This lesson is the first part of an introduction to the Red Brain Blue Brain framework that serves as the foundation for the Step Back to Empower program and is based on the book Red Brain Blue Brain by John Corrigan. This lesson covers what a red brain is.

1. The Red Brain Blue Brain - 1
1
TRIGGER!
TRIGGER!
TRIGGER!
TRIGGER!
This lesson is the first part of an introduction to the Red Brain Blue Brain framework that serves as the foundation for the Step Back
to Empower program and is based on the book Red Brain Blue Brain by John Corrigan. This lesson covers what a red brain is.
1. Introduction to Red Brain Blue Brain - 1

2. Before you start
There are several audio clips in this course and you will get much better reception using headphones.
You are about to start to learn!
If you feel yourself not connecting to the learning because you are thinking of something else, STOP and ask yourself if
you are ready:
• do you have the time?
• is there something else you need to do?
• are you in the right frame of mind?
Here are some things you can try to re-focus on your learning:
• try a 5 minute mindfulness exercise
• if your mind is constantly thinking of something else, do that first and then come back
• do something physical. Get a drink, go to the toilet and come back. Make yourself comfortable and ready to learn.
Sometimes, it will just not be the right time to learn. That is also OK.

3. Welcome to this opportunity to learn about Red Brain Blue Brain!
This is a course to help you understand your brain, why and how you respond to the world around you, and how you
can respond, think and act in better ways.
My name is John Corrigan, and I have been helping individuals and organisations to learn why and how to respond, think
and act in better ways for more than fifteen years.
My book Red Brain Blue Brain is going to be referenced in this set of six courses - you will have the opportunity to listen
to key segments of it - and I am confident that it will bring you to a new way of thinking and working with yourself and the
people around you. If you want to read the whole thing then you can download a pdf here.
Throughout these courses we will be following the story of Chris who has just started at your workplace. As we go
through each lesson, we will see how Chris is progressing.
Lets start.
Chapter 1. Chris has just got the job but has not been around mindfulness or an inquiry model before, but she likes how
everyone is so open and nice. Chris is given a training plan to complete, which includes these 6 courses. At the same
time, she is given my book Red Brain Blue Brain and is assigned a mentor who will work with her as she is acquiring new
knowledge and skills.
The first thing Chris is learning about is her 'red brain' and how it operates, potentially preventing her from being more
often at her best.

4. Introduction to the Red Brain Blue Brain framework
The Red Brain Blue Brain framework is a simple way to
account for why we have two mind states - one where we are
confident, collaborative and creative, the Blue Brain - and
another - the Red Brain, where we are narrowly self-focused,
beset by negative emotions and prone to unhelpful self-talk.
In this introduction you will learn the following about the Red
Brain:
• what it is, and
• what happens when it 'triggers'
Part 2 of this introduction to the Red Brain Blue Brain will cover
where the Red Brain comes from.
Together these two parts will form a foundation for the later
courses that will address why the Red Brain persists through
adulthood and how we can manage and reduce its impact.
OK got it.

5. A reminder!
Just a reminder that there will be a series of multiple choice questions towards the end of the course
with a 100% pass rate needed to go on to the next course (you can retake the test!).
Chris is thinking, I really must pay attention as I am going through the course!

6. What is a red brain?
In the audio you will hear several examples of red brain triggering and a
description of an actual example of road rage, all of which illustrate what
happens when our red brain takes over.
The text of the audio is shown on the next page.
Chris is surprised that all these reactions have the same source - the red
brain.

