We know what we should do. We just don't actually want to do it. So we're going to talk about Dr.

Kaira's book, Unstoppable Brain, that debunks today's overdependence on performance-driven tools, such as calorie counting and smart goals and likes and followers that attempt to motivate us

into behavioral change.

Dr. Kyrie Bobinette, welcome to the Lindsay Elmore show.

Great to be here.

I'm so excited to get to talk to you again. You have a book called

Unstoppable Brain and you talk about biological reasons that people are running on empty. And you

talk about a structure in the brain called the Hibenula. And you talk about how structure in the brain called the Hibenula.

And you talk about how it is the brain's failure detector.

Talk to us about what this is, why it is important, and how does it cause us to get stuck?

Yeah, yeah. So this is the break pedal for all behavior in the brain.

This determines whether you do something or you don't do something. And so it is the definition of stuckness meant to keep us from taking life-threatening risks and bad decisions. And so what happens is that when we try to do something

different with our lives, like let's say we're trying to improve our lives and be more rested

or be more well in general, this is the part of the brain that if we judge ourselves

secretly, silently, or we feel like we're not doing it perfectly or the right way,

then this area of the brain will become activated.

And that's just like in the brakes in your car.

You pump the brakes.

You're going to come to a screeching halt.

And so we don't know that we're doing this to ourselves, but by thinking in terms of all or nothing black and white,

comparison thinking, you know, all the, I call these failure diseases, you know, these kind of repeated

patterns of how we, quote unquote, fail, how we just get disappointed, how we get frustrated,

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