Hercule Poirot sometimes refers to his little gray cells. The ones in his brain. I have never seen real brain cells but I believe they are grayish or white-ish, depending on their function. When I look up "brain cells" in a Google search and click on images, many are shown in a blue color. Maybe it was artistic license or maybe the brain was dyed. It might have been instructive graphic techniques to paint some area blue for comprehension.
Whatever, since I have been hearing about brain cells and the impulses they send to each other, I have been envisioning drives and urges I am trying to inhibit or ignore as originating from a few cells here or some cells over there. When I am trying to resist the urge to eat a cookie but I still feel drawn to doing so, I practice picturing the eat-a-cookie module of my brain sending small electrical charges to my do-it-and-do-it-now module. Then, I ask myself,"Do I want to let a few microscopic cells push me around? They are way smaller than me. They don't have my background or club memberships. I want to stay in the driver's seat and not follow their limited advice! They just do their thing but they don't see the bigger picture."
When a five year old is quite excited and cute about his idea of bathing the cat, I might well step in and block his project. My good sense and sympathy for the cat may propel me to distract the child or forcefully prevent him from proceeding. Similarly, my little blue cells may think they are doing a fine job for me when spotlighting the possibility of a cookie, I may distract them with a walk or a Sudoku or a substitute, say, a cup of herbal tea. Part of me is older and wiser and that part has the duty to be the baddie when needed.
Whatever, since I have been hearing about brain cells and the impulses they send to each other, I have been envisioning drives and urges I am trying to inhibit or ignore as originating from a few cells here or some cells over there. When I am trying to resist the urge to eat a cookie but I still feel drawn to doing so, I practice picturing the eat-a-cookie module of my brain sending small electrical charges to my do-it-and-do-it-now module. Then, I ask myself,"Do I want to let a few microscopic cells push me around? They are way smaller than me. They don't have my background or club memberships. I want to stay in the driver's seat and not follow their limited advice! They just do their thing but they don't see the bigger picture."
When a five year old is quite excited and cute about his idea of bathing the cat, I might well step in and block his project. My good sense and sympathy for the cat may propel me to distract the child or forcefully prevent him from proceeding. Similarly, my little blue cells may think they are doing a fine job for me when spotlighting the possibility of a cookie, I may distract them with a walk or a Sudoku or a substitute, say, a cup of herbal tea. Part of me is older and wiser and that part has the duty to be the baddie when needed.
