Okay, welcome to lesson number four, count them 123. Okay, since we have an image which we labeled the stick figure, my intention was to give us an image to work with as we understand the relationship between the mind and the body. And so if you recall the mind is not in our body but our mind is much more influential and commanding than our bodies. So we labeled the larger circle mind and the smaller circle body. Now I'm going to break the mind into three parts because we're going to spend some extra time on this first part because awareness and understanding is crucial. Now the first part I would like to call our primal mind.

Now, as you can guess the term primal, we could use this as a symbolic representation of the primitive mind. Now, I want you to think back to the time of the caveman. Do you have an image on the screen of your mind? Remember how we think we think in pictures. Now, when you created the image of the caveman, you probably didn't immediately picture a guy standing over his desk or poring over books or working on his computer? No, you actually pictured a caveman or cave woman whose clothing is tattered and dirty, maybe made out of animal skins and if you pictured the same man with a weapon, it was probably a club or a spirit like this one.

Now, at least something made a bone or stone or wood. Now maybe he has long messy hair, and you know my guy here, you know, he's a bald But maybe had long messy hair. And yeah, this is more of the image that we probably came up with or something more similar to this. Now, I want you to think of this lifestyle. All right, now we could probably easily picture him living hand to mouth and maybe we can even picture him fighting a wild animal for food or just to survive. And when you think of the life of a caveman, what did he struggle with?

On a day to day basis? Well, survival right? Now this course is not a lesson on the history of man or even the evolution of men. But we do know that archaeologists have found bones of humanoids long time ago longer than any of us have been alive. Well, anyway, the point is, many of our humanoid ancestors lived in and lived in a time where if they came upon a threat, literally their lives are in danger, almost all of the time and it was truly a survival of the fittest. What were their choices when they came upon the threat?

Now, if you look at the primal mind in my direction here, the first thing that they could do is they could fight the threat if they thought they could overpower it. And sometimes they won. And sometimes they didn't. Or they could run away, and we call this flight. So have you ever heard the fight or flight response? Yeah, of course you have right.

Now the third one that I would like to add is freeze as the third response that they may have had, as I imagined, I can actually visualize a lot of cavemen and women actually hiding and taking shelter from danger. So I want you to think of a deer or a kangaroo when they're caught in the headlights. What do they do? So I'm going to say, fight, flight, or freeze. Now, in all three situations, their bodies and their senses go into high alert, right? Why do they do this?

Well, it gives them the advantage to stay alive and survive. And you can call this the primitive or the primal mind because well, during those times, gave men and women were living in what was pretty much called a primitive time. And so this group of people live very different lives. And I'm sure that some of them did a lot better than others. After all, we're here, aren't we? So the ones that survived, were probably some of the best fighters out there, or two, they were some of the fastest because they could run faster or get away quicker than the guy behind them.

And they learned or three, they learned how to conceal themselves and hide better than the other cavemen and women who were left more exposed. Now this group of survivors were the ones who passed down these traits to the next generation, so that their children could survive and thrive even better than they did now. If you don't believe that, We evolved from cavemen, don't worry, you can just look over the past few hundred years or even a few thousand years to find similar examples, that people with certain physical or character traits exhibited and ability which made them survive longer than other people. And when these survivors made babies, those traits were passed on to the next generation. Now, if you look at the animals in the wild today, they also behave in much the same way. We've all seen the video of the lion chasing the gazelle.

As soon as that Gazelle sees the lion, what does he do? He runs like hell because his survival is on the line. And it's just pure instinct. At the same time, there are plenty of examples every day in the animal kingdom where it is fight to the death or flee to survive. But in all of those situations, the parts of the brain that control the instincts for some vital the instincts for fight and flight and freeze are going to be in what I'm calling the primal or the primitive mind. Now these instincts are part of the innate qualities meaning we all have them pre wired in, pre installed within us upon birth.

Now, this pre installation or installing of the instinct came from those that survived before us our ancestors and pass that coating on to their offspring, which is us. So in the picture on painting, it's literally a survival of the fittest. Now, again, you don't really have to stretch your imagination to realize that it was not even that long ago that your ancestors in mind, were also in a fight, flight or freeze lifestyle. I mean, just think of the pioneers the Old West, the Middle Ages, the Roman Empire for some people It was Kill or be killed. Now before I get into naming the other two parts of the mind, I want to briefly discuss what was going through the primal mind and the body of the caveman, our recent ancestors even just a few hundred years ago, when they were faced with eminent danger, do you think that the Caveman's heart rate was pumping faster?

Yes or no? Do you think that their muscles became tense? Yes or no? Do you think that they began to sweat and worry? Ah, yes or no. Do you think that maybe his hearing and vision became more acute, of course, now look at some of the other physical reactions that they could have experienced.

So sweaty palms, difficulty breathing, flush cheeks, maybe getting the jitters feeling light headed, plus a lot more but they're going to fill this in the box. Aren't they? Now today, you can find an endless amount of Anxiety Inventory sheets on the internet to help you score, how high or how low your anxiety is. Now this is one thing that we really don't want to do is not trying to make competition, right? I mean, my anxiety is higher than your anxiety. Nina, Nina Nina, no, who cares about that.

However, if you're taking this course, what you do care about is getting rid of this feeling no matter what it is that you're doing. So Need I say more? No. So I've always been that annoying kid in the classroom my entire life who has to just raise his hand and ask one more question, you know, why this? What about that? How does this work and when?

