My Hidden Chimp: From the best-selling author of The Chimp Paradox

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Each of us has a psychological Chimp inside our brains, primitively reacting to the world and prompting us to act emotionally, impetuously, and irresponsibly. If you’ve ever struggled to stay in control of your urges, succumbed to temptation, or sabotaged your own success, your Chimp has probably taken the reins for a bit. In The Chimp Paradox, Steve Peters offers advice for finding success, confidence, and happiness. This includes how to communicate effectively, how to manage stress, and what to do when your emotional Chimp is taking over. This principle of separating your emotions from the essence of who you are is most popularly documented as managing your ‘inner chimp’, which comes from the best-selling book The Chimp Paradox by Professor Steve Peters.

Professor Steve Peters – Consultant Psychiatrist – BA, PGCE, MBBS, MEd, MRCPsych, PhD, DSc, Dip Sports Med. One of the most important things Peters says is this: the inner chimp is much more powerful than the inner human. When information reaches the brain, it gets to the chimp first. The chimp has first dibs. Which means that everything you see or hear is framed by your impulses. When you see something you want, yes comes first. Yes is louder. No is a distant second. There's our Human mind, which is rational, weighs up evidence and reaches careful and deliberate conclusions using cognition. It is where our highest values of humanity reside, it is where we can strategically plan our actions and think through the consequences of events and arrive at balanced and considered conclusions. It works five times slower than the Chimp.The good news is that we are able to suppress our inner chimp… well most of the time. Scientists tell us that genetically we are 99% chimp, but that 1% that makes us human is able to control our primate urges for the majority of the time, whether that urge is to steal all the biscuits at a workshop or say a few choice words to a sports official. Journaling, similar to an unflinching look into the mirror, is an act of self-reflection that takes cojones. The inner chimp is considered the emotional part of the brain. It is the part of the brain that causes you to react without listening to the reason and logic of the brain (known as the human). And the Parietal (computer) part – broadly a storage (memory) and automatic functioning area of the brain (and therefore no longer featuring in this story). I snooped ahead to see if there were tantalising things ahead that I should stay with the book to get to, and hit p. 220. This is where the the Proff explains that working mothers who feel overstretched and conflicted just need to adjust their minds. They need to accept that their maternal chimp is in conflict with their human (rest of brain) desire for fulfillment, and make some easy tweaks, such as asking for more help, or making compromises, and women will be able to 'do both really well'.

Furthermore, you can’t stop your Chimp because it reacts 5 times faster than the Human part, and there are occasions when you want that; the old flight or fight situation, if you’re in danger you want your Chimp big time. Try to become aware of any negative words your child might say. As adults, we can get used to hearing and thus ignoring self-deprecating and negative comments. However, actively listening out for the negative words your child uses can be so helpful in recognising where their inner chimp shows up. It could be words such as:Most of us when we get out of bed in the morning just naturally go with the mood we’re in, and often it’s not a great mood,” Steve says. Instead, ask what mood do I want to be in? Be proactive, put the right face on, and you’ll soon find that your mood starts to lift. 8. Do what works for you Think of how you could respond to the stressful situation in a way that controls your Chimp but still allows your Human to stand up for yourself. How can you be assertive but not aggressive? (In the above example, what could you say to the line-cutter to make it clear that her behavior isn’t acceptable, without letting your Chimp speak?) Steve is a medical doctor; he specialises in mental health and the functioning of the human mind and has dedicated his working life to help people get the best out of themselves and to be in a good place. His current and past experiences include: clinical director of Mental Health Services within the NHS at a district hospital, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Undergraduate Dean at Sheffield Medical School. He has spent 20 years as an examination panel member at the Royal College of Psychiatry and has been an expert advisor to World Anti-Doping Agency. Even though you’ve got a burning desire to silence the inner savage, you can’t bring yourself to adhere to your principles. I once had a conversation with the tech guru Jaron Lanier, who has strong feelings about this. These rabbit holes are not just based on our whims. They are engineered for us by expert robots. We are like rats in an experiment designed to get us to say yes. The experiment is relentless; it has almost unlimited resources and all the time in the world.