Ancient brain vs Modern brain
The “ancient brain” is often used to refer to the primal or instinctual parts of the brain that are responsible for regulating essential life functions and instinctual behaviors, such as the fight or flight response. This part of the brain is thought to have evolved earlier in the history of human evolution and is sometimes referred to as the “reptilian brain.”
The “mastery brain,” on the other hand, is often used to describe the parts of the brain that are responsible for higher cognitive functions, such as reasoning, decision-making, and planning. This part of the brain is thought to have evolved more recently and is sometimes referred to as the “neocortex.”
It’s important to note that these terms are not widely used in scientific circles and that the distinction between different brain parts is more complex than the simple binary distinction between an “ancient brain” and a “mastery brain.” Nevertheless, these terms can be useful for conveying general ideas about different parts of the brain and their functions.
THE ANCIENT BRAIN
The ancient brain is made up of the limbic system set of brain structures that sit on both sides of the thalamus, right under the cerebrum. The amygdala is a part of this. This basic and lower-functioning brain served to keep us safe thousand of years ago in a primitive world of relentless threats like starvation, temperature, extremes, warring tribes, and tigers. It functions to do one main thing: maintain a steady state while warning us against dangers so we survive and propagate our species.
One of the fascinating traits of our ancient brain is its negative bias. To keep us safe, it’s far less interested in what’s positive in our environment and significantly more invested in letting us know what’s bad.
The brain’s default is to hunt for danger. So in the past when life was much more brutal, we could respond swiftly and stay alive. That mechanism served our ancestors exceedingly well. But in today’s world, most of us don’t face death daily. The reality is that the ordinary person lives a higher quality of life than most members of royalty did even just a few hundred years ago. Just think about these blessings.
And because of this built-in negativity bias within our ancient brains, we’re constantly scanning for breaches against our security. we’re in hypervigilance mode, mostly anxious and uptight, even when everything’s going great.
“This explains a lot of why we think the way we do”
The ancient brain scanned the environment and the negativity bias is being activated, preventing them from enjoying all the good that have.
THE MODERN BRAIN
As time advanced, our brains evolved. The prefrontal cortex developed. This is the part of our brain responsible for higher thinking.
Neuro scientists consider it the CROWN JEWEL of advanced reasoning. That’s called “MASTERY BRAIN”
ROBIN SHARMA
As we began to dream bigger, learn quicker, and raise our levels of creativity, productivity, and performance, the ancient brain and the mastery brain began a conflict. They went to war.
The primitive brain senses our growth, knows we’re leaving our safe harbor of the known, and gets fired up because we’re leaving our traditional ways of being. It senses the threat – even though the threat is essential to our personal ascension and professional advancement.
We absolutely must venture into those unexplored places where possibilities live to become more intimate with our primal genius and to become all we are meant to be. Knowing we have higher reaches of talent and courage left to visit floods a human heart with immense excitement.
This Knowledge is one of the vast treasures that make life worth living.
If you plan on being anything less than who you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.
Abraham Maslow
But the amygdala kicks into high gear as we exit what’s familiar and try something new. The vagus nerve gets provoked, and the fear hormone cortisol gets released. And we begin to destroy the very intentions and implementations that our mastery brain so intelligently wants us to realize.
This explains why so few people are highly creative and extremely productive. As we leave our comfort zones, the ancient brain gets triggered. As we raise our expertise and lift our influence, it gets frightened by the change.
Then cortisol is released, our perception narrows, our breathing grows shallow and we drop into fight or flight mode.
Our thinking wants us to grow, evolve, do more masterful work, lead better lives, and inspire the world. But there’s a battle of our brains going on. And the ancient lower- more primitive – brain inside all of us wants to stop our evolution
THE WAR
That’s why our culture is so addicted to distractions. Why the majority don’t experience their greatness? And that’s why creative and productive people are the real warriors of our society.
We just need to have the guts to push past the alarm bells of our ancient brains pleading with us not to reach for our brilliance.
It takes an awesome amount of courage to feel the terror of true personal and professional growth – and to keep going – even when you sort of feel you’re dying, But “continuing when you’re frightened is how you become a legend.”
All builders consistently break through their fear, daily to find a higher level of prowess, impact, and human freedom. You need the stroking of the crowd a lot less and you begin to live your authentic life versus a plastic one manufactured by a world that doesn’t want you to be free.
That’s why it’s so important to listen to your ancient brain but also follow the mastery brain to achieve the best version of yourself.