2 Core Classes: Wizard vs Lizard Brain Class and Fear Modulation Learning to go from critical voice to kind voice

There are two classes that my clients tend to purchase first, this page explains more about them.

1. Wizard Brain vs Lizard Brain is a 60 minute class divided into 3 sections, cost $20

I will paste the timestamps below, email [email protected] to purchase

This class teaches you about two fundamentally different competing states. (NOTE: A state of mind or a state of being, a state is a “temporary condition occurring now.”) While I use playful terms it is based on cutting-edge science.

TIMESTAMPS:

Best to start at min 15:47
The recording has 3 sections–
1. Lizard Brain from 15:47 to 38:27
2. Wizard Brain from 39:00 to 50:28
3. How to Strengthen the Wizard Brain 51:43 to end

9 exercises for you to learn:
1. 5 finger breathing from Jud Brewer (to go from Lizard to Wizard) 21:11

2. One at min 29:00
3. Where are you in the spectrum? Min 33:36
4. Exercise when stuck in rumination (Heidi calls this “hamster wheeling”) min 34:50
5. Look back on section 1 reflecting on “what’s my relationship to my default mode?” min 38:27
6. This specific part of the wizard brain gets strengthened when you think about your values and calms down the lizard Min 45:20 (also see 1:12:51 “thinking about values calms the default mode” which is this tip mentioned on a slide)
7. Look back on section 2 reflecting on “when do I find myself using wizard thinking?”
8. The last section is full of tips especially 1:06:45 to end
9. Final BEST recommendations from science to integrate the wizard and lizard 1:14:26

Lecture length 1 hour 20 minute. Jam packed lecture guiding the listener to travel from the “prefrontal cortex” (WIZARD BRAIN) and the “default mode” (LIZARD BRAIN). The “Wizard” vs “Lizard” are broad metaphors to explain competing systems in how our brain uploads and processes information. Crockett teaches that we can learn to recognize when we are more fearful and shift our thinking into expanded states of mind. 

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2. My second CORE class is titled, “Fear Modulation: Learning to go from critical voice to kind voice”

Part 1: Fear Modulation

Part 2: Melting Shame and Part 3 Q & A (last 20 min at the end)

Cost $20 It is a 90 minute class and to purchase you can email [email protected]

This class teaches you how to onboard your wizard brain by talking to yourself in a kind voice and to “retire your critical voice to the critical voice retirement home.” I call this running your nervous system on “electric fuel” vs “diesel fuel.”

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS TO UNDERSTAND: Hearing and believing your “critical voice” has to do with suboptimal parenting and an unintegrated brain.

(Note: to “hear this critical voice” is the same thing as to activate your default mode network [DMN]. In Jud Brewer’s research the posterior cingulate cortex [PCC] has been used to study the DMN. I will suggest clients put their hand on their head where the PCC is about midline near the back when they hear the negative self-talk. This helps orient to how the brain is lighting up were it to be able to be scanned. Research shows that the DMN [demon] gets activated when we criticize ourselves or recall a recent moment of shame. This is explained in Part 1 of the Lizard vs Wizard Brain Class.)

This class helps you understand that negative thinking is often a part of the brain wanting to survive. It is assessing where you are in the social hierarchy and deciding whether or not you are going to die [by being rejected by the tribe]. Examples of wizard brain skills you are needing to onboard in that moment are insight (an inner sense of knowing,) response flexibility, and especially fear modulation (unlearning fear). Talking to yourself in a kind voice (there are 3 layers to this, as you work with me you’ll get into the more complicated nuances,) causes you to release “gaba” and to grow inhibitory fibers down into the amygdala. It calms fear and onboards fear modulation and buys you time to get your “wizard brain” more online.

The one “hack” that seems to cause big changes is when clients realize that diesel fuel (criticizing yourself,) regulates the nervous system (calms you down) by a 4 step process. The criticizing is called a harmful SAFETY STRATEGY. (“Safety strategy” means it serves to calm down the nervous system.) When we use kind voice (self-compassion,) it’s called a helpful SAFETY STRATEGY because you get twice your money’s worth: you get calmed down and you stop the shame cycle by melting the shame / integrating the default mode network. This is explained in more detail in the class.

There is more information to share about when a person has a particularly loud critical voice (which means they have an unintegrated default mode network). It is something called “backdraft” in shame research:

The key to being helpful not harmful is learning how to accurately interprete the signals going on in your thinking.

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BONUS PART for those interested in learning more on this subject: The reason the critical voice is so loud is related to suboptimal parenting. Instead of what I call “complex parenting” like “saying yes to the feelings while you say no to behavior.”

(This is a parenting style that helps onboard the child’s wizard brain.)

Example: “I know you’re angry, Tommy, and you really want the Captain Crunch. You can have Rice Krispies or Raisin Brand, which do you want?”

You on the other hand, likely remember experiencing what I call “simple parenting.” Something like, “Shut up! Go to your room!” This doesn’t teach the child to grow integrative fibers in the prefrontal cortex and to reason through decisions in the face of high emotional intensity.

Good news! The brain is capable of neuroplasticity across the lifespan. By learning to run your nervous system on “electric fuel” and talking to yourself (and then others around you,) in a kind voice, your whole mode of being begins to shift.

Kristen Neff, a self-compassion researcher, has said that she’s seen phenomenal changes in the brain after just 2 weeks of starting self-compassion. She’s said normally changes to that degree aren’t seen and Heidi has witnessed it with her clients.

Give it a try and reach out with questions: [email protected]

(This information comes from a variety of researchers, NICABM has 4 classes on shame that the above draws from, the “No Drama Discipline*” is from an interpersonal neurobiology framework, plus researchers such as Kristen Neff and Paul Gilbert’s Compassion focused therapy.)

*I have an excellent $20 classes that teaches the principles that go with No Drama Discipline, check out the slides from the class on the blog post: https://greenlightheidi.com/paid-class-no-drama-discipline/

There is also a handout that you get with the class, you can reach out to me and I can give you that handout for free if you don’t have the funds to purchase the class. These principles are really important! And you can buy “No Drama Discipline” book for $2 used on amazon, there are other books that are popular like the Whole Brained Child and the Whole Brained Child workbook. My favorite is No Drama Discipline.