My Chimp is called Emma and she can be a right pain in the bum sometimes. She always speaks out of turn and reacts far too emotionally in situations that need an element of level headedness.

No I haven’t lost the plot, I simply read The Chimp Paradox and it’s been life changing.

The Chimp Paradox is a book on how to manage your mind. It talks about three key areas of the brain; the human, the computer and the chimp. It’s important to realise that your chimp brain can’t be controlled – it’s in us, we can’t do anything about it but we must learn to manage it. The chimp brain is the emotional and illogical part of your brain. For example, it’s the part of you that makes you overly emotional in certain situations or makes you say something you really shouldn’t say to colleagues in other situations. Your chimp receives information first and, without management, could get you into a lot of trouble.

It’s been a relief to be honest reading this book because controlling certain emotions recently has been hard. However, when I realised it was Emma (the book tells you to name your chimp) it made me feel much better and gave me an element of control back. For example, boxing your chimp until it goes to sleep, because it gets bored, is a perfect example of how Emma calms down (and as a result I get a restful nights sleep).

However, what really made the different was introducing Emma to my colleagues’ chimps – openly discussing when Emma was reacting (where you can’t help but laugh) or Jodie. My colleagues chimps Cesear (wins points for most creative name) and Hayley also come out every now and then so it’s good to be able to point this out (as my colleagues do with Emma).

I don’t want to give too much away but this book won’t be a waste of your time. Suggested read: The Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters.

Happy reading,
Jodie and Emma