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Hello readers, writers, teachers, and most of all, thinkers! This week, I want to encourage you to practice intentionally getting the intellectual part of your brain to connect with the emotional part. Over time, I’ve realised that what I’ve successfully done is learn how to connect and coordinate these two parts automatically and with little cognitive effort. The main aim is to do it without emotionally falling apart in the process. It is also what any good mental health therapist should be working on with clients. Early on, it will feel hard and cognitively effortful, but with repetition, it should become second nature. That’s when truly powerful, intelligent thinking can start. Once you have healed your cognitive grievances. I think what happens when you truly practice CT is this profound. What CT helps us achieve is emotio-intellectual thinking. Let’s get into today’s Trio of Thoughts… THOUGHT ONE: AN APHORISM In CT work, complicated ideas communicated through a few short words (quote) can profoundly encourage deep reflective CT. “So life is a battle of ideas, a battle of influences,
and your mind is the field of that battle.” —
– Krishnamurti
This aphorism resonated with me and it is why I teach CT. Krishnamurti has said that we listen to and are influenced by the thoughts of other people based on how eloquent they are and how powerful they are. In CT, biases that guide what we believe are also influenced by how recently you heard the idea and the proximity of the idea. For example why kids often believe a lot of what their parents say. Especially up to a certain age. They may say the same thing a lot and they hear it daily from people they spend a lot of time with. My CT training is about the battlefield which is your mind—what happens inside your mind when an idea arrives? What does your battlefield look like? The more complicated and thick the battlefield, the less likely you will have room for healthy analysis. Learn more about who Krishnamurti is here: Krishnamurti Foundation America THOUGHT 2: CONNECTING EMOTIONS AND INTELLECT While I often call this critical thinking (CT), I believe it goes beyond that. It’s what happens when you use the tools of CT effectively and consistently. The following repeated practices will heal that battlefield of a mind: Reflection: When triggered, take the time to think about why you feel this way as opposed to solely blaming outwardly. Openness: Be willing to hear a new perspective and sit in discomfort without reacting to understand. When you become defensive, you are not operating with openness. Flexibility: Demonstrate the ability to change your thinking based on evidence, rationale, or meaning provided by another person. Courage: Voluntarily attempt to prove yourself wrong. This does not feel good, and this is why most people avoid it. Healthy thinkers have become so because they are repeatedly brave. Honesty and Fairness: Observe and judge the world, but observe and judge yourself more intensely and truthfully. Your mind is so weak it will easily judge others first and this obstructs the clear vision of your behaviours. Remember, when we judge—unfairly—we are trying to reinforce why we should stay the same. That’s the point of judgement. Perseverance: Back your ideas confidently with self-control and logic by persevering to find and know the truth. Do not try and force knowledge upon others through force or emotional reactivity.
Doing these steps repeatedly will make you intellectually humble, a fundamental element of emotio-intellectual CT. These are not just abstract qualities; when you truly apply them, they transform the way you think and engage with the world. CT FOR KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM NOT DATA AND INFORMATION I don’t think people fully realise the potential of CT for applying knowledge and wisdom. Right now, many see CT as a way to identify data, facts, and information just to win an argument. How underwhelmingly boring and surface-level. What you do with information is what separates those who think deeply and consciously from those who remain unaware. Once you learn how to trigger this cognitive connection between the logical and emotional mind, its power is too profound to ignore. This is what happens to people when they face life and death experiences or can engage in deep electric meditation, or those who use psychedelics. Activating the emotional and intellectual parts of your brain to work together feels as though your entire body is electrified, like synapses firing all at once. For me, this intense cognitive journey began ten years ago when I started my PhD and began engaging with ideas that awakened the intellectual part of my mind and nurtured the emotional part of my mind. And here’s the beauty: you can achieve this naturally. When we use substances like alcohol excessively or engage in activities that numb the mind like consuming endless entertainment, it’s often because we’re struggling to cope with the state of our unfiltered thoughts. We want cheap dopamine hits. But by practicing processing thoughts we learn to face our thoughts and reduce their hold over us. The process is transformative. It sharpens your mind, heals emotional wounds, and leads you to innovative ideas. While it may not make you the next Einstein, (though he is a good goalpost), I firmly believe this is the very process the greatest thinkers likely discovered. A Transformative Experience Before starting my PhD, I didn’t come from an intellectual background. Life was emotionally chaotic, with all its ups and downs, like anyone’s. I was emotionally reactive and went along doing, fixing, regretting, and bandaging as required. I think my awakening happened due to a mix of historical struggle, deep emotional awareness, and learning critical thinking. This awakening wasn’t just intellectual; it was physical, emotional, and deeply visceral. Whenever I read something brilliant, I feel a tingling sensation or a sense of awe or euphoria—a mental and physical high. I know now that it is a complex interaction in my brain involving emotion, cognition, and sensory processing that I understand as the interplay of biology, psychology, and sociology. Side note: Interdisciplinary knowledge is the best type of knowledge. If you get this feeling sometimes, whether you’re reading a book, hearing someone speak, or listening to music, you are well-positioned to train your mind to be more powerful than you realise. You have got to try and get this feeling over and over again. Take special note of when it happens for you. The Biological Basis of Intellectual Stimulation When we encounter new ideas, our brain responds with