In every human brain, we have what is known as the limbic system, a system, which, according to Chris Bailey in his book, “The Productivity Project”, is the emotional, instinctual part of your brain that includes, amongst other things, our pleasure centres and pushes us to give in to emotions and temptations. It is the limbic system that pushes us to spend hours on social media or television, even with the awareness that there is something important that we need to do. It pushes us to procrastinate, to wait till the very last minute before we begin to engage in tasks. It makes us go to parties, indulge in food, and so on.

The limbic system is only interested in the activities that are deemed as pleasant to us at the moment. It does not consider the future or any other thing other than our present comfort.

In contrast to this is a part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex, which is the logical part of our brain that pushes us to do certain things that result in our productivity and development. It is the part of our brains that plans, calculates, and makes decisions. It innovates and finds solutions for problematic situations and is located in the front of our heads. It is also the core of creative thinking and innovation, which is what is responsible for our plans on how we can improve any aspect of our lives. The thoughts that occur inside our prefrontal cortexes ultimately define who we are as individuals.

It requires discipline for us to allow the prefrontal cortex to lead us and guide our decisions, for most of the time, giving in to it means letting ourselves do the hard things, the things that most of the time, we would rather not do.

And these two systems undergo a series of battles every single day with every single action or decision that we take, with the limbic system pushing us to relax and cave in to our desires and cravings and the prefrontal cortex trying to push us into making the right and logical decisions. The constant struggle for dominance between the emotional limbic system and the logical prefrontal cortex is what guides the decisions that we make throughout the day. It is also what makes us human. 

With every decision that we take, one of these systems takes dominance over the other. When we choose to move to the next episode of a movie instead of studying, that is the limbic system taking over. But when we decide to wake up early despite the urge to ignore the alarm; that is the work of the prefrontal cortex.

 But there is no way that one of the systems can be in control for the entirety of a person’s life. No matter how productive we wish to be, there are times in which a system takes dominance over the other and vice versa. The only difference is this, when we let the prefrontal cortex take control more often, we tend to be more successful than those that let the limbic system take control more often.

The major key to productivity boils down to this. Most of the time, we know what we ought to do to be successful, and whilst it is good to read development books, it is not that much of a necessity per se to make a person know that the person has to study to be successful or work hard to earn more. What I believe self-help books do is provide some sort of easier way to get these things done, and provide proven steps to make it easier for people to give in to the demands of the prefrontal cortex.

However, the problem is that the prefrontal cortex is a lot weaker than the limbic system. If we are not actively thinking at any given moment, the limbic system will dominate over the prefrontal cortex, and we will start a mental journey towards comfort. In fact, engaging ourselves with constructive and creative thinking in general, is hard work.

Hence, the limbic system, most of the time, has a stronger hold on people than the prefrontal cortex. This is because it is easier, mind-numbing, to do some of the easier things that it craves, easier to slip in and let loose, to work on autopilot, than to perform the sorts of tasks that are demanded by the prefrontal cortex.

The limbic system in the brain is also what I believe contains what is biblically known as ‘The Flesh’, which is what we Christians know as what pushes us to do sinful actions such as sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, etc. Now, whilst not all aspects of the limbic system or activities associated with it can be said to be sinful, our sinful actions with regard to others do involve the limbic system when they manifest our lack of self-control over the urges of the limbic system. Now, do not get this wrong, the drives targeted towards our present comfort, which is what is associated with the limbic system, are not wrong, but what is wrong is when, as a result of these drives, we perform sinful actions. 

Hence, whilst procrastinating or deciding to take a well-deserved break or a vacation, all actions that are associated with the limbic system, are not sinful in and of themselves, adultery, committed because we do not properly control our sexual desires or false testimony, given out of either fear or anger by a person who chooses to lie and feel good rather than accept the consequences of speaking truthfully are sinful actions which can be associated with the limbic system. 

We all have found ourselves in a lot of situations in which the limbic system has taken control of our brains for hours or even days at a stretch, and as long as we are not sinning or halting ourselves spiritually (such as instances when our limbic systems prevent us from performing certain necessary spiritual activities or letting the limbic system prevent us from moving forward in life), I say that there is nothing wrong with loosening up and giving the gears to it every once in a while. If we used the logical part of the brain all of the time, we would never have fun or let go and do things that excite us because we would rather use that time to work and do activities that are deemed productive.

I have, as part of my productivity journey, been trying my best to do all that I can to make use of my prefrontal cortex more than my limbic system for most of my day, and that has boosted the amount of time that I spend in productive activities and drastically reduced the time that I spend doing things that my limbic system craves, like scrolling through social media or binging movies.

But there are times, though, that, though not in a sinful way, I let the limbic system take over completely. These usually occur during the beginning of every holiday or immediately after the exams, in which I take at least a week to do whatever it is that my heart craves, mostly binging books and movies, and I think, most of the time, that I have more than merited the break. 

But what I have realized is that more recently, I have begun to feel guilty whenever I take a break from my work, even when it is an inevitable break as a result of some social responsibilities.

