At some point in time, we will be confronted with either walls or blocks that will stand in our way and may seem insurmountable.

One school of thought it that we cannot go through, around or over the wall and instead must reimagine the situation, so that there is no wall blocking our passage. Personally, I don’t find the approach helpful at all. But maybe it is because my mind just doesn’t seem to work that way, so it doesn’t make sense to me.

As I am very left brained, having a cognitive explanation for the wall or block is for me, a better way to overcome it. So needless to say, I did some research with the Neurobiology I am learning so much about. There is a long explanation and mechanical function that I could go into, but for purposes of this blog and for simplicity, I believe I have found an answer that makes sense to me, and I hope it makes sense for you too.

A few posts ago I spoke about how the right brain is the “survival” brain and determines if there is a response required i.e.: flight, fight, freeze, submit or attach.  What happens if two or more conflicting responses get triggered at the same time?  For example, we have learned that connection is a basic human need.  If we have experienced trauma, we know that human connection may not always be safe.  So right there, we are in basic conflict.

We want connection so the attach or submit mechanisms are brought into play.  Yet the person him/herself may not be safe, so we are also faced with flight, fight or freeze.   All are correct based on their perception and all have equal priority based on how the right brain decides / determines safety & survival responses.  Thus we have a block or wall.

Needless to say the actions to overcome these sorts of things cannot be simply explained here, but perhaps some cognitive knowledge about how blocks can happen, will help remove some of the confusion which only makes the blocks and walls worse.