A-Ha: Neuroscience of the Limbic Brain

What is the limbic system, you ask? Well, in a nutshell it is the midbrain part of the brain that controls emotions and helps with stimuli mechanisms. It is an essential brain function to help humans scan our environment to ensure our own safety. In a healthy human, it warns the self to flee from any situation which may cause the human harm.

The limbic consists of several structures. See the diagram below (probably more than you wanted to know). As you can see, the limbic system has many parts that contribute to brain function. The part that most people are aware of is the amygdala and the hippocampus since these are the parts that control fear response and memory respectively. All in all, the structures are complex and have a great deal of responsibility.

Ok, so now what is limbic dysfunction or impairment? Limbic dysfunction is where these structures are overstimulated when exposed to things that over activate our immune system. Most times when people get chronically ill, they are unaware that they may also have developed limbic dysfunction especially if the symptoms they experience cause stress related fear, overthinking, anxiety....see where I am going with this.....OK, enough about dysfunction....more about how we rewire to get our health back.

Most people who know me, knows that I became chronically ill over time, with a perfect storm May 2016...which then led me to leave my successful corporate career to figure out what was going on. What I didn't know is that I would be told I have a slew of things wrong and I have a brain impairment and that in order to regain my life, I would need to rewire my brain! I was like, huh, Dynamic Neural....what? Yes, Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) is the system I used to regain my limbic impairment. What no one told me, is this was going to be the single most difficult thing ever...and I was determined because I had exhausted every other modality and was eventually told that I had to live with my situation. What no one told me as well, is I would regain more than my limbic impairment triggered by my illness...that I would gain rewiring tools for the rest of my life. That was the bonus.

Many have the perception that I rewired by brain really fast...to me, it was at the pace that it was meant to be. With no job, and all alone at home during the day, I essentially made it my full time job. I did have a secret sauce that I used to get to my finish line....and it was my gift to myself.

I worked the program, all 5 pillars, every minute, every hour and every day...without any falter for 350 days...15 days short of a year. I sang songs 🎶to keep the brain loops from running, recorded my own rounds to listen to so I could listen while doing chores as a distraction, the scientist in me craved book's 📚about the science of all of this work I am doing and so I listened to many books that educated me what I was doing in science terms. I trained on all the things that I wanted back in my life...I trained on wine 🍷and chocolate 🍫first as rewards for my goals set in DNRS. Once I accomplished this, I knew I could do the rest of it...it was just my limbic impairment. I used my "shifting thoughts and beliefs" cards. Oh...yeah...I set goals for myself so I had a path to rewire into. This point was driven home today by my friend Cathleen King who is teaching a mentorship course on primal trust. I had an a-ha moment, I set goals. Yes! That is how I did it. I also used my community of buddies for buddy rounds and connection daily (to me this is essential). I was lucky to get a personal invite by my dear buddies Brigid and Lisa to join a laughter group that is now my tribe, my people, my everything. Laughter....Laughter is so important to keep my mood elevated and flying high on life. It reminded me that I like to laugh and all the years I spent not laughing because I was going through something (c'mon who doesn't think Seinfeld is funny, 🙋🏽‍♀️). Slowly, I learned to live the lively life that I live with my husband and two kids. They say, those who live near Napa, have wine🍷 running in our veins...they are right.

I am able to live again, travel, socialize, tolerate light, tolerate foods, tolerate everything I desire. I did it! I learned a great deal about neuroplasticity and how it works and what I need to do to maintain my new, precious neural pathways that have been born through this amazing recovery process.

Here is the code I live by these days (there are 7 because 7 is my lucky number):

1. Brain rewiring needs maintenance...keep the new patterns you spent so much time creating and run them, use them all day, everyday.

2. The brain is neuroplastic both ways...what you resist will persist and what you entertain will run....be mindful of what you are entertaining.

3. We must become our true selves after recovery else it’s all for not...unapologetically your true self...what does that look like...I initially got that from Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie Mercury talks about it)

4. Boundary’s are life, set them and honor them unapologetically

5. Elevate, elevate, elevate...laugh, be joyful and see the humor in all of life

6. Take things in stride...don’t sweat the stuff you cannot control...let things go...

7. Love yourself to the highest degree and honor your highest values (if you don’t know they are...figure them out)...the things that make you the happiest.

I create spiritually inspired loving creations and share them with the world. Here I am.

This is the symbol that represents the peace in my chakras as a reminder of balance. Till next time my friends.

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Reference: Dr. Jocker's article on Limbic dysfunction