Now, I’m going to take an educated guess that what most people are talking about this week is the U.S.A election result, all I can say is wow – we (UK people) are not the only ones able to hit a spectacular “own goal”! Which leads me nicely into this week’s article topic about a book called “The Chimp Paradox” by Dr Steve Peters. We’ve had a prime example in American politics of the Chimp (Trump, in case that wasn’t obvious) and the Human (Clinton) battling it out. As Dr Peters explains, the Chimp is five times stronger than the Human so you can never win against it but need to manage it instead.
To give you a very brief (and simplified) overview, we have several structures in our brain to help us survive and then thrive. The more primal of these structures is the limbic system (given the Chimp name by Dr Peters). Which serves to keep you alive and away from the bottom of the food chain – no chimp, no survival of the species. The more recent brain structure is the frontal lobe (your Human side, according to Dr Peters) where many executive functions have their origin and help us to understand and rationalise the world – no human, no civilisation.
The Chimp Paradox is a simple mind management model. The purpose of it is to help people get a better grip of their emotional responses to things and to behave in ways that are more under control.
In the book, Dr Peters argues that what goes wrong is that our chimps are constantly on patrol and looking for danger. The Chimp is faster at assessing a situation than the Human, so everything in the world that passes through our heads goes to that part of the brain first. Unfortunately, as the Chimp is the emotional reactor instead of working from facts (like the Human), it sometimes jumps to the wrong conclusions. The end result can be is that we end up with feelings that we don’t want and actions that we later come to regret.
We can’t (and shouldn’t want to) get rid of the Chimp. It has its function which is to keep us alive and out of danger. But we don’t want it acting like it’s in the jungle when really it’s in a staffroom or a classroom or a car or a house. While we cannot free ourselves from the Chimp, we are still responsible for controlling it and this is within our reach.
This is where the Human needs to establish awareness and appropriate systems to deal with monkey madness. Dr Peters calls this part of the mind model the Computer. The Computer is basically a set of strategies and programmed behaviour that helps us to control the Chimp. He also sets out a number of steps that we can use to manage the Chimp, exercise it, box it in and reward it – a happy, contented Chimp, equals an in-control Human!
The saying “you can’t control other people or situations, you can only control your own reaction to the person or situation” is so true! Do you want to learn more about human behaviour, how to get the best out of yourself and have better interactions with other people? Then I highly recommend you get (and read of course!) this book. There will be some big “aha” moments when you think about some aspects of your own and other people’s behaviour, with strategies to implement that will help to reduce stress and improve your life.
These are the kind of things my clients learn when working with me – to be healthier, happier, more productive and keep their weight down, so contact me today “here” or email jackie@age-drop.com to learn more about how I can help you look fabulous, feel fantastic and love the body you are in!
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