S9E34
· 30:02
Hey Lisa. Hey Lee. It's good to see you today. It's good to see you too. Will you help me
with something? Of course. I can't remember what day it is. It's frontal lobe Friday.
It's frontal lobe Friday. Good morning my friend. I hope you're doing well. Dr. Lee
Warren here with you and it is frontal lobe Friday. One of my favorite days of the week.
Frontal lobe Friday where we talk about this incredible gift that God gave us. It separates
It's just really from everything else. He created is this incredible frontal lobe that gives us this ability to do what we call
Selective attention we can change humans can change what we choose to think about,
This is really why you have the ability to change your mind and change your life and everything we talked about here on this show,
In self brain surgery everything comes down to this ability to engage selective attention,
And when Harvey and Lewis were alive, we talked about it before, they can't change their minds like you've got to shock them or give them a treat or do something if they're after a squirrel or after a deer or after somebody, you can't talk to them and get them to change their mind.
You got to do something to them to sort of make it impossible for them not to change their mind.
Humans though, you can say, hey, you know what?
That thought process isn't serving me well.
This way that I've thought about my massive thing, this way that I remember and ruminate on a label
that my dad gave me when I was eight, isn't serving me well.
You can, with the power of the Holy Spirit, or if you're not a believer,
you actually can do it by yourself.
You can say with your logical frontal lobe, this pattern of thinking isn't helping me very much
and I'm gonna change it.
So today we're gonna talk just a little bit about your frontal lobe.
Specifically the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices,
and something related to what we do with them and how we choose to use them,
how we choose to protect them, and something that's commonly done that actually harms them.
And I'm just gonna give you a little bit of information about your amazing frontal lobes today.
Hey, because it's frontal lobe Friday.
I'm getting a cold. Lisa's had the flu all week. I'm starting to get it,
so I'm concerned that my voice is gonna sound crazy by tomorrow,
So I'm actually recording this on Thursday before I go to the OR.
So it's gonna be pretty short. I got surgery in just a little bit.
But front frontal lobe Friday is the day when we talk about this incredible,
Ability we have to engage selective attention. It will change your mind and it'll change your life
It's just something that you have to learn how to do and to be in awe and wonder of how
Fearfully and wonderfully made you are and I think the frontal lobe is the thing that really separates us from the apes
That's why I'm not saying we're animals God made us in his image
But he made brains similar across many species and the difference between ours and all the other brains that he made,
We have selective attention and most of them don't and I think.
That the way that God put our minds together is because he wants to communicate with us,
if you think of your mind as the software and the brain is the hardware and the spirit as the interface between God and
Your mind then it would behoove you right to protect that brain because that's what gives you this
communication center, this ability to hear from God, which enables you to answer one question.
Hey, are you ready to change your life? If the answer is yes, there's only one rule. You have,
to change your mind first. And my friend, there's a place where the neuroscience of how your mind
works smashes together with faith and everything starts to make sense. Are you ready to change
your life? Well, this is the place, Self Brain Surgery School. I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and this is
This is where we go deep into how we're wired,
take control of our thinking and find real hope.
This is where we learn to become healthier, feel better and be happier.
This is where we leave the past behind and transform our minds.
This is where we start today. Are you ready?
This is your podcast. This is your place. This is your time, my friend.
Let's get after it.
Music.
All right, let's get after it. Somebody, I think it was Beth Maxey, Beth correct me if I'm wrong about that, but I
saw a comment, I just now discovered dozens of comments on the YouTube channel that I hadn't seen, and I saw a comment from somebody saying, hey I love
the new intro, is that you playing? Is this really awesome when you get after it?
It's not me playing. I could play that, but it's not. That's actually a royalty-free loop that I found that's really awesome, and I think that I love
that little guitar part. Tommy Walker could play it too, but he didn't. He plays the piece
at the end on the song Get Up on the outro that I love even more. I just found that as
royalty free I thought I would include it in the intro for the new season, season 9,
so I'm glad you like it and let's get after it.
