Oh. So that's why I hate change--it makes me use RAM instead of my hard drive.
I was over on Word Grrls for some positive rituals to get my writing started, and ended up getting a whole lot more in the bargain. In her post on the subject, Laura pointed me to the Good Life Zen blog for a list of ideas, and I came upon the following revelation in a post there by Mary Jaksch:
Change lights up an area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, which is like RAM memory in a PC... Like RAM, the prefrontal cortex’s capacity is finite--it can deal comfortably with only a handful of concepts before bumping up against limits. That bump generates a palpable sense of discomfort and produces fatigue and even anger. That’s because the prefrontal cortex is tightly linked to the primitive emotional center of the brain, the amygdala, which controls our fight-or-flight response.
(from the article Understanding the Science of Change, by Christopher Koch)
Thusly, Mary surmises: Apparently, even when someone gives us well-meaning advice, the prefrontal cortex soon threatens to become overloaded and exhausted. That’s one of the reasons we tend to get defensive.
Whoa. Light bulb on.
Me with my hand on my mouse. I click to change functions, to change pages, to change applications, to change links, to change what my computer is already doing for me. The amber light on the tower flickers madly, accessing RAM (which uses a lot more power than the hard drive but has less room to work with). More often than not, what I requested happens with no problem. Once in a blue moon, though, that amber light sticks "on" and the computer gets fussy or freezes because it just didn't like what happened... something about the process, the page, the link, was unfairly taxing and hit a nerve.
Reboot.
So now I know. Whenever I'm feeling defensive or angered by change, my limited prefrontal cortex--subject to crashes when overwhelmed--is being accessed instead of my larger and more fuel-efficient basal ganglia (hard drive). And unless that anger is truly warranted by the situation, I should take a deep breath and just let my amber light turn off.
Sounds like a plan.
Change lights up an area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, which is like RAM memory in a PC... Like RAM, the prefrontal cortex’s capacity is finite--it can deal comfortably with only a handful of concepts before bumping up against limits. That bump generates a palpable sense of discomfort and produces fatigue and even anger. That’s because the prefrontal cortex is tightly linked to the primitive emotional center of the brain, the amygdala, which controls our fight-or-flight response.
(from the article Understanding the Science of Change, by Christopher Koch)
Thusly, Mary surmises: Apparently, even when someone gives us well-meaning advice, the prefrontal cortex soon threatens to become overloaded and exhausted. That’s one of the reasons we tend to get defensive.
Whoa. Light bulb on.
Me with my hand on my mouse. I click to change functions, to change pages, to change applications, to change links, to change what my computer is already doing for me. The amber light on the tower flickers madly, accessing RAM (which uses a lot more power than the hard drive but has less room to work with). More often than not, what I requested happens with no problem. Once in a blue moon, though, that amber light sticks "on" and the computer gets fussy or freezes because it just didn't like what happened... something about the process, the page, the link, was unfairly taxing and hit a nerve.
Reboot.
So now I know. Whenever I'm feeling defensive or angered by change, my limited prefrontal cortex--subject to crashes when overwhelmed--is being accessed instead of my larger and more fuel-efficient basal ganglia (hard drive). And unless that anger is truly warranted by the situation, I should take a deep breath and just let my amber light turn off.
Sounds like a plan.