16-Calming the zoo in your head Part 1: The Calming

Part 1: The Calming

Cognitive therapy happens when the primate commands the zoo in your head. The monkey places a big, fat mirror before the mouse and snake; they will face their fears together. Imagine an open Q&A where the monkey uses rational deduction to deepen the reflected story by creating an iterative string of a single question: “So if that happens, then what?” If silence follows, a response if forced. By addressing each step in the process, the monkey illuminates the darkness, calming the zoo.

Narrative memory is not just knowing that restaurants are places to eat, but that this particular one has an engaged owner who makes the best fish tacos in the world. The fruits of this mental function are available to the primate and mammal. When successfully utilized, it can be the finger on the scales, tipping the mind towards more a more rational point of view.

Exploring even the most elaborate and improbable possibilities with logic and reason, the primate successfully uses the mirror. The first sign it's working is when the initial reflection of pure panic is seen as an obviously unlikely outcome. Digging further into the vision while using its superior powers, the monkey finds reasonable solutions for every wacky idea the mouse may propose or every certainty the snake might mention. The “what if” game eventually ends with the construction of an effective plan for every doubt.

Too often, we devolve into lizards and indulge lust, hate, and fear. The reptilian brain cannot experience any other feeling except the simplistic state of peace or its absence (stress). When we cannot end this state of acute stimulation, we cannot repair. Prolonged exposure causes brain-damage, disease, and death. If we do not learn to control reptilian reaction and forge solitude, we cannot access the other brains. The aroused lizard is the enemy of the rabbit and gorilla, the enemy of multifaceted emotion and complex thought.

Narrative memory is a tool. It draws insights and parallels from our vast experience to shed light on our current situation. We can use it to resolve the stress or we can do nothing and let the reptile swallow it whole – it might go away or it might become toxic. When mulling things over, focus on what is likely to happen, what is happening, what has happened, and what stories from the past, either fact or fable, that can help put the problem into proper perspective. Simply put, the primate's ability to separate possibility from probability increases the chance of success.

When targeted stories tug at the heart-strings, the primate persuades the mammal with a series of simple truths, re-balancing the scales and ending the reptilian tyranny of fear. Constant, constructive, subtle thoughts reverse pervasive, destructive, mindless feelings. This is not the dulling repetition of endless, positive thinking but the evolving narration of rational, deductive insight. This is an unflinching look into a three-layer thick mirror.