When we wake up in the first morning of a residential retreat and everything is a bit off.

Suddenly we have roommates.

Suddenly we have roommates.

Suddenly we're not in a world where people are talking.

We're eating weird food for breakfast. We're sitting in a hall next to people we don't know.

So it might be one of those times in life where we actually asked ourselves how did I get here.

And generally what happens is

the cognitive rational thought-based narrative mind kicks in.

And we immediately try to fit and experience into the story of our lives that we've been unfolding and updating the narrative of who I am.

Oh, that's right.

I'm so and so.

I've got such and such skills,

such and such issues.

I'm a clever neurotic Buddhist teacher here again at a retreat outside of the city.

So you probably have your own story of your journey and when new experiences occur what we do is we begin to try to fit the experience into this narrative, this tale we've been telling.

And the nature of this tale we've been telling. And the nature of this kind of fitting everything into a story in language with ideas is of course it is the part of the mind if you're

a neurogeek like me you'll recognize using left hemisphere of the brain,

ventramedial and other regions like Wernicke's Brothas to create this story.

We're using a very small portion of the brain and relying on it to make sense of life

to calm us when we feel in the situation that we don't know that well, to alleviate concerns, to create a sense of purpose,

something to rely upon when things in life for a moment seem odd or don't make sense the conscious mind which in adult life is very aligned with this language-based cognition becomes activated, upset.

What's going on here?

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