7. [Text] What is a red brain?
Red Brain Blue Brain - Chapter 1 - What is a red brain?
Alan, a young graduate employed in a research department, found himself suddenly flustered as the head of department approached his desk. His
heart began to thump and a strange feeling began welling up inside. He thought, “What have I done?” and his last few days’ work flashed through
his mind.
Margaret was a very competent Deputy Principal in a large girls’ school, the school where she had been a student herself. She had a meeting with
the father of a girl in year eleven, a likable and popular young woman, but easily distracted in class. Margaret expected a business-like meeting and
so was not concerned. However, upon seeing the girl’s father, Margaret felt a sudden twinge of anxiety and her mind started racing; she blurted out
her good morning, then felt she had been too abrupt but it was too late to change it. She worried that the meeting was getting off on the wrong foot,
but she could not think straight.
Both Alan and Margaret, successful as they are, are experiencing “red brain” events. Something in their environment – a teacher-like figure for Alan,
a male authority figure for Margaret – has triggered memories from the past with attached negative feelings. These memories – probably
subconscious – have set off a physical response that begins with an upwelling of emotion, and which narrows their focus (onto themselves), limits
their ability to think and gives rise to negative self-talk. The net effect is to reduce their ability to engage fully with another person and to behave to
their full capacity. They lack choice in their responses; they can only handle simple tasks; and will tend to generalise their negative experience.
As we will see, almost all of us operate in two brain states. In one, which I call the “blue brain”, we are at our best: confident, generous, receptive to
ideas, empathic and collaborative, creative, motivated and productive; we achieve and empower others to achieve; we do more together than we
could alone; we intuitively know what is right and we have the courage to do it despite the consequences. In the other, the “red brain”, we are well
below our best. In the red brain, we lose access to our brain’s cerebral cortex – the “higher” or “thinking” brain, operating instead from the more
primitive areas or “lower” brain (more on this in chapter 3).
The following account of road rage by Frank Robson is a classic and spectacular example of the red brain taking over and driving us toward
unhelpful outcomes.
He won't move over. He's in the overtaking lane, driving under the speed limit, but he won't budge. Assuming he's just another
Oblivious One, I flash my lights. No response. When I flash again he hits the brakes, so I back off. Then he raises a middle
finger and holds it before his rear-vision mirror.
Okay, not oblivious.
A gap appears in the inside lane, so I indicate a turn and move left to pass him on that side. He swerves across in front of me
then brakes again, the finger still held motionless above his left shoulder.

8. Red Brain Blue Brain - Chapter 1 - What is a red brain? (continued)
It's the finger, more than anything, that gets me going. "You f---ing silly prick," I say aloud. My voice sounds thick and strange,
and I can feel a chemical fizz in my veins. It's a weekday afternoon, I'm almost home and have no reason to hurry, yet it
suddenly seems imperative that I show this idiot a clean pair of heels.
But each time I change lanes he cuts me off. Then, just before the multi-lane section ends, I feint left, floor it and roar past on
the right before he has time to react. Glimpsed in passing, he looks about 25, his otherwise unremarkable face twisted by fury.
(Why is he so pissed off? I have no idea, but for some reason seeing his anger increases my own.) For a moment we snarl at
one another like dogs through a fence, and then he's behind me and we're in a 60km/h zone.
Har! Cop that, you mad little Millennial bastard!
But he isn't going to cop it. In fact — Jesus Christ! — he's overtaking me, almost forcing oncoming traffic off the road, then
cutting in so abruptly I have to brake to avoid a collision. He slows to a crawl and his arm comes out the window and jabs
across the roof towards the grass verge on our left. He wants to fight.
These are the moments when lives change. When warnings of catastrophe — of injury, death, prison, anguish, grief, penury —
should pound like drums in our brains. When, according to experts, we should "remember our common humanity" and exercise
forgiveness, or take deep calming breaths, or play soothing music, or speak to ourselves in "friendly, reassuring" tones.
But, let's face it, real anger drops its pants and moons such conventional wisdom. Depending on our personal reserves of the
stuff, it can blind us to everything but the need to deal with whoever has wronged us so badly. Even when muted by fear it
provides no sane plan, just a furious sense of indignation.
This is pretty much my condition when I pull up behind my fellow rager. Incredibly, all I have in mind is the delivery of a scathing
lecture, but before I'm even out the door the other driver is sprinting towards me with a steel steering lock.
Boom! The driver's side window explodes, showering me with fragments. I shove the door open, forcing him back, and stumble
out.
When he raises the steering lock above my head, I grab it with both hands and hang on. So does he. We stagger about like this
for a while, neither of us saying a word, watched impassively from the footpath by an enormous Pacific Islander with a flowery
shopping bag on his arm. Moment by moment the absurdity of the situation builds until, visited at last by a coherent thought, I
call to the onlooker, "Hey mate, could you help me get this thing off this maniac?"
The big guy puts down his bag, steps across and plucks the weapon from our hands with ridiculous ease. The kid bolts, leaps
in his car and roars off. Knees rubbery and heart pounding, I sag against my own vehicle, suddenly aware of all the idiot
impulses that have controlled me for the past few minutes. Not for the first time, only a propensity for farce has saved me from
my 64-year-old self.
Sydney Morning Herald, 9 June 2018

9. When the red brain triggers
In the audio you will hear what happens when our red brain
takes over - we experience an upwelling of negative emotion, a
narrowing of our focus and an increase in unhelpful self-talk.
Chronic red brain triggering can lead to long-term mental and
physical problems.
The text of the audio is shown on the next page.
Chris recognises that this has happened to her (a lot) but did
not realise that it was anything other than 'normal'. She can
see how these reactions might cause long-term
problems. She definitely doesn't want to go there!

