Impact of story on the brain

[Music]

good morning friends

i am dr shweta and i am going to present

something very interesting about the

brain

however the theme is reinventing the

world but we will see it through the

lens of reinvention of our thoughts and

self so let me take you back in time

1748

a young gentleman british aristocrat and

a politician

named mr john montego love to play cards

now as you know you need two hands to

play the cards mr john

also wanted to eat at the same time how

do you do that you want to play the

cards with both hands but also eat

simultaneously

so mr john had an idea to put meat in

between the two lofts of the brain

bread sorry and eat it like a sandwich

while playing the cards

i want you to imagine he’s playing cards

with one hand while eating with the

other

and nothing less than what we call the

modern day

sandwich was born yes my dear friends

he’s the fourth

earl of sandwich now i could have

presented this fact in a very dry

fashion

informationally oriented that sandwich

was invented by john montego

sandwich is a meatloaf which is kept in

between the two

slices of the bread how would it sound

and possibly you will never

remember that when i created a story

around it your brain started to

imagine mr john montego’s picture and

started to imagine that he’s playing

cards

you started to connect with the

character and bring out visually

a vivid picture of him in your brain

my dear friends this is the power of

storytelling

and today as a neuroscientist a neuro

researcher

a neurologist let me bring you these

super facts about the story telling

capability

of the brain as well as the trap

with which the brain can absolutely be

affected

by the same story telling uh capability

of the brain so you may be wondering how

is this possible

yes so this another 14 minutes we will

drive down this beautiful logic

that you cannot fall into the trap of

the stories while at the same time

you need to have the ability to tell

beautiful stories listen to the stories

and make meaning out of it

brain is one fantastic sophisticated

instrument

i always call it as the romance with the

brain

and i’m sure if you will read about

those facts

it will be an imminent romance for you

as well

we have evolved we evolved from the

little tiny creepy crawly creatures

called the reptilian brain to the

mammalian brain

which is in elephants to this

sophisticated human brain with a

beautiful thing called cortex

or the rational brain but we still

harbor that limbic brain

or the emotional brain which is in the

reptiles right

here both parts of the brain are there

right here kicking in

as you even listen to me what

is the brain doing when you are

listening a story now this is very very

powerful

okay and that is the reason why

hollywood is into business bollywood is

into business

any person who tells a great story is

into business

you immediately your brain can connect

you can donate you can

absolutely win the hearts of people if

you have the ability to tell a powerful

story

university of southern california the

scientist discovered

a default mode network in the brain it’s

a beautiful network which we thought

it’s autopiloting

and it has nothing really to do with our

lives well it has a lot to do with our

lives

it is the one which associates meanings

to these stories

and it is very prudent to keep them

within our brains for a long period of

time

you will remember stories when you were

little kids

we all read cha cha chaudhary and uh

amarshita katha and all as we grew up

we still remember those stories why

because our

bottom parts of the brain or practically

the anchoring portions of the brain

connected that meaning to the character

a narrative

obviously is very important but the

emotion

that you connect to a character gives

life to a story

if you want to become a great

storyteller you have to

get to that emotional content to that

emotional self of the brain to your

listener

neuroscience says a listener’s brain and

a storyteller’s brain has the same

number of neurons or the brain cells

kicked in

isn’t it marvelous why because the brain

is searching for meaning we are all

meaning making machines a narrative is

told

what is in it for me immediately the

brain connects to a meaning

how many of you have passed by the

highways and the roads

there is a road traffic accident you

have nothing to do with the accident

you are driving or you are sitting in

the back seat of the car but you will

stop to look

what is happening why is it so

it’s because your brain wanted to

know if there is something for me to

learn in the scene

out there brain is constantly seeking

meaning

brain is constantly figuring it out what

is happening around

and most importantly why it is happening

around

this is the meaning making drive of the

brain which makes it unique

you all are students you all have a

beautiful life out there

if you understand what a brain

understands i think we will get rid of

all the failure

related suicides and all the drug

addictions and all the traps

it is an instrument if you bring in a

fantastic

uh mp3 player and then you just

plug it in without reading the manual

what will happen

possibly it will work well very good

possibly it will just blow

off because you plucked it wrong the

voltage that you were supposed to do was

incorrect

possibly it will not work so

reading the manual would actually lead

you to not commit that mistake

so for me as a neuroscientist i consider

brain as an instrument

knowing some fundamental facts about

brain is something which can make your

life successful

make you connect to the world better

make you a great human being and

embrace peace happiness and success

the fundamentals are very small but very

powerful

coming back to the brain i’m a great

proponent of whole brain

so left side of the brain is merely

understanding the narrative the

information the structure

the sequences the logic the numbers

while the right side of the brain is

more interested in the multimedia

pictures videos

music dance drama literature theater

arts

but the whole brain and the story is

something which kicks the whole brain

stories kick the whole brain out not

just left or right

and stories create a deep and powerful

meaning so what you should do in your

daily lives

read motivational stories connect to

people who share their stories

be absolutely interested in

knowing about other people’s story your

brain can learn better

than to read simple informational facts

stories activate this default mode

network which we talked about from

university of southern california

connected deeper make

oxytocin oxytocin dopamine these are all

happy chemicals

you can associate with the character

create happiness

understand relate engage and take a step

in your life so my dear friends

stories are immensely powerful

read more stories listen to more stories

be a fantastic storyteller in your life

learn how to craft stories you can

actually

even perform better in anything that you

do if you

have crafted this habit of storytelling

remember you’re kicking the whole brain

of the other person

you are bringing that connection meaning

making drive

off that brain by telling that but wait

