Do You Have a Happy Brain?This Is Your Brain on Joy: A Revolutionary Program for Balancing Mood, Restoring Brain Health, and Nurturing Spiritual Growthby Dr. Earl Henslin & Dr. Daniel Amen
This Is Your Brain On Joy by Dr. Earl Henslin is a cogent appeal for the use of diagnostic "brain imaging" as a foundational step in understanding and treating mental, emotional, and behavioral problems.
In This Is Your Brain On Joy, Dr. Henslin guides readers through a series of questions designed to uncover potential areas of over-functioning and sub-functioning in any of the five "rooms" of the brain. Then, he outlines how behavior, mood, and relationships are affected by improper blood flow to various parts of the brain.
He suggests that certain brain chemistries make joy, contentment, self-control, and other expressions impossible without physical healing of the brain, which he maintains is often possible through a combination of nutrition, exercise, supplements, and in some cases, medication.
Dr. Henslin includes a series of brain photographs throughout the book, providing a poignant and often gripping representation of minds pocked and dented by injuries and chemical imbalances. He goes on to show the physical changes in the same brains after he used SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) imaging to design and implement appropriate therapies. Surprisingly readable, the book is full of touching examples of lives profoundly changed, from hateful, abusive geriatrics to raging, inconsolable little girls.
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Index of Articles about Temperaments & Strengths
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Science of the Brain Your heart, lungs, kidneys and digestive tract keep you alive. But your brain is where you live. The brain is responsible for most of what you care about—language, creativity, imagination, empathy and morality. And it is the repository of all that you feel. The endeavor to discover the biological basis for these complex human experiences has given rise to a relatively new discipline: cognitive neuroscience. Fear is a good place to start, because it is one of the emotions that cognitive neuroscientists understand well. It is an unpleasant feeling, but necessary to our survival; humans would not have lasted very long in the wilderness without it. Two deep brain structures called the amygdalae manage the important task of learning and remembering what you should be afraid of. Each amygdala, a cluster of nerve cells named after its almond shape (from the Greek amugdale), sits under its corresponding temporal lobe on either side of the brain. Like a network hub, it coordinates information from several sources. It collects input from the environment, registers emotional significance and—when necessary—mobilizes a proper response. It gets information about the body's response to the environment (for example, heart rate and blood pressure) from the hypothalamus. It communicates with the reasoning areas in the front of the brain. And it connects with the hippocampus, an important memory center. The fear system is extraordinarily efficient. It is so efficient that you don't need to consciously register what is happening for the brain to kick off a response. If a car swerves into your lane of traffic, you will feel the fear before you understand it. Signals travel between the amygdala and your crisis system before the visual part of your brain has a chance to "see." Organisms with slower responses probably did not get the opportunity to pass their genetic material along. Fear is contagious because the amygdala helps people not only recognize fear in the faces of others, but also to automatically scan for it. People or animals with damage to the amygdala lose these skills. Not only is the world more dangerous for them, the texture of life is ironed out; the world seems less compelling to them because their "excitement" anatomy is impaired. Until recently, there was relatively little research showing how the brain processes anger. But that has begun to change. Recent studies indicate that anger may trigger activity in a part of the brain not named as poetically as the amygdala—the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (abbreviated dACC). Like the amygdala, the dACC's function makes sense, given its connections to areas of the brain involved in recognizing an offense (he just stole my iPod), registering a feeling (I'm angry) and acting on it (I'm going to …). It also links to the reasoning centers in the front part of the brain, as well as memory centers, which play a role in angry rumination or stewing after the fact. Researchers, however, have been more focused on one of the consequences of anger—aggression—probably because it can be observed through behavior. It's known, for example, that men are overtly more aggressive than women because of differences in male and female hormones. But the brains of men and women are also different, and some of those differences may affect aggression. In the front of the brain, the orbitofrontal cortex is recruited to help make decisions and temper emotional responses. It lights up when people are making judgments. Adrian Raine and colleagues at the University of Southern California note that, on average, men have a lower volume of gray matter (the bodies of nerve cells) in the orbitofrontal cortex than women. According to their analysis, this brain difference accounts for a healthy portion of the gender gap seen in the frequency of antisocial behavior. Even a neuroscientist can see that murder and mayhem are undesirable. But a neuroscientist can also see why that trait might still be in the gene pool. The gene for sickle cell anemia survived because it provided protection against another disease, malaria. Similarly, aggression is often an advantage. Until recently in historical terms, a readiness to fight and the ability to kill was a way to consolidate control over resources for survival. Fortunately, diplomats have also evolved. Some of our ancestors who understood that aggression carried risks as well as advantages used their creative human brains to devise better solutions for resolving conflicts. Our predecessors also originated symbolic diversions for aggression, like sports and chess. The common emotions of sadness and happiness are a problem for researchers. Depression and mania are core areas of study for a neuroscientist. But everyday ups and downs are so broadly defined that researchers have a hard time figuring out what exactly to study. The authors believe this complicated picture makes sense. The brain regions on their list process conflict, pain, social isolation, memory, reward, attention, body sensations, decision making and emotional displays, all of which can contribute to feeling sad. Sadness triggers also vary—for example, the memory of a personal loss; a friend stressing over a work conflict; seeing a desolate film. In the brain, happiness is as widely distributed as sadness. In his book "This Is Your Brain on Music," Dr. Daniel Levitin (page 58) notes that music simultaneously enlists many parts of the brain. We listen and respond to sounds and rhythms (auditory, sensory and motor cortex, cerebellum). We interpret (sensory cortex) and reason (prefrontal cortex). Music pulls on memories for experience and emotion (amygdala and hippocampus). If the music is working for you, it is probably triggering the reward system (nucleus accumbens). And if you're playing it, as Dr. Levitin does, you also get to throw satisfaction into the mix. Empathy is more than being nice. It is the ability to feel what another person feels, and in its most refined form it is the capacity to deeply understand another person's point of view. The brain's empathic powers actually begin with fear detection. Most of us are extraordinarily skilled face readers. We readily act on the emotions communicated to us through facial expression. And the grammar of facial expression, in some instances, is plain. We are masters at telling when a smile is insincere by the absence of wrinkles (called Duchenne lines) around the smiler's eyes. In a spontaneous smile, the corners of the mouth curl up and muscles around the eyes contract. Duchenne lines are almost impossible to fake. Not surprisingly, love also engages a whole lot of brain. Areas that are deeply involved include the insula, anterior cingulate, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens— in other words, parts of the brain that involve body and emotional perception, memory and reward. There is also an increase in neurotransmitter activity along circuits governing attachment and bonding, as well as reward (there's that word again). And there's scientific evidence that love really is blind; romantic love turns down or shuts off activity in the reasoning part of the brain and the amygdala. In the context of passion, the brain's judgment and fear centers are on leave. Love also shuts down the centers necessary to mentalize or sustain a theory of mind. Lovers stop differentiating you from me. |
But How Can I USE Emotional Intelligence?
