What Your Brain Is Triggering You to Do


    Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

    Ever notice that …

    … when someone in the room yawns, you feel the need to yawn?

    … when a store clerk looks happy, it triggers you to feel happy?

    … when a friend orders dessert at Sunday lunch, you feel the need to order dessert? (I’m looking at you, Billy.)

    Allow me to get nerdy for a moment, and then I’ll get to the good stuff. Neuroscientists say our brains include “mirror neurons,” brain activity that leads us to repeat what we see others doing. We might think this is obvious because we learn by watching others. Back when I taught guitar, my students learned best, not from staring at a book, but by watching my fingers.

    Thirty years ago, a group of neuroscientists hot-wired some lab monkeys to observe their brain activity. If a monkey picked up a banana, a certain group of neurons lit up. If they picked up another object, a different set of neurons lit up. But one day, one of the scientists noticed that when he (not the monkey) picked up an object, neurons lit up in the monkey’s brain as though the monkey himself had picked it up. The monkey was equating the actions of someone else with his own.

    But this goes even deeper. These mirror neurons do more than help us learn; they help us experience other people’s lives. That’s why I winced yesterday watching a medical drama. As the doctors cut into a man’s abdomen, my brain reacted as though I was being cut into. I’m just glad I had already finished off that bag of Doritos.

    God created us this way on purpose. God designed us to live in community with one another, and that means we need to be able to understand, relate to, and even experience what others are going through. We call this empathy, and we are called to live with empathy—and act upon it.

    “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another” (Rom. 12:15).

    We live in harmony as we empathize and walk in their shoes, whether they are rejoicing or weeping. That’s at the heart of being the body of Christ.

    “So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).

    Our brains are calling us to empathize with others. The God who gave us those brains is calling us to act on that empathy. Call. Pray. Ask how you can help. Sit with them. Buy lunch. See the unspoken need and take care of it.

    “Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).


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    Banner photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

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