Blame It on My Amygdala

Ever wondered why teenagers roll their eyes and say, “You wouldn’t understand,” to an adult when asked what’s wrong?

Also how young people can say, “I love him!” one day and, “I hate him!” the next. And it goes round and round like a merry go round, faces changing with the same song playing and everything.

I have a very smart brother who recently informed me that there is such a thing as an amygdala. Fascinated by this, I had to research it. It’s in your brain, located in your limbic system, which is where your pituitary glands are of course, and is highly associated with classical conditioning. Until around the age of 24 your thought process is going through your amygdala, which is an emotional thought process, hence a lot of decisions young people make are stupid.

Eventually, it moves to your frontal cortex. You know, the logical part of your head that makes you turn into a boring person. :P

All this to say, though I do think it should be encouraged to always talk to adults, there is logic to that closed off, “You wouldn’t understand,” statement.

Generally mother’s deal with the results of the amygdala from their children and therefore probably don’t need to know the science behind behavior in order to understand. Yay for mom’s…(I think degrees are overrated, to bad we need them to get anywhere it seems). And no, this does not mean if you’re not a mommy you are incapable of comprehending matters of the amygdala; after all, you once thought primarily with it yourself.

Just saying, there’s often a gap between young people and adults and that’s probably why. P.S. No personal complaints from myself.

Oh, and because it’s associated with classical conditioning be careful of your environment. All that external stimuli is going to be shaping you heavily.

Okay, your lecture is done.

On a side note, you know those people that start to annoy you in little ways and after a long period of time? Well, I have to see one in dance class quite often. It’s pretty hard to annoy me. But she has a way of saying personal jabs that remind you that umm, yeah, we’re not all great dancers. (So please shut up, it’s just a stupid salsa, do we need perfect finger position RIGHT NOW? Use that thing called a filter and don’t make fun of mine).

Oh, the things we never say. Probably for the better.

Leanne

Beautiful Women

Me and a friend once stood talking to a fellow dancer, and as the last AM party goers were starting to trickle out the door and instructors were picking up cups and leftover party food, he began educating us on the topic of beautiful women. They develop egos because they don’t have to rely on their personality to get by, he said. And then they become less pleasant to be around. The woman may be beautiful and men may think the man is one lucky man for catching her, but beauty is not the leading quality and that man may not be as lucky as they think he is. "Make sure you two don't develop egos," He said. The biggest conclusion I grabbed from his delightfully educational talk was:

Make sure when you look in the mirror you can see someone you like.

I told him if we look at everyone as a beautiful unique individual then that helps make sure you never do anything prissy.

It also made me think how awesome Christianity is. Because solely basing on the fact that if an individual loves God and people are made in the image of God then it would be impossible not to love people and treat them like they should be treated because loving them is an extension to the love we have from God. You don’t have to be cool, sexy, or smart for a Christian to give you love. That should be something they give automatically to everyone.

What you earn is trust, because I don’t think a person can ever be good enough to earn someone’s love. I would think you an idiot, (and yes, that was not particularly loving) if you stood back and said, I deserve your love. I would feel like an idiot if I said that to someone too. This I realized when I was at the Orphanage  in Egypt. The kids there barely spoke English, yet they continually reminded me and the other girls that they loved us. They didn't ask if we deserved it, if we were good people, and heck, pouring concrete most the time was not particularly one on one time spent.

Hence, the only word I learned how to say was I love you. I wont try and prove that though right now. Those foreign  words are awfully hard to spell. :P

Leanne