thank you everyone
I have brought for you a human brain so
this is a real human brain and when I
look at this brain I am reminded that we
are neurocircuitry we are neurocircuitry
and every ability we have we have
because we have cells that perform that
function we know more about the human
brain than we've ever known before and
we've learned things in the last 10 to
20 years most of your life span that has
completely shifted the way
neuroscientists think about this organ
and our relationship with it
when I was in school back in the 80s we
were taught that the brain cells you're
born with are the brain cells you're
going to die with and you're not going
to get any more along the way we do know
that our brain is capable of growing
some new neurons and this is
neurogenesis we are capable of growing
new neurons particularly in response to
trauma
in addition neuroplasticity is the
ability of our brain cells to rearrange
who they are communicating with what
this means is that the brain you walked
in with this morning is not identical to
the brain that you're going to take home
with you tonight
in addition we understand that we are
capable of mindfulness mindfulness is
our ability to observe the neural
circuitry we're running inside of our
heads but on top of simply observing our
neurocircuitry we are capable of
changing our thoughts and changing our
brain we have the ability to pick and
choose what's going on inside of our
heads so we typically run three types of
neural circuitry we think thoughts we
stimulate emotions and feel emotions and
we run physiological responses to what
we are thinking and what we are feeling
I have the ability to think a thought
stimulate an emotional circuit and then
run a physiological response to what I'm
thinking from the moment I think a
thought that stimulates my anger circuit
to the time that I run my
physiological response where I dump
noradrenaline into my bloodstream it
flushes through me and flushes out of me
from the beginning of the thought to the
time where my blood is clean of that
chemistry takes less than 90 seconds and
I call this the 90 second rule now how
many of you have the ability to stay
angry for longer than 90 seconds what
you're doing is you are rethinking the
thought that is Reese Tim you lating the
anger circuit which is Reese Tim you
lating the physiological response and we
can stay mad for days now the bottom
line is I am neurocircuitry we are
neurocircuitry and my neurocircuitry is
my neurocircuitry and you do not have
the ability to stimulate and trigger my
circuitry without my permission
you cannot make me angry unless I stick
my trigger out there for you to pounce
on and stimulate my neural circuitry if
I give you the power to trigger my
neural circuitry then I have given you
my power and if I give you my power then
I become vulnerable to you through
manipulation through advertising through
marketing through peer pressure and
through abuse bottom line is we are
neurocircuitry we are this incredible
cell brain filled with these beautiful
beautiful cells so how does it work
so stimulation streams in through our
sensory systems it integrates and
organizes as it passes up the spinal
cord and it aims for the outer portion
of our brain the cerebral cortex the
cerebral cortex is divided into two
different groups of cells our outer
layers for a higher cognitive thinking
and our inner layers for emotion so
information streams in through our
sensory systems and it aims directly for
the inner group of cells of our limbic
system and the cells in the limbic
system are asking the question moment by
moment am i safe am i safe I feel safe
when enough of the information streaming
in through the sense
three systems feels familiar when the
world feels familiar my amygdala is calm
and I feel safe now the interesting
thing is that as information comes in
and it stimulates my limbic system my
limbic system then sends that
information throughout my nervous system
including my higher cortex so what this
means is that although many of us may
think of ourselves as thinking creatures
who feel biologically we really are
feeling creatures who think we are
feeling creatures who think and this
becomes significant in the way we live
in the external world so information
streams in it goes straight to the
amygdala the amygdala says how much
feels familiar if it feels familiar then
I feel calm when I feel calm the cells
right next to that the hippocampus they
turn on and they're capable of learning
and memory but let's say all of a sudden
the building should start to shake
building starts to shake your amygdala
goes unfamiliar unfamiliar alert alert
self-preservation you bolt out the door
you shut down your hippocampus and you
don't care what I have to say anymore
right a great example about the
relationship between the amygdala and
the hippocampus is test anxiety we all
know what it feels like to have that
knot inside of our belly and then our
throats get tighten our brains feel like
they're going to explode because
everything's moving a million miles an
hour and we're on alert alert panic
panic anxiety anxiety oh my gosh but the
secret here is that I have horror higher
cortical thinking I have the ability to
consciously choose okay
I have other circuits I can run I can
turn on my higher cortical mind I can
bring my mind to the present moment I
can look around take new pictures I can
see I am safe I'm safe and I'm not going
to die it is just an exam and I have
prepared for this and I know some of
these answers now if my amygdala would
just calm enough so that I can access
that information in my hippocampus then
I could answer the questions so this is
what's going everything that has
anything to do with anything is our
relationship between the amygdala in the
hippocampus now this is really important
news big news big news we didn't know
this my generation and generations
before me we did not know about the 92nd
rule and we
did not understand the neural circuitry
of the brain so all you have to do is
open up the newspaper and you will see
someone has killed someone because
someone's amygdala was on alert right
somebody's divorcing somebody because
somebody did not feel safe everything
has something to do with the amygdala
and I think we should all wear shirts
that say I love my amygdala I love my
amygdala all right so what's going on
with a teenage brain how many of you
have had a parent or adults say
something to something like this to you
in the last few years I just don't
recognize you anymore what happened to
my little angel maybe I've had that yeah
there's a biological reason for that how
many of you have had a parent or adults
say something like I just don't
understand you used to love to do this
all the time and I bought you all these
supplies and and you just don't play
with this stuff in over a year I don't
get it what's going on there's a
biological reason for that how many of
you have had a parent or adults say
something to you like you know just
really not very comfortable with your
new friends yeah there's a reason for
that we are biology so what's going on
when we are born we are born with twice
as many neurons as we're ever going to
use isn't that nice we are born with an
abundance of cells and then in the next
two to three years the neurons that are
stimulated will connect with other
