Sublime

sound actions and make wholesome choices that are more in keeping with our conscience and which are centered in the cortex, the rational part of the brain. This is the part of us that can keep our compulsion to behave like a crazed wounded animal in check, and ensure that we show up in ways that make the triumph of our ethics over our emotions even

Let the Elephant Play with Stuff The elephant is also a tactile creature. When the elephant is difficult to corral, you can use hands-on methods to create engagement.

In the final chapter of The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski wrote, ‘We are nature’s unique experiment to make the rational intelligence prove itself sounder than the reflex.’ Bronowski implied that the success or failure of this experiment depended on the basic human ability to interpose a delay between stimulus and response.

Elizabeth realized she needed to take the entire conversation-entering process that she had intuitively perfected all those times she was the new kid in school and break it down for Toby into manageable, followable micro-steps (honestly this was pretty fun for her; behavioral psychologists tend to love their flowcharts). The first step was Observe,

Some people don’t remember anybody they felt safe with. For them, engaging with horses or dogs may be much safer than dealing with human beings. This principle is currently being applied in many therapeutic settings to great effect, including in jails, residential treatment programs, and veterans’ rehabilitation.

That was the core of a powerful new psychotherapy technique called systematic desensitization, in which people with phobias imagined gradually more and more anxiety-provoking images while staying relaxed through the use of methods of muscular relaxation.