My friend Daniel Amon wrote an amazing book called You Happier, The Seven Neuroscience
Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type and he was on the show to talk about
that a while back and in that book he gives us a really nice sort of simple layperson
breakdown of the different parts of your brain.
And so the part about the frontal lobe, I'm just going to read you a paragraph that Daniel
wrote because I couldn't say it any better and I would highly recommend You Happier by
Daniel Amen, Dr. Daniel Amen, if you want to know more about the neuroscience of your brain
and the types of brains that people have based on his experience of scanning the brain and
understanding the different ways that people think and the problems that we have associated
with that. Daniel has helped literally tens of thousands of people around the world with his
groundbreaking ideas about psychiatry and brain imaging and just tremendous
guys so check out Dr. Daniel Lehman in the book You Happier. Here's what he
said about the frontal lobe. The frontal lobes consist of the motor cortex which.
Is in charge of directing movement, the premotor cortex which helps to plan
movement, and the prefrontal cortex which is considered the executive part of the
brain. This region is the most evolved, he says. I don't say it that way because I
I don't think our brains evolved.
I don't think Daniel thinks that either, but it's just this language that slips into science sometimes.
I think it's the most specially created part of the human brain.
But anyway, this region is the most important part of the human brain, and it's involved with focus,
forethought, judgment, organization, planning, impulse control, empathy, and learning from mistakes.
So you're starting to get this idea that prefrontal cortex is super important
in being a good human being, in being a compassionate person, judgment, focus,
forethought, organization, planning, impulse control, empathy, learning from mistakes.
If we all had better prefrontal cortices, don't you think we'd be better in our relationships,
better in our interactions with other people?
He says this, Daniel says this, the prefrontal cortex makes up about 30%,
I'm sorry, the frontal lobe makes up about 30% of the human brain compared to just 11% for chimpanzees,
7% for dogs, 3% for cats, and Daniel makes this offhand comment,
perhaps that's why cats need nine lives, they don't have a very big frontal cortex.
And 1% for mice, which is why they're eaten by cats. They don't make good decisions.
On the underside of the prefrontal cortex is an area called the orbitofrontal cortex,
which is located just above the orbits of your eye sockets that's intimately involved in happiness.
So orbital frontal cortex is involved in the dopamine circuit and it's involved in happiness.
So that's just kind of a gist of what your frontal lobes are all about in the anatomy
side and the functional side.
Now let me give you some information. This will just kind of make your day.
Guess what specifically inhibits in real time the activity of your prefrontal cortex?
About more than anything else. Guess what? Alcohol.
Believe it or not, alcohol specifically inhibits the activity of the prefrontal cortex.
And here's what's important about it, the way it affects the prefrontal cortex.
So prefrontal cortex is your executive center, right?
Your ability to evaluate a bunch of possibilities and engage in what we call downstream thinking.
I used to teach my kids.
Kaylin and I had tons of conversations about it when she was in high school,
more than any of the other kids.
She was interested in this concept that I called the rule of fives.
It's like think about this decision you're about to make and what it will do five minutes five hours five days five months five years,
Five decades from now think downstream about your decisions before you make them and sometimes that'll help you make a different decision than the one
You might think that you would make and that really for some reason resonated with
Kalen and she locked into that logic and she would text me once in a while and say hey
Let's getting ready to do this and I thought about the five the rule of fives and I decided not to do it
I think it's gonna be better for me to do this other thing and that's not to say that everything you're about to do is a sinful thing,
But just if you think downstream Sometimes it'll help clarify your thinking that downstream thinking and that happens because you're using your prefrontal cortex. Well alcohol,
Makes your prefrontal cortex doesn't it is interesting. It doesn't make it stop being able to see the results,
It just makes you not care about them,
And so you'll think and think about it if you drink alcohol or if you've had some experience with alcohol,
It makes you say hmm. You know if I do that, I might get a DUI,
But I really need to get home. So I'm gonna drive anyway, if I do this that person might get pregnant.