So when I thought about the need for these responses in those times, and even today, of course, much more rare. I mean, we're not being chased by animals all the time. But we do feel this. So When your life is on the line, you would want a little extra power boost, right? I mean, you need it sometimes. I mean, we even have it in our video games and in our cartoons like, you know, Mario eating the magic mushroom to be bounzer or a Popeye eating his spinach.

I mean, you've even heard of the mom lifting the car to save her child who's trapped underneath the car, right? Well, you get the idea. So sometimes having this extra power boost isn't necessarily a bad thing. But when you're feeling anxiety, you're breathing and heart rate increases among other bodily reactions. And you have to ask the question of why? Well, because your body's innate ability to concentrate blood flow to your primal mind, and it kicks in because of the perception of danger or a threat, and doesn't matter if that's real or not.

It just happens. It's an instinct for survival. Now, it doesn't matter if you suffer from obsessive compulsive or social or generalized or status anxiety or different phobias or even having panic attacks. And, of course, you know, one of the extremes is PTSD, post traumatic stress, like our friend, Josh Lyman. So anxiety is anxiety. And to me at this point, that's what it is.

Anxiety is anxiety. And it is real for everyone and anyone who experiences these feelings. Now the trick is in knowing how to handle it, and in the learning of how to control it. Now, I want you to know that I did not use the word disorder at this point. And why is that? Well, I think that my friends in the medical community have classified this as Something wrong with us and something they have to fix, especially those pharmaceutical companies, you know, the ones who have a pill and they push it for every solution to everything.

Now, these responses in our body are natural and normal as the rise and setting of the sun. And if you experience these emotions, there's nothing wrong with you. As we will see, suppressing these natural feelings with a pill, or through force or through surgery. I mean, it's eventually going to create a disturbance within our body that our systems all of our organs, or some of our organs can become weakened and could easily lead to the manifestation of sickness, illness, and disease. Now, leaving the integrity of our organs and our immune systems destabilized is not something that we want and I'm sure That you've all heard the axiom, the last straw that broke the camel's back. Well, the point of that analogy is not the last straw, but it was every straw, which was leading up to the collapse.

So every anxiety experience that we do not address properly leads to the slow but steady disintegration of the integrity of our body, especially our organs. Now, unless we learn how to control it, and reverse it, you know, we may have some problems. Now, don't get me wrong. Some pills might be warranted in some extreme cases. But for the vast majority of I think, breathing humans, I don't think it's necessary. quick fixes are the gateway to long term doom.

Now in my opinion. It is a natural feeling which is an effect brought on by a natural cause. was like a threat, whether it's perceived or real, we can find a natural cure to the human mind and or the body. And this is my intention to show you natural God given cures to master this, this normal human emotion that we have labeled anxiety. So there I said it. Anxiety is not a disease or an illness.

It's start with an emotion, which is expressed through the vibrations in our body, and we're going to call that anxiety. Now think of anxiety in this way. It's a surge of energy trapped in our body, which is looking for a release or an exit. And if we can't find the release, it overwhelms us and we don't function properly and we see things like, Ah, you know, I can't think straight. I just want to disappear. I can't handle this.

My insights feel like water. My heart feels like this. Just gonna jump out of my chest and I can't breathe and so on. Now, what about today? Do we still experience threats? Or at least perceived threat?

Sure we do. You hear about people getting into fights every day on the media at work, murder, road rage, parents even finding out their kids sporting events, gang violence. I mean, the list goes on and on. And you know what? They are reacting exactly how the primal mind is supposed to operate. What they don't understand, or what they were never taught is the other two parts of the mind.

Now, I wonder sometimes why our school systems our governments just don't get a clue. Anyway. This is not a political course either, but it is about the learning of how to work and how you can master anxiety. Because we want to be able to live a more healthy, happy and more abundant lives. So in those moments, those individuals actually believe that their lives are in danger. And so they react.

Okay, in today's world, if someone cuts in front of you at the grocery store, they cut you off on the freeway, you can't come up to him and punch him in the face, there are obvious consequences for that. Now, if you're a student and you don't like studying for the test, you can't go challenge your professor to adult to the death. I mean, these simple acts, however, still create that innate feeling within us of a threat, and it may be perceived as an aggression that's directed towards you. Now, anytime that we feel a threat, whether it's real or not, our bodies still create the same reactions that our ancestors experienced in their day right or wrong. They were able to release that energy through the normal responses. of fighting or running away in a flight or freezing, they're trying to protect themselves.

Now today we hold that energy within our bodies, especially when we feel threatened. And we call it anxiety, our heart rate, our breathing, the flushing of the skin. I mean, all those symptoms that you may experience when you're experiencing anxiety, still responds perfectly right on cue. Now remember, we are pre hardwired to protect ourselves from threats and predators or aggression. Anytime that you feel stress, that stress can be perceived as a threat. Now, if you have a heavy workload at school, or work, or if you're just struggling to make enough money to pay the bills or to provide a living for you and your family, guess what it can be perceived as a threat, and these two are viewed by the primitive mind as exactly that.

And again, I want to emphasize eyes that this is the reaction of a perfectly normal person. What is not normal, in my opinion is that we were never taught as children and certainly not as adults how to release and let go of this excess energy that is now surging through our bodies in a safe and healthy way. Now before we go on and talk about Part Two and part three and future lessons of the mind, I want to stay on this topic for just a little bit longer and go deeper into how your body generates this very powerful energy, we need to have a very clear image of what is going on within the body so that we can understand the process and then use the techniques to recognize and release this energy. So go ahead, complete the exercises in the workbook and I will see you in the next lesson.