dit’s Reviews > What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing > Status Update

our brain processes our experiences sequentially. all sensory input (physical sensations, smells, tastes, sights, sounds) is first processed in the lower areas of the brain. before any new experience has a chance to be considered by the higher, “thinking” part of the brain, the lower brain has already interpreted and responded to it. regulate -> relate -> reason.

there are countless millions of adults carrying that hurt through their lives, their jobs, their relationships, and then passing it in to their children. and those adults may not even realize what happened to them.

well, it’s important to remember that those caregivers were also children influenced by their caregivers🥲

our brain has capacity to change and adapt. neurons and neural networks make physical changes when stimulated (neuroplasticity). if you want to learn to play the piano, you can’t simply read about it, you must put your hands on the keys and play. if you never been loved, the neural networks that allow humans to love will be undeveloped. the good news is that with use, practice, these capabilities can emerge.

there’s always a pull to regulate, to seek comfort, to fill that reward bucket. but it turns our that the most powerful form of reward is relational. positive interactions with people are rewarding and regulation. connectedness counters the pull of addictive behaviors.


wew, reading all of this neural networks thingy makes me miss my ML classes..