But it's okay. I really want to do it. Anyway, if I make this phone call, I might lose my job. I'm mad right now
I'm really want to tell my boss off. I could lose my job over that. I think I'm gonna it's worth it
I'm gonna do it anyway
I've had enough. I think I've had enough alcohol probably ought not to have any more but you know what?
I think i'm gonna have a little bit more. That's what alcohol does to the prefrontal cortex
It just takes that executive function and makes you not care about it,
It makes you not care. Now. Why do I tell you that i'm telling you that because,
If you have a choice To engage your frontal lobe In a way that's helpful to you,
Or to take a substance that will diminish your ability for your frontal lobe,
Help you. What's the wisest choice?
So now go back to that five five five rule and you're saying hey I'm gonna do something here that might inhibit my brains ability to help me make good decisions,
Then I may be and I may put myself in a dangerous position If you're a college student, for example
You're gonna go to a party and a lot of people around you don't know all of them or what they're up to or what?
Their intentions are and you say hmm How would I be able to make the best set of decisions over the course of this night?
Somebody asked me out on a date. Somebody invites me to go for a walk Somebody invites me over to the dorm room and I've got alcohol in my system. I might make a different decision.
Than if I didn't have alcohol in my system, okay, you see what I'm saying now understand this
I'm not laying this in spiritual terms. Okay, very specifically I think one of the reasons that a lot of people that grew up in a fundamentalist tradition like I did,
Although we wouldn't have called it that One of the reasons that so many of us had and you can see it some of those kids go off to college and they
Just go nuts
they go completely nuts. And it's because they were raised in this way where everything was a sin
and everything was gonna send you straight to hell. And there was no logic or conversation about it.
It was just don't do that or you're gonna go to hell.
There used to be an old joke in our church. Why is the church that we went to,
I'm not gonna say the name of it, but why is the church we went to so against premarital sex?
And the answer to the joke was because it might lead to dancing or it might lead to drinking.
Like they were saying, it's worse to drink or dance than to just have premarital sex.
Which obviously isn't true.
But that was the joke. It's like everything is gonna send you to hell.
And so my problem with that is now as an adult is if you're told that something is wrong
but you're not given rationale for it, okay, then you're going to make decisions about it later.
If that thing seems to have a benefit to you and you can weigh the benefit against the potential downside
especially if you get to a point in your life where you no longer think that everything's gonna send you
straight to hell, then you may make a decision
to use something based not out of logic or reason, but based out of sort of rejection of a prior set of codes.
And that's why Paul, the Apostle Paul in Colossians 2, when he was talking about freedom from human rules,
said this, therefore, don't let anybody judge you
about what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival,
a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day.
So he's saying, eat and drink what you want, okay? God's not gonna send you straight to hell
for having pork or drinking a beer or whatever. He's saying, don't let people judge you for that.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come.
The reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility
or the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person goes into great detail
about what they've seen.
They're puffed up with idle notions by their own spiritual mind.
They have lost connection with the head from whom the whole body supported and held together
by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow. Listen to this, since you died with Christ.
To the elemental spiritual forces of this world. Why, as though you still belong to the world, do you submit to its rules?
Don't handle. Don't taste.
Don't touch. These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use,
are based merely on human commands and teachings.
Such regulations, indeed, have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship,
their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body,
Listen friend, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence What's he saying that you should just go drink and have sex with whoever you want to and eat whatever you want
No, he's not saying that he's saying that human rules aren't the reason that you should modify your behavior because human rules
religious rules Societal rules whatever they don't actually restrain.
Indulgent because laws don't restrain people from doing things if they want to do them. That's obvious. That's what the Bible saying here
It's just a point about human behavior that when you put rules on something
People do it anyway, if they want to or if they find some greater value in doing it
They don't care about the rule. They care about what they want in the moment for the most part
So what Paul's saying here is not to for us to go crazy and feel like it's okay and do whatever you feel like and eat
What you want drink what you want sleep with who you want. He's not saying that he's saying that having a rationale
for not doing something based on rules is not a good way to restrain yourself
from making good decisions. Does that make sense? So that's what Colossians 2
is all about. Now the same guy, Paul, in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 says this,
Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
What does that mean? He's saying is it is it necessarily inherently sinful to have a drink or maybe even to drink a little bit enough
To get tipsy or would get drunk or whatever. He's not saying that he's saying don't get drunk on wine,
Because it leads to bad decisions instead be filled with the spirit and I'm gonna just submit to you here on frontal lobe Friday,
Took me a long time to recognize this not just in context of alcohol or anything else. But here's the thing.
