Totally Understanding the Emotional Brain
Posted on November 13, 2008
Filed Under Depression |
Every internal or external event in your life that happens is interpreted through your brain. If in fact we have a positive feeling about a life event, that’s a Non-Problem Status. And so we really only need to worry about life dramas when they create a negative emotion. Why? This article, the first of seven, will help you understand why.
Today, I’m going to share with you the importance of using your emotional brain to understand how your body reacts to events.
Randy Pausch, a 47 year old college professor, who died recently of pancreatic cancer, said, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want”. What is your experience of events in your life?
Dr Mike Gosling says, “Life is a series of events. Every event is an opportunity for change. It’s from the most painful events that you change the most.” Do you agree with Dr Mike?
Every event in your life that occurs, is interpreted by your brain. External events are received into your brain through our five senses and we are constantly busily examining our internal environment as well - what’s going on inside of our brain and body - to assess and to work out what’s going on in our life.
If in fact we have a positive feeling about a life event, that’s a Non-Problem Status. Because when good things happen to us, it’s not a problem to us, we don’t care. In fact we feel good about it.
And so we really only need to worry about life dramas when they create a negative emotion and when we have a negative experience. Why?
Every negative experience that we have results in us accumulating stress, because every single emotion, every negative emotion that you have, is actually an Adrenalin response.
What’s occuring is that your body is producing a stress response - producing a chemical because our brain has interpreted some form of danger to us and our well-being, some form of threat.
To explain further, if I were to draw for you a cartoon sketch of a cross-section of our brain, the two major parts of the brain that are useful to know about is that section that resides just above the brain stem. It’s called the Limbic System and the Cortex, the thinking part of the brain.
The Limbic System accomplishes all the feeling in the brain. This is a primitive part of the brain - and animals have a Limbic system - and it is responsible for our preservation instinct.
The other part of the brain, which does all of the thinking, is the Cortex. Human beings have a very developed Cortex, therefore we have a larger brain than most animals. The Limbic System and the Cortex are constantly inter-reacting with one another.
The Limbic System assesses first, using all the different senses that come into the body, through sight, sound, touch, taste, smell.
So even if you’re tasting something, that experience is first assessed by the Limbic System for danger to see whether or not there is anything about what you are sensing that is going to cause a threat to this organism that it’s looking after.
That’s all for today. In my next article I’ll share with you the story of the zebra; how it uses its brain to deal with danger or threat. Are we like the zebra? Its all part of what I call The Science of Emotional Wealth. So be sure to keep an eye out for my articles.
The material in this article is only provided for information and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action or inaction should be taken based solely on the contents of this email.
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