I know, I know. I let the ball drop with my book review.
Here’s the rest of it now–so long after I actually read the book. However, I think the most important thing to note is that I’ve used the insight gleaned from the book! There have been many times where I think in terms of my brain characters — oh, that’s 2 at it again, or, ahhhh, this bliss from 3 & 4!
To read my first post about the book (re-posted post, that is, since I lost the original copy!) click here.
And now, the rest of the review.
I ended the first blog with the acronym Bolte Taylor mentioned to help in any given situation you’re trying to handle. Of course, it is BRAIN.
BREATH Follow your breath; all it takes is 90 seconds to reset chemicals flowing through your body. This is an oldie but a goodie–slowing down your breathing for three conscious breaths can change everything. I now have a calm strip sticker on my phone which helps me remember the inhale-hold-exhale-hold method. They’re pretty cool–check them out here.
RECOGNIZE Once you’ve read about the characters and practice identifying them outside of a crisis moment, it becomes pretty easy to figure out which one is online during a conflict in yourself and others.
APPRECIATE what each character is bringing to the table in the moment. Don’t judge their skillset — just look at what it is objectively.
INQUIRE Now that you know what characters are around and can appreciate what they’re offering, it’s time to figure out which ones you need to use.
NAVIGATE the best possible outcome with the knowledge you have at your disposal.
Bolte Taylor suggests exploring your individual characters on a regular basis to become more familiar with your responses. She offers four steps to do so, which I won’t get into here. But one very interesting thing to try is to assess who is online is when you first wake up! I’ve realized my Character 1 is with me in the morning when my consciousness first arouses–it is telling me what needs to be accomplished. I would prefer to wake up with Character 4!
She delves into more esoteric concepts regarding consciousness, and truly believes that if we get our Four Characters into a “huddle” as she calls it, we can use these skills to live well, and die well. We only get to live and die once, and this is one way how to do it.
She also touches on generational brain activity and my inner brain nerd went into overdrive. What an intriguing concept! She spoke of the characters and how it’s affected Generation X, Millenials, Z and now Gen Alpha. She mentioned how the Boomers were brought up in Character 4 families, and then somehow shifted to live in a world of Character 1, helping create a sense of entitlement rather than gratitude. Yowza! She says they’ve created the Character 1 dominant world in which we currently live in. She believes self-value became measured in what we have rather than who we are.
There are plenty of other ideas in this transcript for how to live better, but the last piece I will leave with you relates to my personal experiences. In the previous post on the topic, I mentioned how my panic attacks were amplified after what I referred to as “the event”.
A better way to live with anxiety attacks is to remember that the other characters are there with you, even when 2 is fully loaded and running. Peace is literally just a thought away in most cases, so long as you take a breath to remember such.
It may take you awhile to read and digest this book (like it did for me!), but you should totally check it out. And then chat about it with me! Happy reading!
Swellness Vibes 