Brain

Brain (Central Processing Unit)

The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It is the control centre of life. It not only affects and governs everything you do, how you think, feel and act, but what kind of person you are.

Proportionate to body weight, humans have the largest brains among mammals. No animal brain approaches the human brain's capacity for learning, language and thought. But the human brain is not just a super-computer. No computer can dream, fall in love or get bored.

We interpret the world via our senses; we see, we hear, we smell, we touch and we feel.

We are aware of our environment, but there are two ways in which we interpret our environment. We intellectualise it, and emotionalise it and we do this independently of either process.

The emotional part of your brain can see and hear what you do; but you're not aware of its eavesdropping antics. You would probably ignore it if it didn't have a strangle-hold over your feelings which can often lead to confusing situations where you "want" to do one thing, but "feel" you should do something else. i.e. We know we should stand-up and perform a speech or presentation, but we "feel" nervous about doing it.

Both these functions have their unique talents. Your ability to intellectualise a situation also powers your ability to articulate. People quite often mentally talk to themselves; something known as the "inner voice" (don't worry – you're not mad). You can focus on a particular problem and consider it to the dizzy heights to come to a rationale, considered answer which your intellectual brain can explain to others.

The emotional component can process a wide range of different inputs. It generalises massive amounts of data which would overwhelm your ability to "think" it through, and it gives you a "feeling" to guide you towards a solution.

It almost sounds like a form of schizophrenia which we all experience.

Both sides need each other. Often we would be so easily distracted to get any real benefit from our intellectual powers if we didn't have a small but persistent reminder about how we "feel" about something which keeps us focused on the job in hand.

Main points

• There are two ways in which we interpret our environment. We intellectualise it, and emotionalise it and we do this independently of either process.