Mind in Crisis: Navigating the Social-Neural Disconnect

Have you ever wondered why you can't think clearly during moments of emotional crisis? The answer lies in the disconnect between your social and neural selves—a fascinating neurological phenomenon that Dr. Christopher Kevin Slaton unpacks with remarkable clarity in this episode of the Brain's Body Podcast.
 
 When crisis strikes, your body reacts physically while your brain struggles to process what's happening. This creates a fracture in your ability to respond effectively. Dr. Slaton guides listeners through understanding this disconnect and offers a practical framework for bridging the gap. By exploring the rotation between the social self, neural self, and neurophysiological self, he reveals how we can transform reactive patterns into conscious responses.
 
 The concept of "Brain Talk" stands at the center of this episode—the revolutionary idea that your brain can take the lead in coordinating your responses when properly engaged. Rather than remaining stuck in automatic reactions, you can learn to transfer experiences through what Dr. Slaton calls the "received path," where external stimuli become neural information your brain can process. This transformation doesn't happen passively; it requires active participation through practices like reflective storytelling, where writing, drawing, or performing your experiences creates channels for your brain to communicate with you.
 
 Perhaps most empowering is Dr. Slaton's candid acknowledgment that "the cavalry is not coming." Instead of waiting for external solutions, he equips listeners with self-help techniques grounded in Human Systems Research—Brain’s Body Learning. By developing greater awareness of our brain, body, and sense systems, we become capable of solving our own problems and navigating personal crises with increasing skill. Ready to put your brain in charge? Subscribe now to continue this journey of neural leadership and self-discovery.

Transcript

Introduction to Social Brain Concepts

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to the Brain's Body Podcast. I am your host, dr Christopher Kevin Slayton, the Brain Talker. Today's topic we're going to keep up the crisis. Self is always in there because we're talking about the social brain. The reason why we're talking about the social brain is because I want to make it clear that when you're in crises and you're trying to figure out why you can't think through the way you feel, it's because the social self is not connected to the neural self of brain, body and sense signals between sense and received path functions, which means that you have contact that has to be experienced in the transfer of energy, action and feelings through the received path, where the brain has to process these rotations between sense events, body events and brain events, simultaneous events taking place from the social to the neural. So you're a social system because your body is physical and the brain is the organ that receives social information from the environmental stimulus through the sense path to the received path and in the received path it becomes neural, because now you're talking about the neural physics of self, where you have to now realize the brain, and that's what I'm talking about. So brain talk is about understanding how your brain participates, because if you understand that when you're in the crisis going through, why you can't hold yourself back from doing something that you know is acting out of who and what you want to be or want to be viewed as. But the physics of your body are out of control. So you have to brace yourself in the reaction for what happened and you want to know what happened, because that's the only way to stop it from happening, which means you got to experience that memory, and within the context of memory is emotion. So you have to experience the emotion and the memory of what took place and transfer it to the received path. That means you have to participate.

Understanding Neural Self & Information Flow

Speaker 1 2:37

Now I'm saying to you that it's one thing for something to happen, but it's an entirely different thing when you participate in moving contact to interaction, to cooperation, because when you cooperate, the received path is already processing the rotation where the brain takes the lead of the body and coordinates body sense signals. And so now you have a sense of how your brain takes lead of the body from a social self to a neural self, and then you become the neurophysiological you, because now the social neural is coordinated to a sense of feel and you are a complete response system from the inner to the outer, from the outer to the energy, action and feelings creates that stress and anxiety, moving through the receive path, where you begin to realize what the conflicts are. What are the conflicts? Why aren't you cooperating? Why don't you feel more connected to what's happening? Why can't you stop from doing whatever it is you're doing if you're not participating in trying to cooperate, to understand what's happening to your memory, because your memory is what's supposed to transform into a higher state of awareness. But when that doesn't happen, there's a breakdown in the transfer and I say you're resisting or you're trying to ignore the experience of that memory.