For instance, this Easter break has been sort of frenzied for me, but not due to work. Not only did my uncle have a big ceremony that took an entire day, but we had guests come over to the house and for the time that they stayed, it was very rowdy. Also, as is routine during the Easter period, we had a lot of outing days, which I made sure I did not miss for the sake of work.

But that was not entirely the reason why I sort of relegated my work to the background, apart from those that I just had to do to get my monthly pay. Truth be told, I let my limbic system take the ride for almost the entirety of the three whole days of Easter, and for that period, not only did I not give any attention to my academics and very little attention to my writing, but I completely disrupted my sleep routine, sleeping and waking up late, even though I am an early riser, eating as much as I wanted, doing whatever it was that felt good at the moment, and generally having a really good time.

Of course, this is common for most people during the holiday season. I would say, as a bit of advice; that people should work intentionally towards having the time to take a big break and have some of the fun that they deserve. Life is short, after all, and not all of our time should be spent working.

But mine was not intentional at all. I did not plan to spend three days doing essentially nothing, it just happened and I took certain questionable decisions that led to it.

For instance, on the night before my three day period of letting the limbic system take gear, I was looking for books related to a particular mental illness that I wanted to know more about in my favourite online library when I stumbled upon a particular book that caught my interest because I remembered seeing such a cover before somewhere. Before getting the books that I needed, I decided that there was nothing wrong in downloading the book (which I later found out was the first book of a series), and then that night, I decided that there was nothing wrong in having a look at it. Let’s just say that I slept way past my usual time that night (which is one thing that I particularly regret, for it had its effects on my being able to find time to do the spiritual activities that I normally do first thing very early in the morning).

And then the next day, it was like that for me. I spent the entire day alternating between being a party usher and food server in my uncle’s ceremony and reading the book. It would have ended that day, but because it was a trilogy, I ended up craving knowledge of how the book ended and spending the remaining two days alternating between low-level work, outings, and the novels. I had a blast those days, even though there was a layer of guilt that I tried to ignore but that did not leave the back of my mind.

But the moment I dropped the novels, the guilt that I had been ignoring hit me like a whirlwind, and I spent a long time pondering on the things that I should have done, that I could have done during those periods that I spent wasting my time on the books. Of course, one of the things that really weighed on me was the fact that the books robbed me of my sleep schedule and hence, the special time that I used to carve out for myself, very early in the morning, for my spiritual activities. That, to me, was the sin of omission, as I had let myself sacrifice a special time that I should have used for the lord, shortening it, just to please my desires.

But then after asking the Lord for forgiveness, I decided to reflect and see whether I could get any life lessons from what had just happened to me. And there were quite a few that I gained from the experience.

1.     There is nothing wrong with planning a time to retreat and get some time off to relax, reflect and have fun. Ever since I started reading self-help books, I have come across a lot of honest authors proclaiming for a fact that they have had moments in which they have felt guilty about taking any breaks or having fun at all. Sometimes, they have claimed that their quests towards total productivity have made them engage in work until they burned out. I for one have heard people warn me a lot of times about the likelihood of my getting burned out due to overwork, and there is a part of me that feels like these three days of madness were a result of some form of burnout as I had been exerting myself for weeks before that point in time. So if you feel as though you deserve a break, by all means, plan the break, take that necessary break and have the time of your life. You will feel, and I can say this from experience, a lot more rejuvenated by the time you get back to work.

2.     Sometimes, your lack of self-control and ability to control the drives of your limbic system can be used by the devil as weapons against your spiritual growth: Although I did not fall into any of the above-listed sins, I did let my limbic system drive me towards choosing fun over a list of activities that I engaged in at night so that I could have some extra personal time with God. But for some of you, it may be that your limbic system pushes you to sin in order to satisfy your flesh and feel good. Remember that as Christians, no matter what, there is a level of self-control that is expected and required of us. The drives of the limbic system can come in form of temptations and overcome them, we need to develop healthy habits of thought (Romans 12:2) and shun thought patterns that cause us to dwell on, and subsequently, act on sinful desires. 

3.     Apart from times when you need rest and need to have some fun, caving in to the drives or desires of the limbic system for most of your days will always lead to negatives consequences: These can come in the form of sin, laziness, lack of productivity, procrastination, which either have negative consequences on our current lives or the life to come. Remember that no matter what it is that you feel, you need to find ways to subdue the limbic system so that you can achieve and fulfill your purpose in life.

Disregarding the limbic system can be very difficult. But it is destructive to give into it most of the time. Yes, having fun and placing yourself in a level of comfort and pleasure is good for our wellbeing, but in all, we should ensure that we practice moderation, something that I failed to do during that time. Never let the limbic system be what guides you throughout your days and be guarded against the periods of time when you begin to work on autopilot. Note that even when our limbic system conveys strong motivations to act in a particular way, we still have the ability and responsibility to think and act in a manner that pleases God. 

REFERENCES

1.     The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey

2.     Why Emotions Matter - The Limbic System vrs the Prefrontal Cortex by Helina Mellanen. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-emotions-matter-limbic-system-vrs-prefrontal-cortex-mellanen

3.     The Limbic System and Christian Sanctification by Tony Jelsma. https://inallthings.org/the-limbic-system-and-christian-sanctification/