and the “hippocampus”. What’s most unfortunate about this narrative
circuit, is that in addition to the way it obliviates the present moment is the
fact that it is our default way of perceiving our experiences. That means that that this way of perceiving
is active for most of our waking life and requires very little to intentional
effort to operate. In other words, unless we pay attention to our experiences
and sensations willfully, we are doomed to missing the immediacy of our
experiences, spending much precious time in our heads rather than in our lives.
The other way of perceiving events requires activation of a second brain area called the
direct experience circuit. If you are
washing the dishes and you have an active narrative circuit you may not notice
that you’re washing that delicate crystal glassware until you shatter it and
cut your hand. At that point you will
immediately switch on your brain’s direct experience circuitry and that change
will probably be punctuated by a scream or an “Oh shit!” response. That’s because while the brain’s narrative
circuit is activated by default, emergency conditions that require an immediate
response activate the direct experience circuitry. The area of the brain that activates direct
circuitry is called the “insula”, which is involved with bodily sensations. That’s why paying attention to your
breathing or your body or any somatic qualities a great way to escape the
constant narrative circuitry chatter.
The good news
about the direct experience pathway, aside from its serene and non-verbal
nature, is the fact that it is associated with the release of pleasure chemicals
in the brain, specifically the neurotransmitter dopamine. This surge in dopamine is so delicious that
sometimes people can become addicted to it.
That’s why some intrepid folks crave real life-threatening experiences like
sky diving or bungee jumping. And that’s
why some slightly less intrepid folks crave pretend life threatening experiences
like horror movies and roller coaster rides.
The trick to
making the most out of the brains circuitry and biochemistry and life
experiences as well, is to watch your brain and intentionally activate direct
experience circuitry. If you find yourself
with an overactive narrative circuitry which can show up as worrying and
stressing about potential future events or regretting or replaying past events
you can willfully turn on the direct circuits in the brain by focusing on your body
or your breathing. Try picking a body
part, like your hand or foot and placing all your attention on it. Feel its subtle energy and shape. Notice that for the few seconds that you’re
focusing on it that the narrative chatter has quieted down and you can perceive
a palpable sense of pleasure as the direct circuits have been activated.
Something
else that you can use to activate the direct experience circuit is mental silence. Unlike the narrative center, which as the
name implies, depends on labeling, judging and languaging skills, the direct
circuit is activated by silence or as Martha Beck puts it in her very
interesting book Finding Your Way in
a Wild New World, "wordlessness” . In fact according to Ms. Beck, adopting a
wordless perspective not only stimulates neurology in the direct circuit, but feelings
of bliss and rapture can be initiated as well.
When the neurologist Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke in her
narrative center and was neurologically forced into perceiving from her right
side wordless brain she too described a sense of bliss and rapture. She chronicles her story in her book My
Stroke of Insight. I find the story of
her experience and recovery so inspiring that I have two copies of her book, one for home
and one for the office.
How we perceive our world, is a direct result of how we mentally process the events of our lives. Thus, understanding the brain and it's mental machinery is an important key to an effective and pleasant life journey. With regular
practice at paying attention to these two ways of experiencing you will
gradually begin to know when your brain narrative’s circuitry is active and conversely,
when the direct circuits have been switched on.
And from that point it will become easier and easier to initiate the
pleasure chemistry of direct experience whenever you desire.