10. [Text] When the red brain triggers
Red Brain Blue Brain - Chapter 1 - When the red brain triggers
When the red brain triggers it prepares our body for fight or flight. We respond physically in three ways: we are overwhelmed with emotion; our
focus narrows; and we get into a negative thinking cycle.
Triggering may happen in response to a person, an event, an idea or new information that challenges our beliefs. It is most likely to occur when we
feel threatened in some way: when we feel unsafe, unvalued, judged, not listened to, that things are unfair or ambiguous or uncertain. In these
conditions, we pull up memories of previous, similar situations. We may have lost the visual or motor aspects of the memory, retaining only the
negative feeling. This first memory can call up others causing a cascade of memories and hence of emotions.
Emotion
This flood of negative feeling is the main indication that the red brain has triggered (recall Frank Robson noticing “the chemical fizz in my veins”).
To feed this swelling emotion, the older parts of the brain need resources – oxygen and glucose – which become diverted from the advanced parts
of our brain via the left hemisphere into the older or sub-cortical regions of the brain. The emotion can be anger (fight), fear (flight) or a
combination of both. These feelings can be overwhelming.
As we will see in chapter 2, recognising the welling emotion and allowing it to subside before it takes hold of us is an important step in being able to
effectively manage our red brains.
Narrowing of focus
When the red brain triggers our focus narrows – physically, relationally and in our thinking. Physically, we lose peripheral vision and our attention is
restricted to about one and a half degrees around the main axis of our eyesight. We have a physically narrower focus for attention.
We become narrower in terms of our connections. Imagine the self at the centre of a circle, surrounded by family and friends. Further out are
colleagues and, beyond them, the broader community. We generally engage with and think about people across this circle. In the red brain,
however, our focus shrinks back to the centre; we become self-focused.
In the red brain, our thinking becomes more backward looking, more negative, more closed, more black-and-white. We tend to justify and defend
our position, and to generalise – thinking things like “this always happens to me”.

11. Red Brain Blue Brain - Chapter 1 - When the red brain triggers (continued)
Rumination
The third effect that we experience is an increase in rumination. We keep going over and over in our minds the same situation – typically the events
that have caused the red brain to trigger – and engage in negative self-talk. In the absence of anger, we may feel deflated, worthless and hopeless
– that things will always be like this. We tend to feel a victim, or deserving of whatever bad thing has happened. Conversely, anger can lead to
extreme loss of control and violent action; if controlled, it can lead to internal “seething” as our focus narrows and rumination kicks in.
Research by Moore and Windcrest in 2002 showed that rumination is the form of self-attention most closely related to depressive symptoms.
Shannon Kolakowski who wrote When depression hurts your relationship points out that the vast majority of thoughts during rumination are, at
best, random and, at worst, destructive; and that ninety-five per cent of our thoughts are simply replaying past events or other random memories.
Chronic rumination is linked to anxiety as well as to the onset of depression. Although the primary driver of anxiety is worry rather than rumination,
when we ruminate we are more likely to start worrying. Similarly, if we worry we are more likely to fall into rumination. Rumination, then, is linked to
poor wellbeing.
The more we play a scenario over in our minds, the more likely it is that the scenario will occur again in the future. For example, my red brain might
trigger during an interaction with a child, if I ruminate over the interaction, I am likely to recall whatever triggered my red brain the next time I see the
child – which will trigger my red brain again. In effect, rumination adds another set of memories with negative feelings attached, which reinforces
the original trigger. The more we ruminate on something the more likely it is that the same situation will occur again.
Isabel had been a primary school teacher for five years. She looked forward to getting to know each new class and watching them grow in ability
through the year. Isabel got on easily with most students but as she saw Jared she felt a twinge of dislike. There was something about the way he
talked, sort of out of the side of his mouth, and he had an odd laugh. She dismissed the feeling as she switched her attention to other new students.
As the year progressed, however, the feeling about Jared continued and she found herself being a little harsher and colder with him than with the
other students. Half way through the year, she realised that the other students had noticed her attitude to Jared; some of them were picking on him
and even looking to her for affirmation when they did it. Isabel could not shake the feeling of dislike that she had for Jared and recognised that she
was treating him differently. It felt wrong, but she could not stop. It was clear that Jared also knew by now that she did not like him, and he was
falling behind in his work.
Taking an instant dislike to someone has little to do with the other person and a lot to do with us. Something in the other person triggers a memory
or response that cascades and causes us to treat the other person differently. This is the red brain at work.
Recall that the red brain triggering is preparing our body for fight or flight, flooding it with chemicals that make us ready to respond and resist injury.
But we were designed to be in such a position only very rarely. In normal circumstances, these chemicals - which can persist in our blood stream
for as long as a month - dissipate and the body returns to normal. With frequent triggering of the red brain these chemicals are chronically present,
generating long-term health issues as well as shorter-term issues such as difficulty in sleeping.
Having a red brain that we do not know how to control is, increasingly, a liability in today’s world: damaging to both our physical and mental health.
Our first step in managing the red brain is to learn how can we get out of it again, once it has taken us over.