Being drunk on wine and substitute for that cannabis or hydrocodone or whatever else that you
might take or any kind of behavior frankly that's gonna numb you to the
thing that you're trying not to feel even if it's gambling or pornography or
something else that if it's something that you're doing to stop thinking about
one thing or stop feeling one thing and substituting it for something else you
don't have to feel it or think it being doing that let's just use alcohol for
context. Don't get drunk on wine, Paul says, which leads to debauchery. It will,
ruin your life, he says in the New Living Translation. Instead, be filled with the
Spirit. The cost of being filled with the Spirit is not being numbed by something
else. And the cost of being numbed by something else is that you can't be filled with the Spirit. Does that make sense? They are mutually exclusive. You
can't be filled with the Holy Spirit while your brain is turned off. Why?
Because, remember, we're here on Frontal Lobe Friday, you can't hear from the spirit if,
your spirit requires your mind as the interface to your brain and to your soul.
In other words, when you...
Put your frontal lobe to sleep and your prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain and your mind
that generates this ability to make good decisions and to discern the cost of things
and discern the potential outcomes of things and to think through and be empathetic and be
compassionate and be careful and be executive with your decision making. You can't do that
while your brain is disengaged with alcohol or mushrooms or oxycodone or pornography or
or whatever else you're using to turn your brain off.
If your brain is off, if you disconnect the wifi network, you can't hear from the message
that somebody's trying to send you. You can't get it because you turned off your router, right?
So if you think about your brain and your mind as this hardware software interface,
and you think about the Holy Spirit as being able to communicate with you through your mind,
then what Paul is saying here is actually about self brain surgery.
Way back in the day, 2,000 years ago, He's telling us something true here.
If you turn your brain off, you can't hear from God.
And if you wanna hear from God, if you believe that He's gonna come into your story
in the midst of your massive thing,
or your trauma, or your tragedy, or whatever else is going, God's gonna come and be with you in this
and help you bear this burden and help you learn to see that the thing in front of you
that's happened is not the only thing that's still out there and that the John 16, 33 world being hard
and the John 10, 10 world being abundant,
came here to give you an abundant life, that those two things don't have to be mutually
exclusive. You can't see that.
You can't hear that. You can't live that truth if your brain is turned off.
And that's why one of the rules, one of the commandments of self-brain surgery, my.
Friend, is to love tomorrow more than you hate what you're feeling right now.
And so tonight, as you're making your decisions, what am I going to do for the next two hours
so I can stop thinking about the fact that my son died?
What am I going to do before I go to sleep so I can stop feeling this incredible pain
that my wife left me?
What am I going to do so I can stop thinking about that accident that I was in, that trauma
that I went through, that battle that I was in in Iraq 15 years ago?
What am I going to do for the next two hours so I can stop thinking about that?
And if you choose to use something or engage in a behavior or get online or text somebody
or sleep with somebody or do something so that you don't have to think about that right
now, that's because you're trying to turn your brain off.
And if you turn your brain off, you can't hear from the physician who can actually help you heal that.
Now this sounds like a hard teaching. I'm not saying it's wrong to have alcohol.
I'm not saying that at all. I just convinced you with Colossians 2
that there's a reason why God says not to give all these crazy rules about people's behavior. But if you have not a rule but an
understanding, a logical understanding of why something might not be the best
decision in a particular moment, okay? Now does it mean that every time you
have an extra glass of wine you feel a little tipsy that you're committing a
No, it doesn't mean that. It means if you're using that or anything, as we said, to turn off your prefrontal cortex,
then you are disengaging the part of your brain that gives you the ability to engage selective attention.
