Must. Eat. Food. (Ok, brain, we hear you!)
Our usual, primary source of personal energy is food. Our diet.
Our senses of smell and taste help us find foods which our brains desire, because of the expected energy in the foods, along with the predicted pleasure of eating.
Free Food Here…
We can be easily tricked into buying and eating more than we need, because our brains are very adept at doing their job of favoring primal survival decisions. As far as your brain knows, food supplies are not always predictable. Getting food usually requires effort, which takes energy. So, free food has a double attraction – energy without the usual energy expended to acquire it!
Perceived scarcity helps spur energy conservation thoughts. It biases our decisions, positively and negatively.
Since the brain monitors this energy ebb and flow, it has built up years of experience in trying to adapt to our lifestyles. The result of this monitoring and “personal energy concern” is the brain’s general bias to want to take actions which require the least amount of energy. This personal energy reduction bias seems to be even stronger for short-term decisions, in the present.
Let’s look at the ways in which the brain conserves energy.
The brain conserves glucose by limiting the amount of energy used by non-essential processes. Research has shown that the brain is able to reduce its energy expenditure during periods of rest and sleep, which helps to conserve glucose.
Furthermore, the brain can also reduce its energy expenditure by limiting the activity of certain neural circuits, such as those involved in memory consolidation or emotional processing. When food or energy is a little scarce, thinking can become foggy.
And in more extreme situations, the brain extends conserving its energy use to the body. Observations and studies have shown that when deprived of “energy” over time, the brain will make sure that it gets energy, even if it has to in effect steal it from the rest of the body. These techniques allow the brain to survive, and keep doing its job as long as possible.
Wrapping up this section on energy, the bottom line is our brains have an observed strong bias for energy balance. And it can seem “painful” when using extra thought energy to override the easy choice bias, since it requires our brains to accept using more energy than predicted.
Our brains seem to use a survival model to regulate the energy all day and all night. This energy management impacts to some extent how clearly we think, and how we make decisions. The brain gets input on events around it, and it is somewhat simplistic in looking for how to get more energy, while also how to use the least amount of energy.
And the brain gets conflicted in managing the energy, while also getting overridden by our lofty goals and desires. We can, and should, keep on top of strategies to know when our short-term low-energy bias affects our bigger decisions
We do not control or even observe all of the ways in which our brains make decisions with regard to the use of available energy in our bodies. Our brains’ short-term bias is strong, but gets overcome often when we push for our lofty goals. We “second guess” (aka repredict) when we have the opportunity.
Once we understand how the prediction cycle works, we can rise above it. You can learn the principles as a quick start. You will soon learn more about the biases, and the principles and techniques to disarm or avoid them. Then you can apply them as (needed), and get stronger as you rise above.
Over time, you will spot the brain’s bias in real time. Then you get to use the techniques to reframe quickly and re-route your patterns.
Elsewhere we will go deeper into the waters of predictions and decisions.