Lizards get a hard time, don’t they? I mean, look at that majestic fella up there. So peaceful and wise!
Still. I watched a webinar with a city council member from Minneapolis this week. He talked about the police murder of George Floyd. And how the council had voted to take away the police department in the city. They want to replace it with a community safety department, under which the police serve.
Right now, he said, there’s a lot of fear governing people’s decisions. I was intrigued, and he talked about how our “lizard brains” often want to take over. How when we’re scared, we want to make decisions that aren’t logical. That aren’t in the long-term interests of our communities.
When you see a spike in shootings, for example, you might think, “well, we need more police.” But when we ask the people in the communities affected by those shootings, they say, “no, we want to feel safer. And sending more police in isn’t going to do that.”
We have to think with the non-lizard brain, America.
For your bumper sticker:
🚫 🦎 🧠, 🇺🇸!
It’s a hard time. But I’m committed to calming my lizard brain. What do we want America to look like in the years to come? What room do we want to make for people to process their trauma and heal?
Take my free yoga class here on calming our lizard brains.
Namaste,
Matt
P.S. Marcella Hazan has a super recipe for using September’s enormous zucchini. It also includes all the tomatoes deluging your kitchen. Let me know if you make it. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked something by her that worked out badly.
Amazing Yoga to Calm Your Lizard Brain
