Emotional brain vs Intellectual brain

“I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” ― Oscar Wilde

We have two brains.

1] Emotional brain

2] Intellectual brain

Thinking is done by Intellectual brain. It thinks logically. It decides on the best choice in any given situation.

However action is taken by the emotional brain. Emotion is the power which drives action. Emotional brain does not think logically.

“The heart is a strange beast and not ruled by logic.” ― Maria V Snyder

It has its own simple logic. It is driven by gain and pain. It is programmed or conditioned by gain or pain in the past. It does all the things where there is gain and avoids all that has pain.

When Intellectual brain and emotional brain decide the same, it gets done. Problem arises when they differ and their decisions are not the same. 

Emotional brain wins always!

For example, smoking. Intellectual brain knows about all the ill effects of smoking.But yet the person smokes.That is because his emotional brain decides to smoke.

It decides to smoke based on the positive memories and positive effects of smoking. There is no gain in not smoking. Also there is no pain in smoking.  So the learning about the ill effects of smoking has not affected the emotional brain.

The sad reality is that only experience of gain or pain can change the emotional brain.

Thoughts or logic cannot change the emotional brain.

That is why it is so difficult to change any habit.Many smokers have stopped smoking when they had a heart attack.That is because they experienced pain and associated it with smoking.

We can manipulate the emotional brain.

That will be in another post.