Ironically, in my Emotional Intelligence courses, I refer to our primitive instincts from the reptilian brain as the tiger within.¯
Now we have Montecore.
Siegfried and Roy have performed thousands of shows at the Mirage with their white tigers without incident, and Montecore, the 7-year-old, 600 pound Royal white who mauled Roy during a performance recently, was a veteran performer.
What went wrong?
Roy tripped and fell on stage, stagehands rushed forward, and Montecore took action. According to the head of the Mirage, he didn't drag,¯ or attack¯ Roy, but carried him gently,¯ like a mother cat carrying her kitten to safety. Scared “ for himself, or Roy, or both “ Montecore headed back to his cage, taking what he cared about with him. Experts agree if he meant to kill, he would've shaken Roy, breaking his neck.
Gravely injured, Roy asked that the cat be spared. He has talked repeatedly of his bonding with his cats. He's with them when they're born and constantly thereafter. Bonding occurs between mammals because of the limbic brain we have in common.
Beneath the mammalian brain is the reptilian brain, which generates the basic instincts of fear, aggression, self-preservation and lust. Because of this brain, we're always in danger of acting without thinking.
The neocortex evolved later, the crowning glory of homo sapiens. But magnificent as it is, emotions will always take precedence over thought, because they're necessary for survival.
When we experience fear “ and in today's world our fear can be totally symbolic (your boss yelling at you) “ we get hijacked.¯ We are flooded¯ with emotions specifically designed to shut down our thinking¯ so we can “ and will “ take action. Because it's quick, strong, and sloppy (danger!), mistakes can be made.
Frightened and confused, Montecore lacked the ability to think things through. Fear causes us creatures to revert. Bad things can happen. We can hurt people we love and hurt ourselves.
Prey as we are to the tiger within, we must become aware, understand and learn to manage our emotions and those of others; this is Emotional Intelligence ( http://www.susandunn.cc ).
It wasn't Montecore's fault.¯ We don't routinely blame¯ animals, lacking the neocortex as they do, for acting in accordance with their animal natures.
However, in regards to humans, we continue to battle this out in the courts, and in our own hearts and minds.
It is for sure we don't want to find ourselves saying, I don't know what came over me,¯ or That wasn't like me¯ or I didn't mean to kill her, I love her." We are as capable of serious injury to others as Montecore is, and when we disable our neocortex, we are left with the same equipment Montecore has.
We need to keep learning about our emotions. As Childre and Martin say, The emotional frontier is truly the next frontier to conquer in human understanding. The opportunity we face now is to develop our emotional potential and accelerate rather dramatically into a new state of being.¯
The alternative is to continue to go Montecore¯ on one another.
©Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, cEQc, The EQ Coachā„¢, http://www.susandunn.cc . Emotional Intelligence coaching, teaching, training, and assessments. Susan is the author of How to You're your Life with Emotional Intelligence and other eBooks available at http://www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary,html . Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE eZine. Tame your brain!
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