If you stumbled upon this blog post hoping to find Buddha-like transcending advice on how to delay orgasms, I am sorry to ruin your curiosity. You can log on to www.sexisnteverything.com and wait for the “Error 404 page not found” gift. Yikes! While this post isn’t about delaying orgasms, this post will give you control over your explosive primal reflex called the one-minute man!

WHEN A MISTRESS CALLS…

In April 2018, Mrs Jennair Gerardot a business entrepreneur married over the last 25 years to Mr Gerardot, executed a calculated murder on Ms Chapman, a communications manager and supposedly mistress of her husband. Prior to this devastating incident, her husband, a fond sharer of their undying love on Instagram posted this: “On the personal side, my wife and golden retriever are the centre of my universe and the reason I get up every morning.”
With a Taurus Tracker .357 revolver in hand, she broke into Ms Chapman’s home, waited for her through the door and blaaam! Shooting her dead. She will point the gun to her own head and blow out her brains at the scene.

How to make a murder recipe: A Husband, Wife and a Mistress.

Hold on! What I didn’t tell you in the story was the heated texts and emails sent back and forth between the couple. What I didn’t also tell you was that despite their seemingly perfect marriage on social media, their marriage was on the brink of divorce.
Why will Mrs Gerardot take such a crucial step in solving marital infidelity with a gun? If that isn’t an appropriate question, then the real question here is, “who controls our brain?”

WHO ACTUALLY CONTROLS OUR BRAIN? 

I like to think I am in control of all my actions. If I decide to snooze some extra minutes in bed on workdays; it is because I made a choice to. If at the final five meters, I decide to walk past an amazing girl approaching down the stairs, then it’s because “the girl wasn’t really worth it“.  

There are moments in my life where certain actions of mine get me rewriting this script and questioning my control over my actions. If you are on the same wavelength as me, you probably can recount some dumb shit you did in the past that still baffles you. One that gives you the Oh moment: did I really say/do this? Yes, dumbass, you did! No, maybe you did not!

You see the thought of I did what I did, boils down much to societal conditioning. Society screws us in many ways. It has in place an imperfect system that requires people to take sole ownership of their actions in order to punish antisocial behaviour. Nonetheless, we know deep down some of the actions we take are not under conscious control. For the religious fanatics, the Devil must take blame at all cost. Science calls these actions reflexive or autonomous behaviours.

AUTONOMOUS BEHAVIOURS

Some 10000 years ago, Bushman(mankind) had no ice-cream nor Instagram nor Donald Trump’s favourite toy – Twitter. He lived with wild beasts that were waiting on the wings to rip his heart out for dinner! He had to be on constant lookout for danger. Adaptation was key to survival. If he was scared, he had to run for his life. If he was angry, he had to be aggressive to remain alpha. Sounds like a broken love story of manliness, huh?

Fast forward several 1000 years later, and his emotions have evolved to suit a complex world. But did he leave behind his old self? A big no!

The perfect moment to see these behaviours manifest is when we feel we are in physical danger or threatened emotionally. These signals trigger our biological fight-or-flight response which by the way is a survival mechanism(one that worked perfectly for Bushman’s survival). By the time the signals get to the parts of our brains that can thoroughly reason about them, our emotional and reflexive brain centres have already shot into action. In other words, you are primed for survival every damn time you are threatened!

As much as this quick gut-level response could be lifesaving, it may not be the perfect response to perceived emotional threats in a psychologically complex world. Mankind isn’t fighting dinosaurs or werewolves anymore. He is competing with another “enemy”- his fellow human.

FIGHT OR FLIGHT

Which biological response is the best option for survival? In a psychologically complex world, not all issues can be resolved satisfactorily by following our first biological reaction(fight). Ever had a reckless driver cut across you from a different lane? What is your first reaction? Do you let loose some swear words Jesus won’t be proud of? Or like I have seen some people do, chase the other car down and engage in verbal or physical fisticuffs.

The first reaction (fight) is called an amygdala hijacking (limbic abduction) because it is triggered by a small organ within the brain’s limbic system(emotional centre) called the amygdala. The amygdala’s primary function is to signal the adrenal glands when a fear stimulus is triggered to put us into “Bushman mode” aka morph into a One Minute Man – primed for reflex action. Strange enough, the amygdala has a secondary and slower connection to the cortex(part of the brain that deals with reasoning and logic).

The second biological reaction(flight), is called “reasoned” reaction. And hell, it is so damn hard. This reaction requires a lot of reasoning, logic and a great deal of being able to think through consequences or consider multiple factors when acting. This doesn’t come easy to everyone, as we are all different people with different backgrounds and personalities. This means some people have to work harder than others to develop their “reasoned” reactions.

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR “REASONED” REACTION

If you have made it this far, I presume you probably have had One Minute Man(OMM) moments just like most people around the world have. Disobeying your first fight reaction can be a daunting task. Powerful people have ruined their careers, opportunities have passed people by and a ton of beautiful relationships ruined just because they couldn’t control their One Minute Man.

THE FINAL BIG HACK

The One Minute Man needs to be tamed and given a sense of direction. And that is solely your job. But how do you do this?

Harvard University neurology professor Rudy Tanzi recommends a four-step process to handle situations in which we are in the thrall of a limbic abduction:
•Stop yourself from doing what your initial reaction dictated.
•Take a deep breath.
•Become aware of how you are feeling.
•Recall a past event that gave you a feeling of happiness and peace.

Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit

Practising self-awareness is a crucial habit you will have to keep in your mental hack toolbox. Don’t fight the first reaction. All it takes is to ask yourself “what am I feeling now?”

Take the answer OMM gives you. Then ask the OMM, “Why am I feeling this way?”. Accept the answer. Don’t argue. Then ask OMM, “What should I do?” Take its answer.

Then finally ask it, “What will happen if I take this action?” And listen to its answer.

The purpose of this self-awareness work-up is to buy you enough time to get info to your reasoning centres.

You will realize within the timeframe it takes to ask your OMM and seek answers, you would have regained some level of self-awareness. Seen the bigger picture(consequences) which in turn will affect your course of action. A big lifehack!

Old couple holding hands. #Overcome the One Minute Man

This could have been Mr and Mrs Gerardot several decades later. Sadly Mrs Gerardot let her OMM take over leaving unexplored a world that could have been, a dead lover, a crime scene and a devastated cheating husband.

 Accept your emotions, but make sure you discipline them. Overcome your One Minute Man.

DRC

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