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Amazing Brains – 011 – Pierre Bouchard
In this episode, Micah sits down with Pierre Bouchard. In the show they talk about how to embody self and self actualization. Pierre and Micah discuss different exercises on practicing awareness, how to self actualize, paying attention to feelings that arise in our moments of reaction, and where our reactions stem from.
Show Notes
Reactions
- “What we don’t know about ourselves ends up running our lives” – Pierre
- We have to look at the places in our lives that are causing a reaction in us
- Most of our reactions are caused by an emotional and nervous system signature that are set up within us since we were 4 years old
- There are so many ways of healing our own psyche and nervous systems
- There is acting out (reacting toward a partner) and acting in (saying hateful things about yourself to yourself)
- The tightness in your stomach that you might feel arise when something triggers you, can act as a road back to childhood trauma, or whatever is at the root of the problem
Awareness
- We are trained and conditioned to think of ourselves as a brain being carried around
- Pierre asks listeners to bring awareness away from your head and your eyes, and bringing your sight to your feet
- Most of the time, our sense of awareness goes forward
- Pierre says try the exercise of bringing awareness to the backside of you, back of your head, maybe your seat, behind you
- Whatever we focus on we get more of
- In these practices we are learning a stance of productivity
- The absence of sensation is a sensation
- There are some people that don’t sense anything when other people may
- Micah says to be gentle with yourself when ‘numbing the thaw’
- “Every moment you spend mindfully attending to a sensation, you are helping to neurally map it” – Pierre
Final Thoughts
- As we start to tune in more into what is unfolding in our lives, we find out so much about what is good for us
Links
About Pierre Bouchard
Pierre loves helping people live freer more passionate lives. He brings a love of attachment, interpersonal neurobiology, somatics and trauma theory to a deep study in Buddhist psychology and consciousness exploration through psychedelic psychotherapy. His work is grounded in a sense of humor, humility, and curiosity for the profundity and oddness of existence.