And you are choosing then to shut your brain down instead of dealing with your actual business.
Okay, that's the problem. Now here's what the Holy Spirit does for you.
And He does it through the anatomy and function of your prefrontal cortex.
Cortex of the Holy Spirit Isaiah chapter 30 says this,
This is amazing. Okay He says people of Zion who live in Jerusalem
He will weep no more how gracious he will be when you cry for help as soon as he hears
He will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction.
Okay, so he's saying you're gonna have some trouble and if you cry out I will answer you,
Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
your teachers will be hidden no more.
With your own eyes, you will see them. So you're gonna start to see some answers here.
If you cry out to him and you keep your brain engaged. Listen to this, verse 21, this is so incredible.
I came upon this and God was just like, so graciously gave me this, Isaiah 30, 21.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying,
This is the way. Walk in it.
This is the way walk in it. Listen. He's making you a promise right here and I know that you already know this is true because first corinthians 10 13 talks about,
Talks about temptation and how in every temptation there's a way out There's always something that pops up and there's a way out and this is true too when you're going through trauma or tragedy
Massive things you're really hurting and you're crying out for help and you just can't bear it anymore
And you decide instead of feeling it you're going to engage in this numbing behavior and turn your brain off
So you don't have to think about it,
You can't hear the voice.
That says whether you turn to the right or the left your ears will hear a voice
It says this is the way walking it if you numb yourself friend if you turn your brain off,
through any means alcohol drugs sex money shopping
Whatever it might be even work. Sometimes we just pour ourselves into work. So we don't have to think about something
We don't love tomorrow more enough to rest or take Sabbath,
This is the scripture that says, in repentance and rest is your salvation.
So repentance means changing your mind, turning around, changing your behavior
and the direction you're going.
And rest means learn how to be still, cease striving as Susie Larson said,
cease striving and know that he is God.
Listen, frontal lobes give you the ability to make good decisions,
selective to change your attention to something better, a thought process that's gonna be helpful to you,
to think downstream of your decisions.
It's not because there's a rule about everything and because everything's inherently sinful
and God doesn't want you to have any fun and all that stuff.
In fact, there's a Psalm that says, God made wine to gladden the hearts of man.
There's another one that says, give wine to those who are suffering
and strong drink to those who are crushed by life's perils.
So it doesn't mean that there's not a place and a time for these things, okay?
It just means that if you want to hear that voice that says,
hey, this is the way you ought to go, then you can't turn your brain off or you can't hear it.
Okay?
So stop turning your brain off. Love tomorrow more.
That's one of the 10 commandments of self-brain surgery.
And I don't mean to say commandment like that. It's one of the 10 core principles,
core values that we as self-brain surgeons who want God to show us how to operate this incredible,
Unbelievably well designed frontal lobe and system of mind brain interface,
If we want him to teach us how to operate that thing and the way that he designed it so he can communicate with us
In the best way possible because I promise you friend if you follow that voice that says this is the way walking it,
It will be better for you than any other decision that you can make You are not alone in the midst of your traumas and tragedies and other massive things. You are not alone friend,
you're not. He's with you. There's a voice. If he said, listen to it again,
people of Zion who live in Jerusalem, Isaiah 30, 19 through 21, you will weep no more.
Beth, you will weep no more, Susie, you will weep no more, John, you will weep no more,
Brian, you will weep no more, Dennis.
How gracious he will be when you cry for help. As soon as he hears, he will answer you.
Although you have the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more.
With your own eyes, you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying,
This is the way. Walk in it.
Friend, there is a voice that wants to communicate with you, and it does so through the adequate
and proper functioning of your prefrontal cortex.
That's why you ought not to hit soccer balls with your head.
That's why you ought to think twice about letting your grandkids play contact sports.
The more we learn about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, it will stun you.
We're going to do an episode sometime with Joe Maroon and some of the people involved
in the NFL's concussion research protocols, and we're gonna teach you what contact sports
actually do to the developing brain.