neurons in neural circuitry in the cells
that are not stimulated they will die
away and then for the next couple of
years ten years or so I'm pretty much
about me right it's all about me little
Joanne and I got this new body and I'm
trying to figure out how to get the body
to work and eventually it's going to hop
skip and jump and and then I'm going to
learn about communication and I'm going
to learn how to pick a voice out from
background sound and how to make sound
and how to place meaning on sound and
and then and then I'm going to get
socialized with little people my size
and and then my siblings and then the
adult world and that's pretty much all
about me frightenin and then you're
gonna put me in school and then in
school I'm I'm gonna learn more about
communication I'm gonna learn about
spelling and reading and writing and
then
gonna learn about mathematics and
abstract thinking and if I'm lucky I'm
going to get exposed to to music in the
arts and and and Technology and all
kinds of interesting things that will
stimulate me but ultimately it's it's
all about me well somehow our one
obligation to our species as a
biological creature is reproduction so
somehow we have to get ourselves out of
the weave me me me into the who aren't
you cute alright so in order to do that
during the pre puberty years the brain
goes through what we call an exuberance
of the dendritic connections inside of
our brain and in these little people if
you know um couple of years right before
puberty hits they're like really really
smart they're like little sponges for
information they're curious about
everything and they want to know and
they want to know how and they want to
know wine and they just want to
understand it all and and then their
bodies are prepared for puberty and then
puberty comes and with puberty comes
several major shifts one of the first
one since we're going to go through a
major physical growth spurt right and
when we go through a major physical
growth spurt our entire body changes
right and it changes and it's not as
agile so our amygdala are on a little
bit of alert a little bit of a large
very interesting but it's a little bit
more what's going on what's going on and
then on top of that then we're going to
have our hormonal systems are going to
start flowing through our body and with
that are going to come all kinds of mood
swings and all kinds of interesting
behaviors and then on top of that
there's going to be what we call a
pruning back a pruning back of 50% of
the synaptic connections inside of our
brain we literally lose half our minds
we literally lose half our minds how
does that feel unfamiliar unfamiliar I
used to know all this stuff it isn't
there anymore I used to be interested in
these things that doesn't do that I used
to look like something and I used to
want to hang out with them and now I'm
hanging out with this ah and then on top
of it and then on top of it oh my gosh
unfamiliar unfamiliar we're going to
grow testosterone receptors on our
amygdala and when that comes aggression
I feel a little aggressive there are
biological reasons for the teenage years
there's biology underlying everything
you're feeling everything you're
thinking and everything you are
experiencing the last portion of the
brain to come totally online is the
prefrontal cortex and the prefrontal
cortex is responsible for things
including our ability to plan ahead
it's our impulse control it's our
ability to understand the consequences
of our behavior and it's the
appropriateness of our behavior so when
our parents are looking at us and we're
bigger than they are and they don't you
know it's all unfamiliar for everyone in
the house right what's going on I
haven't reached my prefrontal cortex yet
there's a biological reason now the
beauty the wonderful thing about the
teenage years if you have literally lost
half your mind which half have you kept
you kept the half that you're going to
use you're going to walk you're going to
talk you're going to socialize you're
going to do these things my best advice
to any teenager is whatever you're good
at when you're young that you want to do
in your 20s 40s and 80s do it throughout
your teenage years the teenage years is
the time for you to tend the garden of
your mind it's your opportunity for you
to pick and choose who and how you want
to be when you get older we technically
become biological adults at the age of
25 it's when the long bones in our body
stop growing long we are adults
development is over in the brain is now
established my advice to all parents is
keep them live to twenty five keep your
kids alive till they're 25 and to all
you teenagers keep them alive till 25
nurture the breed the beautiful cells
inside of your brain until you're 25 and
then you'll have this gorgeous adult
brain that you get to figure out what
you want to do with
later so bottom line here is we are
feeling creatures who think we are
feeling creatures who think living in
left brain dominant society where we
value what we think over what we feel
and where we reward people for what we
do rather than for who we are we care
about the me rather than the we we focus
on personal gain rather than computed
community we care about profits rather
than people we strive for authority
rather than equality we seek differences
rather than similarities we are
competitive rather than compassionate we
are judgemental rather than forgiving we
are very left brain versus right brain
but we know that we have a choice our
left brain dominant society is using up
our natural sources and we are heating
up the planet we are in the middle of a
major global crisis on top of this our
left brain dominant society is eroding
our self value and we are in pain
because the world does not care about
what we feel and who we are it cares
about what we do and what we think which
is not the basis of our biology we are
in the middle of a major mental health
crisis where at least 25% of the people
in the states are suffering from some
type of serious mental illness and then
you throw on top of that a whole bunch
of people who have addiction we are in
pain and so what do we do we mask our
pain with all kinds of things that we
can get addicted to and virtually and
it's just not very healthy for these
gorgeous cells inside of our brain the
teenage brain is at the most vulnerable
time of our existence
because it is this time for planting the
seeds and planting who and how you want
to be in the world when I experienced my
stroke and I lost my left brain and I
shifted into the consciousness of my
right mind where I felt peace and
euphoria what gave me the courage to
come back was that I pictured a world
that was filled with beautiful peaceful
compassionate loving people I pictured a
world filled with pea
who knew that they could pick and choose
who and how they want to be in the world
you are that population you are those
people you have the ability to pick and
choose who and how you want to be in the
world I believe that those of you who
are willing to create a conscious
relationship with your brain you will be
the leaders who will help guide humanity
back toward mental health and you will
be the game changers who helped bring
our planet back to balance this is your
brain this is your brain this is your
instrument this is your tool and this is
your power what are you doing with your
power
you