is it only the positive aspect of the

story and the motivational content which

we get connected to

unfortunately not the same meaning

making drive off the brain the same

drive which is making us understand the

stories is

also the cause of our failure

and you may be wondering why is it so

because what really happens is because

of the meaning making drive

i’m constantly figuring out why a friend

passes by

and does not wave at me and i wonder hey

what happened you know my brain is

talking to me and say i think

yesterday we had a fight and possibly

she is upset at me

ah she’s mad at me because i didn’t send

her a text message

ah she is thinking like that because

i told her something last week you see

this

now poor she she may not have recognized

you all together

she may be in her own busy world she may

be in her own thoughts

but what your brain did just now is

the meaning making machine driven

thoughts okay you just wanted to know

why she did that to you

she didn’t wave at you why was the

reason what was the reason

and in this process what we do and let

me tell you we do this

every day day in and day out we receive

thousands of messages

right whatsapp social media and every

time there is a communication

what we do is we bring this drive on we

bring this brain into thinking

what is she thinking why is this

happening why is she sent this sort of a

smiley somebody just told me that what

is the meaning of this smiley

and i’m like well the meaning in my mind

was blessing

i don’t know what you took it but this

is how because every single brain

connects to its experiences connects to

its deep emotion

and brings out a meaning and what

happens in the process

what happens in the process is we are

tired our brain is exhausted making

meaning from

absolutely everything what is happening

around

i want you to be careful to not fall

trap

at this meaning making part of the brain

i want you to be conscious

i want you to live every day not

committing this mistake or

falling trapped to this meaning making

drive i see suicides

i see people dropping dead at the

pretext that i will not get good marks

the marks are not out yet the student

has given the exam

but the pretext the brain has made a

story i’m not going to succeed

i’m going to be a failure i’m not going

to pass

and what happens you commit suicide at

that

powerful emotional drive that i am a

failure drives you to push the limits of

existence and commit suicide which is

very bad because now

posthumously excellent marks come out

your pretext what you made was

completely fallacious

it was absolutely wrong whatever you

trusted to your brain’s emotional

capability that it’s making a story and

a meaning that you will fail

was absolutely wrong so my dear friends

i want you to take this

home a message that consciously please

think what your brain is doing

there is a mode of autopilot happening

yes as i drive the car my brain

absolutely takes all the sensations but

it’s barely aware sometimes you wonder

oh i reached this destination

i’m sure a lot of you would have felt

that auto pilot drive of the brain it

happens often but i want you to be

conscious

in this process especially when it is

making meanings

when it is relating meanings texting

has become so popular in exercise but

tell me how many relations are made

through texting

if you look at the data most people are

having divorces because of the

miscommunication through texting

well there is no connection there is no

story you cannot read my body language

you cannot read me you cannot understand

what i am trying to think or portray

while you just see the message

and what you feel is your brain’s

meaning

making drive gets on wild it thinks

negative most of the times

we are into the survival mode fight or

flight

okay we are physiologically tuned to go

either into the fight mode or the flight

mode

and i have done that i’ve lost a

wonderful family friend because of this

reason

because i had every single message every

single

moment i feel threatened i feel

threatened to survival

i feel threatened in a relationship and

this is what makes my brain

absolutely become negative associate a

negative meaning to it

well that is not the truth so my very

important message to you friends is

yes brains love stories you must

make habit of reading great stories to

become successful

you must connect to people who can tell

you real life stories

who are heroes of their own life yes you

have to watch documentaries which are

portraying

unbelievable and unimaginable stories

your whole brain kicks in

you connect at a deeper level your

emotional drive is intact

you understand meaning much deeper than

what a brain would ever

ever ever get it mr paul and dr paul and

his experiments are fantastic to know

the amount of the brain which gets

stimulated

when you listen to a story absolutely

phenomenal you should leverage this part

of the brain

you should not uh think that stories are

something which are unimportant stories

are very very powerful

make a habit to create a story make a

habit to present yourself in a beautiful

way whenever you’re introducing yourself

in a story

but don’t fall trapped to

this meaning making drive unfortunately

we live in a world where communication

has advanced but our relationships have

faltered

we live in a very very threatened

and sort of a society where everything

is

negatively portrayed within ourselves

unfortunately because it is the meaning

making drive which is within ourselves

and the only way to come out of that is

you and me understanding this meaning

making drive

and then giving a positive twist to it

so the next time when i see this friend

going from one

place to the other and not waving a high

at me

i should make a positive story and tell

to the brain ah

i think she did not notice ah i think

she is in her own thoughts poor she

ah i think she is already busy doing

something and that is the reason she did

not attend

well when i tell this positive relation

to the story this positive emotion to

the story

the brain does not get down into a

spiral mode

of survival fight or flight it is

relaxed

it is not stressed now it can think

better

so every day i want you guys to observe

how many times we do this we do this day

in and day out

any age no age is bad at that

i want you to consciously come out of

this trap but at the same time

leverage the power of stories educators

teachers this is a request to bring in

as much life stories as possible as many

people who can tell their stories to

our young brilliant bright minds brain

is waiting

brain is waiting to for that moment

to connect to engage to build to develop

and as the story is powerful the

narrative is powerful

the emotion is deeper and the message is

absolutely drilled inside the brain

so thank you i hope that

this ride across understanding the story

one understanding how brain relates to

the story

and two falling trap to brain’s ability

to create story

is understood well and i pray that this

is applicable in everyday

life and thank you again for a patient

hearing

uh kudos to the brain kudos to you kudos

to self

let’s not just reinvent the self

but reinvent community nation

society world and planet at large

[Music]

goodbye

you