{"id":220,"date":"2008-08-18T10:36:20","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T08:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/?p=220"},"modified":"2008-08-18T10:36:20","modified_gmt":"2008-08-18T08:36:20","slug":"taming-the-lizard-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/2008\/08\/18\/taming-the-lizard-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Taming the lizard brain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8220;lizard brain&#8221; is a term I use to describe the &#8220;old&#8221; part of the brain. The part that triggers the four &#8220;F&#8221;s of the limbic system<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>fight<\/li>\n<li>flight<\/li>\n<li>feeding<\/li>\n<li>reproduction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An example:<\/p>\n<p>Take a large human male, wrap him in neoprene, stick a big metal tank full of air on his back, slap a bunch of weight on him, cram a hunk of rubber, plastic and metal into his mouth, connected to said tank by a <em>TEENY TINY RUBBER HOSE<\/em>, submerge him in sea water and tell him<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 180px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>BREATHE NORMALLY<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The lizard brain is the part of you brain that says<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>BREATHE NORMALLY<\/em>? <em>BREATHING NORMALLY<\/em> does <strong>NOT <\/strong>involve all this equipment and it <strong>CERTAINLY <\/strong>doesn&#8217;t involve breathing<strong> UNDERWATER. GET TO THE SURFACE YOU MORON!! NOW!!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Heh.<\/p>\n<p>I received PADI&#8217;s Open Water Diver certification about 11 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>I never used it after that.<\/p>\n<p>About 1.5 years ago, we went to Dahab, on the Gulf of Aqaba (part of the Red Sea) in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>I did a dive.<\/p>\n<p>I did not particularly enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p>My lizard brain was kicking and screaming.<\/p>\n<p>I kept looking at my gauges and wondering &#8220;can I go back on shore now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was pretty bummed out about it. Cause I &#8220;wanted&#8221; to enjoy diving. But it just wasn&#8217;t working for me. I did a few more dives and was never really happy about it.<\/p>\n<p>Time goes by.<\/p>\n<p>Another trip to Dahab. Another dive. This time was better, but still not <em>really <\/em>enjoyable. It was <em>OK.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Another trip to Dahab. Another dive. I had a good time on this dive and actually enjoyed myself. While it would be a great stretch to say that I was &#8220;comfortable&#8221;, I was more relaxed and not fixated on the fact that<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>ALL MY AIR IS COMING THROUGH THIS LITTLE HOSE AND THERE ARE ABOUT A MILLION THINGS THAT CAN GO WRONG.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hardly thought about that part of it all.<\/p>\n<p>After that dive I realized I had conquered my fears and enjoyed myself. I had gotten back on the <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">horse<\/span> <a title=\"foul, foul beast\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/?p=117\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">camel <\/a> that had thrown me and proved to myself that I could do it.<\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s next?<\/p>\n<p>One thought that went through my mind was<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Ok, you can do it. You conquered your fear. It is no longer bugging you. Declare victory and pull out.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, I had nothing left to prove. I could retire from diving on a high note.<\/p>\n<p>I mean it is a hassle.<\/p>\n<p>It is a lot of heavy gear. It requires expensive equipment. Suiting up is a laborious process. And there is an undeniable amount of danger involved<\/p>\n<p>If I want inconvenience, expense and danger, I can go motorcycling.<\/p>\n<p>(It is a lot of heavy gear. It requires expensive equipment. Suiting up is a laborious process. And there is an undeniable amount of danger involved.)<\/p>\n<p>Right?  I don&#8217;t need scuba.<\/p>\n<p>Snorkeling is fun too. Cheaper, less dangerous, much less gear required.<\/p>\n<p>When we left Dahab last time (in July) that was my thinking: I am done. khallas.<\/p>\n<p>We are back in Dahab for the month of August. We have a little apartment with a view of the sea and Wi-Fi. I am working and generally just enjoying living 2 blocks from the beach.<\/p>\n<p>What have I been doing in my spare time?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 150px;\">I must not fear.<br \/>\nFear is the mind-killer.<br \/>\nFear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.<br \/>\nI will face my fear.<br \/>\nI will permit it to pass over me and through me.<br \/>\nAnd when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.<br \/>\nWhere the fear has gone there will be nothing.<br \/>\nOnly I will remain.<\/p>\n<p>I am now a certified Advance Open Water Diver.<\/p>\n<p>A big thank you to Kasia, Pritesh, Shadi, Khaled and all the other great people at <a title=\"Clickon Backpackers Dahab\" href=\"http:\/\/sinaidivers.com\/english.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sinai Divers, Backpackers Dahab<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8220;lizard brain&#8221; is a term I use to describe the &#8220;old&#8221; part of the brain. The part that triggers the four &#8220;F&#8221;s of the limbic system fight flight feeding reproduction An example: Take a large human male, wrap him in neoprene, stick a big metal tank full of air on his back, slap a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-out-and-about"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cairochronicles.com\/jack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}