a surge of dopamine—the neurotransmitter associated with reward, pleasure, and motivation. This release occurs when your brain recognises something novel, meaningful, or rewarding—like a particularly stimulating idea. Every time this happens, you are rewiring and waking up the intellectual part of your brain. You will get smarter if you keep going. Prefrontal Cortex (PFC): The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is the hub for critical thinking and reflection. It is responsible for the retrieval, processing, and integration of complex ideas from all parts of the brain. The PFC lights up as you evaluate, analyse, and make connections between what you’re reading and what you already know. This region is central to reasoning, evaluating options, and making judgments. If this part of the brain is damaged in any way—due to injury or the use of substances that negatively impact brain function—you may experience difficulties with decision-making. This becomes even more complex when considering personal histories involving neglect, trauma, or prolonged high levels of stress. A key aspect of my work through these letters is the understanding that the PFC can be improved and strengthened over time with CT practice, even in the face of historical emotional dysfunction. Through neuroplasticity, it can reorganise and form new neural connections, allowing for healing and recovery. Hence why I deliberately called this newsletter the Sunday “Synapse.” Limbic System: Particularly the amygdala (emotional processing) and hippocampus (memory formation). The limbic system contributes to the emotional resonance of ideas, giving them a "felt" quality. This is the part that connects the idea with learning or engaging with the idea. It gives us the reward. The idea sparking interest gives us a dopamine release, making us motivated to explore the idea even further. Stay right here when this happens. Our emotions trigger the emotional significance of the idea, associating it with positive emotions. When it hits a negative emotion, your logical mind located in the PFC needs to step in and process it. Practice this or the emotional mind will reject important thoughts you need to process. **Get professional help if you can not do this alone. Default Mode Network (DMN): When dopamine is released, this network facilitates introspection and deeper reflection. This is the one I am very much engaged in most of the time. I think this is very powerful, and you need to work on the DMN if you want to increase your CT effectiveness and cognitive healing. The DMN activates during reflection and helps you make connections between new ideas and your past experiences and creative possibilities of new thinking. It links new and old ideas, and when you connect with them emotionally, the limbic system will prioritise and store the ideas. This is reflexive practice. Do it over and over again. Insula: This region processes bodily awareness, linking intellectual engagement with physical sensations like tingling or a sense of mental euphoria. I get this all the time when I read a series of words from a brilliant mind that triggers my PFC, limbic system, and DMN. I get a physical reaction, and I am usually in a very good mood. I also write very well in these periods.
While I am not a biologist, neuropsychologist, or psychiatrist, I wanted to raise this topic as best I could so that we can learn how to get our minds to become smarter and sharper. As I am pro-interdisciplinary knowledge to improve mental health, we need to integrate disciplinary knowledge. We need to work towards becoming a society which uses knowledge to add, expand, and deepen not divide and replace. It may be time to get a bio-psycho-social podcast started! Our social history which we may not have control over plus our present day choices impact our brains bio-psychologically. When we interact with ideas we react based on our recall of memories and emotions. It is complex but it is also understandable. If you want to improve your social interactions, your social health, and social intelligence you need to learn how to fix the cognitive flaws of the mind. CT training is the answer. I did it. It is truly cognitively liberating and powerful. You will heal emotionally and you will simultaneously train yourself intellectually. What better duo! You got this friend. Thought 3 CT Activities for this Week To practice CT every day let’s go back to the skills I mentioned earlier in this letter to get your brain working to its full capacity. Do this forever and watch what happens. Reflection > Openness > Flexibility > Courage > Honesty and Fairness > Perseverance. Okay, that’s it from me for today! As always, email me any comments, ideas, recommendations, requests, epiphanies, stories, or feedback, OR please send mail to say hello as I love to hear that you are out there! Esha. NEW: CRITICAL THINKING TEST!! Want to know how your emotional and intelligent mind interacts? I have created an evidence-based CT test specifically to learn about how your decisions impact your socio-emotional health. It costs 9.99USD for a detailed self-assessment and report on 6 CT domains based on your day-to-day social interactions. It takes about 20 minutes. Make sure you’re cognitively rested before you take it. CLICK HERE FOR CT TEST RECOMMENDED BOOKS TO LEARN MORE ON THIS WEEKS TOPIC Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
Robert M. Sapolsky examines the myriad factors influencing human behaviour, from neurological and hormonal to environmental and evolutionary. His comprehensive approach offers a deep understanding of why we behave the way we do, bridging biology and psychology seamlessly. The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
Daniel J. Levitin explores how the influx of information in the modern age affects our brains and decision-making processes. He provides practical advice on managing information and organising our minds to improve cognitive performance and mental health. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
Neuroscientist David Eagleman takes readers on a journey through the subconscious aspects of the brain, revealing how much of our behaviour is governed by neural processes beyond our conscious awareness. His engaging writing sheds light on the hidden facets of cognition and decision-making. The Brain That Changes Itself
Norman Doidge presents compelling stories of neuroplasticity, illustrating the brain's remarkable ability to reorganize itself. He discusses how this adaptability influences our behaviors, thoughts, and recovery from various conditions, making complex neuroscience accessible to general readers.
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