12. The red brain in everyday life, Chris's experience ...
Chris was in her local specialist grocery shop. She had just popped in on her way home and hoped to get out quickly. She
had finished shopping and was heading to the checkout. With a twinge of annoyance, she saw that there were three
queues. She glanced briefly at how many items were already on each checkout counter, the number of people in each
queue, and how full their baskets were. After a quick mental calculation, Chris joined the queue she judged would go
fastest.
After a few minutes, she realised that the other two queues were going faster than hers, and it would take even longer to
get home. She felt a welling up feeling inside her tummy. Suddenly she thought, “this always happens to me”. That made
her think about what her boss had said to her that morning, “you’re not quite ready for that promotion you want” and she
added to herself, “and I never will be, I’m always last in the queue” and gave a rueful laugh.
Chris now felt down and hadn’t noticed that the queue had moved forward until she heard the man behind her suggesting
she move ahead. Chris glared at him, “alright, alright, I’m moving”. People in the other queue glanced up at Chris and she
looked defiantly back, “who does she think she is looking at me like that, I wouldn’t been seen dead in those shoes!”.
Chris’s phone rang, it was her daughter with whom she had wanted to speak all day, but she impulsively rejected the call.
Chris paid and went home.
Now answer some questions on the following page!

13. Select all the things that are red brain related:
Chris is forced to work out which is the fastest queue (a healthy response to an unexpected situation)
Her expectation of being in the fastest queue turns out to be wrong (an example of loss of control [ambiguity]
being a trigger)
Chris generalises her current experience and links it to an earlier disappointment and a self-belittling “I’m always
last in the queue” (example of the negative spiral that rumination can take)
Being self-focused Chris does not notice the queue has moved and resents being told she could move up
(example of an – implied – criticism being a trigger).
Snapping at the man behind her draws the attention of others and Chris responds aggressively and with a harsh
judgement to make herself feel superior (example of fight response with a desire to humiliate her, presumed,
attacker)
Chris cuts off her daughter (a self-defeating impulse to compound her negative feelings)

14. Triggers and fixed beliefs
We can characterise the red brain as a 'scaffolding' of fixed
beliefs and responses - often based on false or mistaken ideas
about ourselves and our world - and a wide range of 'triggers'.
Triggers are elements in ourselves or in the world around us -
and especially other people - that cause us to bring up
memories with negative emotions attached which can
cascade into an upwelling of the red brain.
The negative emotions are typically associated with one or
more of these states: physical or psychological threat,
fear/anxiety/guilt, rejection/exclusion, ambiguity or lack of
clarity, perceived unfairness, not being listened to, being told
how to think or sarcasm/being judged. These states in the
present can also be red brain triggers, e.g., if I feel rejected that
can trigger my red brain.
Once triggered we then respond automatically, without choice.
It is important to remember that triggers are about us, not
anyone or anything else.
Chris relates this to her own experience and realises that she
always thought it was someone or something else's fault if her
red brain triggered - but no! - it is all down to her. She
determines to think this through. This is huge!

15. Testing understanding
The following questions are to test your understanding of the
previous content. They are all multiple choice some allowing
single and some multiple responses.
if you do not reach the pass score of 100% you can re-take the
assessment multiple times.
Uh oh!

16. Red brain triggering occurs when ... (single answer)
a memory of some past event is brought to mind
someone is unkind or unpleasant to us
we are having a bad day
there is something wrong with someone or with what they are doing

17. When the red brain triggers there is ... (multiple answers)
an upwelling of negative emotion
an increase in rumination
someone who is at fault
a narrowing of focus

18. Chronic Rumination is linked to ... (single answer)
the onset of depression
anxiety
both the onset of depression and anxiety

19. The red brain is ... (multiple answers)
like a scaffolding of fixed beliefs and triggers
one of two possible mind states that most of us have
a mind state to be avoided, if possible

20. Conclusion
Thank you for completing Part 1 of the Introduction to the Red
Brain Blue Brain.
We hope you enjoyed it.
Well I did, thinks Chris, who would have thought that there is such a simple
way to understand how and why we respond the way we often do.