Speaker 1 4:36

And so I'm talking about the crisis self and I'm saying to you that there is three things that I'm talking about. That takes place the rotation between the social self, that's body-brain Okay so, social self, body-brain or body-mind, but in human science it's the body-brain, neural self, brain-body, neuro-physiological self, the brain, body and senses. That's that coordination from the rotation that's taking place when you participate in sense and receive path functioning. And when I say sense and receive path functioning, I'm saying you practice sensing, contact, feeling, the interaction study, the receive path, contact, feeling, the interaction study, the receive path. But the receive path is when you have the contact and it's happening. You want to realize how it's being processed. So you say receive path because you want to measure how well you accept that information flow and you could tell that because the body is physical but you're transforming it to the neural physics of self. So if the brain's in the lead, you look back at the physics of you, other people in the environment in response to the transaction taking place and there is your information flow, the forward feed of how the brain responded. And that's what you want to talk to me about. That's what I'm talking about Brain talk, the brain talks back. That's why everything that we're talking about is always going to be measurable negative energy action and feelings from causing you to continue to recede versus progress therapeutically to a sense of feel for self, other people and the environment. I just said it and this is why Because when you understand this process loop, you move through self in relation to other people, because that's measurable.

Crisis Self: Three Key Rotations

Speaker 1 6:48

So now it's purposive. You want interaction with other people because they allow you to read how your brain is performing and receive path functions, because you are sending forward feed in response to what's happening and that other person is part of your data collection, because you are sending forward feed in response to what's happening, and that other person is part of your data collection. That's that feedback loop, because you are not talking about just doing self-analysis, you're talking about doing the response process loop, where you can begin to realize how your brain responded and how you reacted, and all these things allow you to better understand your response systems. Okay, why are you reacting to this? Why are you responding that way? Well, choice, decision-making when you fail to cooperate, you choose not to. You choose not to allow yourself to experience that effect of that emotion in this way, and so your memory context is not as expanded, because you had levels of resistance which disrupts that flow.

Speaker 1 8:06

This is brain talk, because when you're doing self-study, self-research, that's what you're trying to. You're trying to analyze what is happening to your capacity to understand, how to manage, control and focus you through the crises that you already know you're moving through. Okay, and there has to be an evidence-based method, because otherwise you and I are just talking about stupid stuff or stuff that gets us in a deeper crisis, because now we may be schizophrenic or we may be psychotic, or we may be going on the wrong side of the woods, you see into the darkness, avoiding the light Instead of rashly understanding. How do I test this? How do I move through this experience, that, and know how to use reflective storytelling to allow me to analytically look at what I otherwise would not be able to observe. But in the physics of self, see, you are the creator, and so when you use the brain-body learning tools, that's exactly what you're doing.

Brain Talk & Response Process Loop

Speaker 1 9:22

You're trying to create systemic ways to assess your participation, because there's no Calvary coming. No, the Calvary is not coming because the Calvary for some costs too much and the Calvary is help. So that's why, when I'm talking about humanism, science and I'm talking about self, I'm talking about self-help, self-research, self-discovery, in the loop, and that's why that rotation between the brain and the body is critical, because the brain has to be in the lead. But you have to have verification, because you have to have the confidence to believe that you have these inner powers that allows you to telepathically tune in to self, the body and the senses and the messaging system of your human system and how that relates to the environment. When you have contact with other people, you're not looking at their body, you are connecting to their brain and there's no words going on. Brain and there's no words going on. You are looking through a sense of feel for that contact, interaction and, within the context, you're studying your brain. It translates into how you study theirs, because we're human systems. We may not have the same types of functionality, but we can look within each other and see how the brain works and what are the red flags, because that's what we're talking about moving through the crisis itself. But who's the help? The Calvary's not coming. Who's the help? You're the help. You've got to help yourself. I understand. I'm giving you.

Speaker 1 11:08

First step Understand the sense path. Second step understand the sense path. Second step understand the receive path. Third step understand the flow of information, energy, action and feelings. Fourth step understanding the transformations of brain, body and sense. Signals that are moving through you. So, when you have contact, the brain, body and senses signals that are moving through you. So when you have contact, the brain, body and senses are sending signals that are supposed to connect. Where are they supposed to connect?

Speaker 1 11:38

In neural process cycles, rotations, okay, and those rotations are designed to coordinate the information flow so you can make sense of what your body, brain and senses are transferring between this contact, the interaction and the flow of information from the experience, of memory and emotion, because when the brain responds, the brain is responding to those events through the creation of thought on that memory context that you have experienced and transferred. Now the brain is in the lead of the body. Otherwise you don't get this level of participation or performance Because if it's only social, that means it's external, it's not neural, it's not internal. And what I'm talking about is you understanding how to go neural, how to naturally interact with your neural sense of feel for self. And then don't be afraid, because the brain talks back. I mean, the brain talks back in the lead of the body and you have to continuously allow yourself to participate in forward and backward feed. That's a dialogue where the external environment may have initiated the process loop, but your participation level in search of the truth takes over. And that dialogue is a continuous flow Inner voice, self-talk, brain talk. And what's the variable? These are rotations the external environment, inner voice, self-talk, inside your head. Should I respond? Well, I don't know. You know all that blurred stuff, but it's a continuous loop.