I love football, I love it, I love watching it, but if you had to be honest as a neuroscientist
and say, is that really good for these kids' brains?
It's not, so just trust me.
Put a helmet on if you're gonna do something where you can hit your head.
Don't hit soccer balls with your head, okay?
Wear a helmet if you're riding a skateboard or a bike. Stop drinking something that directly kills cells
in your brain to excess, okay?
Stop using substances that turn your brain off. If you want to hear that voice,
I'm not saying it's sinful, I'm saying it might not be the wisest decision.
If you want to become healthier and feel better, then be happier.
And if you are tired of crying out and feeling like nobody's there.
Is it because when you're crying out, you've already been engaging in a behavior
that has shut your brain down and you can't hear anymore?
It's frontal lobe friday. We love our brains. We love tomorrow more than we don't want to feel something right now
We want to relentlessly refuse to participate in our own demise,
And one of the things we've been doing over and over that hurts us is shutting our brains off and engaging in numbing behaviors
And the problem is you can't selectively numb the one thing that's hurting you. You'll stop feeling everything else intimacy with your spouse,
relationships Enjoyment of the things that you love to do the more you numb yourself the more numb you become generally to the entire experience of your life,
And God is saying right here and I say a 30 friend. It's not about rules. It's not about sin
It's not about going to hell necessarily. It's about do you want to hear my voice when I'm trying to help you?
When you're covered up in the bread of adversity in the water of affliction and you're so tired of being tired and everything feels so hard
And you just wish you could hear a little bit better then maybe part of it is to make a decision
here on Frontal Lobe Friday,
this evening, when you're feeling that thing,
to do something to hear the voice more,
instead of covering up your brain so you stop feeling something, okay?
Here's an important thing.
Romans 12, two says, "'Don't be conformed to the world, "'but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
"'and then you'll be able to taste and improve, "'test and improve what is good, pleasing, and perfect,
what God's will is, if you renew your mind.
Now here's the important thing.
We know now that when you pray and meditate, your brain actually gets bigger,
specifically your hippocampus.
There's studies that showed that 30 days of directed, purposeful meditation and prayer
make the hippocampus of your brain get bigger. What does the hippocampus do?
It's involved in emotional regulation, stability, resilience, willpower, all that stuff.
Okay, you can make your brain bigger by thinking different thoughts.
Your human brain that God gave you, that he wants to use to communicate with you
is the only computer in the world where the software can upgrade the hardware.
Imagine if you plug your iPhone 11 in on your bedside table tonight,
and it did a software update, and you woke up the next day, and it was an iPhone 15 sitting there.
Like, you'd be like, holy cow, my phone turned into a new phone.
That doesn't happen with human computers. But your brain does that.
When you think better thoughts, your brain gets bigger. it gets stronger, it gets more resilient.
So if you wanna hear the voice that says, hey friend, when you turn to the right or the left,
I'm gonna talk to you.
You just gotta keep your brain open. You gotta keep your prefrontal cortex working.
And here on Frontal Lobe Friday, what better thing to do my friend, than start today.
Music.
Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast is brought to you
by my brand new book, Hope is the First Dose.
It's a treatment plan for recovering from trauma, tragedy, and other massive things.
It's available everywhere books are sold, and I narrated the audio books.
Hey, the theme music for the show is Get Up by my friend Tommy Walker,
available for free at TommyWalkerMinistries.org.
They are supplying worship resources for worshipers all over the world to worship the Most High God.
And if you're interested in learning more, check out TommyWalkerMinistries.org.
If you need prayer, go to the prayer wall at WLeeWarrenMD.com slash prayer,
WLeeWarrenMD.com slash prayer,
and go to my website and sign up for the newsletter, Self Brain Surgery, every Sunday since 2014,
helping people in all 50 states and 60 plus countries around the world.
I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and I'll talk to you soon. Remember, friend, you can't change your life,
until you change your mind, And the good news is you can start today.
Music.
Listen to The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast using one of many popular podcasting apps or directories.