A Neuroanatomist On The 4 Ways Your Brain Operates (And How To Tap Into Each)

Although we have been trained to believe that our left brain is our rational brain while our right brain is our emotional brain, the limbic tissue responsible for our emotions is evenly divided between our two hemispheres. As a result, each of our brain hemispheres has both an emotional and a thinking module of cells, and each of these modules of cells results in not only a predictable skill set but a character profile or personality.

When we know each of the Four Characters (our two emotional and our two thinking), we then have the power to choose moment by moment which character we want to embody at any time. This is true personal freedom. 

Our left brain organizes information across time, so our left hemisphere organizes information about the external world taking into account our past and future temporal orientations. Our left thinking tissue is what I call Character 1, and this is the conscious and rational part of our brain that naturally organizes, categorizes, and thinks in language.

Part of our language is our ability to say "I am," so it represents the ego part of our brain and filters all incoming information through the filter of our individual self. Our left thinking brain also defines the boundaries of where we begin and end—as it constructs a holographic image of our body. As a result, we define ourselves as a single, solid entity that is separate from others and has an individual identity.

Our left emotional tissue, known as Character 2, also exists in the temporal realms of the past and future. Although each of our emotional groups of cells functions as our alarm/alert autonomic response to protect ourselves, Character 2 brings information in from the present moment and immediately compares the present moment to anything we have ever experienced in our past. If a present stimulation looks anything like a past threat, then we are emotionally triggered to push the threat away.

In addition, any of our emotions that are dependent on a past experience are exemplified by our Character 2. For example, if I hold resentment over something that happened in the past, then I am in my Character 2. If I feel guilt or shame over something in the past, then I am embodying my Character 2.

Our right brain is all about the present moment and the collective whole, which is the opposite of the left brain and its focus on me, the individual. Consequently, our emotional Character 3 represents the character profile of our right here, right now emotional self.

Outside the judgment of right/wrong or good/bad that happens in our left hemisphere, the emotional experience of the present moment is free to explore, create, and indulge itself with whatever it fancies.

Our right-brain Character 4, like our Character 3, does not define itself as either an individual or ego-self. Instead, our Character 4 thinking tissue perceives itself as a collection of atoms and molecules moving fluidly through space and time at one with all that is.

This is a five-step process that I call the Brain Huddle, whereby we consciously take a pause, call all Four Characters into our awareness, and then together as a team contemplate our next best move.

I encourage you to practice the Brain Huddle in everyday moments so you can train your brain to make important decisions swiftly and skillfully. If you are willing to train your Four Characters to function as a team during the benign moments of your life, then when you are in duress, you will have that skill available.  

You will no doubt realize that these five steps of the Brain Huddle spell out "B-R-A-I-N." While I, of course, think this acronym is adorable, it also has a real purpose: to help you quickly remember the steps when the pressure is on and your Character 2's stress circuitry is running on overdrive.

In moments like those, when you can barely think because the chemicals of anxiety or fear are flooding through your bloodstream and overwhelming your circuitry, this B-R-A-I-N acronym can beam like a bright neon light, reminding you of the steps you can take to call your brain team together so you can find your way back into the peace of your right brain.  

This process of the Brain Huddle, whereby we can consciously and deliberately bring all Four Characters into the conversation, is both powerful and empowering.