Becoming Your Own Help System

Speaker 1 13:39

And then your brain responds because you've developed enough trust to release that response to what you're experiencing and that response to what you're experiencing. And that response to what you're experiencing is feedback. It's intensely, that's why it's forward and backward, because the minute you respond, your brain is able to observe, listen, learn, help, rescind, lead again and again and again in the cycle, as long as you don't forget that you have to be open to the negative flow of energy. So if that response, for example, say you're dealing with a person who's always angry and they're always talking bad to you, it's hard to have that forward and backward feed because that's internal. See, it's moving through you and you're just trying to respond intellectually to learn how to get yourself through that crisis, but they're just spitting all these negative things at you. That is intended to stop you from sending forward feed, your response. And if that happens, you want it to happen on your term. So that's why you're studying your sense of feel for self, because when you shut yourself down, you got to understand why you did that. And that's why the dialogue between self, brain, body and sense signals is very important to be aware of, because when you stop participating, why no, it's instantaneous. So you're okay with that, because you're going to the next level of understanding the crises. Okay, and in the crises, you want to begin to realize how it feels to be in that state of mind. Wait a minute.

Speaker 1 15:36

I said state of mind because that's what the environmental influence is the negative energy state of mind, because that's what the environmental influence is the negative energy right, and you're trying to respond to it. And when you respond to it it's a state of mind, but you don't want it to be static or fixed. You don't want it to be a program state. That's why you got to be aware of how you respond, so that when it happens again, you go, go to another level. You don't stay right there and fight. That's what we're talking about.

Speaker 1 16:04

Moving through the crisis itself. Don't get caught up. You go to another level. You become more flexible. You don't lose. You don't lose your spirit. You go to another level. And if they don't follow you, you've got to understand that's what leadership is. You're in a zone alone, but you can define what happened. You know that you were successful because you're able to allow that information flow to continue to flow.

Speaker 1 16:30

Then, like I said, you go to reflective storytelling. You write it down, you draw a picture, you diaphragm it. It's all kinds of ways the brain communicates and at the end of the day you can rashly look at wow, that was a pretty good response, because you're going to live next day and next day going to tell you more and more and more about how well you responded to that negative flow of energy and that experience and that memory. And look at the reprocessing loop of that negative energy. It's not stuck inside you, it's being released into the environment. That's forward feed and that feedback. You don't wait on it, because I just now told you that's why I use reflective storytelling.

Speaker 1 17:16

Get your data instantaneously. Five different things you act through it, perform through it, you draw through it, you write through it, you read through it and, at the same time, the brain is talking and it's giving you the information that you need. The three things you got to be aware of how you inform, discipline and focus Brain, body and sense signal. Because, as you're writing, you have to have that discipline, because with that discipline you can hear the noises and sounds of your inner voice, self-talk, brain talk. And brain talk is the release into the environment and that feedback loop right completes the rotation brain and the leader of the body. Okay, so this is Doc Fade Line. That was brief. Hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1 18:11

We work on the crisis of self, the brain and the leader of the body. I'm trying to get you to just digest the concept of not just a social self but the disconnected self. Unless you connect your social self to your neural self and then you have thought so there is no thought in the social self, there's a reaction to the experience, and that experience is external. But to process that experience you must be neural. All I'm saying is you must understand that the brain has to be in the lead of the body and when you accept that, you accept the fact that you're a neural system and that the neurophysical self is the way the brain communicates with brain, body, sense signals, with self, because self is the key, self-awareness is the key. We're talking about self-awareness.

Reflective Storytelling & Neural Leadership

Speaker 1 19:11

The more you become aware of your brain, body and sense systems, the easier it becomes for you to problem-solve you, because you're the problem, as well as other people. But when you understand your problems, it's easier for you to understand how to think through them. Because you understand, I can feel me. I can feel me, I can move through me, because I can think for myself through those feelings of me and other people, going to think for myself through those feelings of me and other people. And I don't wait on someone else to grade me a score how well I'm performing, because I do reflective storytelling, reflective diagnostics, so that I look within myself through real activities Reading, writing, drawing, acting, performing. Wow, take off. I've slayed a lot of brains, bodies. Stay tuned, I'll be back shortly. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe.