What do I want? Morning Mental Fitness (4)
We’re moving from thoughts (post 2) through emotions (post 3) to desires (post 4). Your will – the seat of your desires and what you want – is most associated with an area of your brain known as the Orbito-Frontal Cortex.
Anatomy: the Orbito-Frontal Cortex
The Orbito-Frontal Cortex is a specialized area of your Frontal Lobe. It’s at the very tip of your frontal lobe, just above your eyes. It’s the youngest, most advanced part of your brain. It’s literally out in front, leading you as you move forward: walking towards or predicting your future. Every decision you make is governed by your Orbito-Frontal Cortex. Ultimate free will may be an illusion, but your Orbito-Frontal Cortex choices are very real.
You use your Orbito-Frontal Cortex to make thousands of decisions every day: to sit, stand, speak, and say and to do what you want, how you want and when you want to do it. It’s up to you. You choose. Your choices can mean life or death, pleasure or pain, contentment or misery, or heaven and hell, and everything in between.
Your Orbito-Frontal Cortex has input from your thinking Frontal Lobe and your feeling Limbic System:
Frontal Lobe Thoughts + Limbic System emotions TO
Orbito-Frontal Cortex decisions.
It also considers pain from your amygdala, pleasure from your nucleus accumbens, and ideas, beliefs and plans from your Pre-Frontal Cortex. It predicts the outcome of any decision you need to make. You decide in your Orbito-Frontal Cortex, then move your body into action. As a doctor, I can recommend a treatment plan, but only you can decide whether to follow it or not. Here, I suggest some ideas, but only you can decide whether or not you will implement them. The Orbito-Frontal Cortex appears to be the area that you “intend” and “choose.”
What do I want?
We ask ourselves this question often. Being free of desire is impossible. Do you desire a more peaceful life? Do you desire to be free of desire? Do you desire to make this world a better place? There are many worthwhile desires. You decide.
Be aware of some characteristics of your desires:
Only you can decide what you want
What you want is based on your values
You may or may not get what you want
These characteristics will lead to more questions:
Are my desires mine or am I influenced by others?
What do I value in life?
Is it OK for me to strive without achieving?
As you breathe in and out, think about these questions. There is no need to judge your desires or even answer these questions, just use these questions to become more aware of and curious about your desires.
The practice
In your morning program, focus your awareness on the tip of your nose and on your breath. The first minute is for Frontal Lobe thinking, the second minute is for Limbic System feeling, now we’ll consider what we want; what we desire. This is Orbito-Frontal Cortex will and wanting.
As you breathe in during this third minute, ask yourself what do I want? No need to answer the question.
As you breathe out, be aware of the process of wanting and the energy of desire. Let the desire go. Observe it. Don’t engage with it. Let it go and enjoy the space in between your desires. You are separate from your desires. You choose.
During the day, pause at times to ask what do I want? In your awareness, you’ll find it easier to let go of what you want if you need to, or to calmly find another way to achieve what you want. This peace helps optimize your Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and beta Endorphin levels.
This is the third minute of your 5-minute morning meditation, the third question and the third brain area of your Morning Mental Fitness Program.
3: What do I want? (Thanks to my Orbito-Frontal Cortex)