I'm sure you're hearing the term Emotional Intelligence. It's being talked about a lot these days.
For most people there's an immediate "click". We recognize it as the missing piece!
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It's like that cartoon of the girl saying, "Oh, I knew I forgot something. My career!" Well, in this case, we become aware that someone, somewhere along the line forgot to tell us how to be smart about our emotions. At least in words we could understand!
But then again are you or are you not "smart" about your emotions? You see we don't even know how to assess how we are with our emotions. It simply hasn't been talked about it ways that makes sense and would allow us to use the information we receive.
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If someone says, "You're too reactive," what does that mean? In relation to what or to whom? And aren't they usually talking more about themselves? Usually they mean "You're more reactive than I am" or "You're more reactive than I'd like you to be." They may be the kind of person who could have a firecracker go off next to them and not "react," but what does that mean in relation to their ability to function and relate? Not much!
And then the next day you'll have a pounding headache, or have been up all night with the baby, and fail to respond immediately to a comment someone makes and they'll say, "Why don't you respond? You just sit there."
One standard would certainly be how well things are going for you at work and at home, because our EQ is more important to our happiness, success and health than our IQ. POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOP The people I've worked with in Emotional Intelligence take to it immediately. There are immediate applications to their life they try, and the results are positive, so there's an excellent and immediate feedback loop that keeps you motivated and improving. One of the best things about it is that you learn the tools, and then the applications are all around you. No matter what situation you're in, or what circumstance, increasing your Emotional Intelligence skills will help. You'll become more aware of what's going on around you - the things you couldn't quit "grasp" before. You'll also become far more knowledgeable about what's going on with other people, and isn't that always the most difficult thing to figure out? COMPETENCY EXAMPLE Here's is an example. One of the Emotional Intelligence competencies is emotional expression. It's important to understand that 90% or more of any person's emotional expression takes place nonverbally. That means - ta da - you need to increase your skills in being able to notice and INTERPRET nonverbal behavior. This means the expression on the person's face, how they sit, how they walk, their tone of voice, their silences, and other important "cues" as to how they're feeling. Why is this important? They may be telling you how they think, but how they feel is what's going to influence what action they take, whether they buy the product, whether they hire you, or whether they marry you. AT-WORK APPLICATION If you are charged with motivating others, you must be able to communicate well, and you must be able to read their nonverbal communication. Motivation is a feelings thing, not a thinking thing. If you can connect with what's important to the person you're dealing with, or connect everyone to an idea or mission they can feel strongly about, you will have your motivation. At the same time, you need to be able to read the level of the "buy in" from the other person. They may say they're going to do the project, call the person, raise the annual fund 100%, buy your product, or give you a promotion "some day," but, since 90% of most communication is nonverbal …wouldn't it be better if you have studied Emotional Intelligence? AT-HOME APPLICATION Our work is important to us, but our home is where we live. If your relationships at home aren't going well, nothing at work will matter. And the sad thing is, most of the time if you aren't get along at one place, you aren't at the other. Why? Because we don't leave "ourselves" behind when we leave for work in the morning. This is not to say the applications are the same - because an intimate relationship is different from a work relationship, but only in some areas. Increasing your intimacy and parenting skills is part of emotional intelligence. Couples who communicate better have better marriages, and one of the best things you can give your children is knowledge of Emotional Intelligence and good modeling of emotionally intelligent behavior. MULTICULTURAL APPLICATION Walk in any office today, or any family gathering, and you are going to have people from different cultures, yes? This means you can no longer predict how people are going to behave. In one culture, you show up on the hour. In another culture, you show up 15 minutes late. In still another, it's an hour late. These cultural differences affect our daily lives more all the time, and strong Emotional Intelligence skills are required in order to manage them. BEING IN THE KNOW As more people learn about Emotional Intelligence, it's going to be important that you stay in the loop. Get in early. It's the emotionally intelligent thing to do! HOW TO LEARN EQ? One of the most important things to understand about Emotional Intelligence is that, unlike some other life skills, it can't be learned ONLY be reading. There are Internet courses you can take, and books and ebooks you can read, but you need to work with someone such as a certified Emotional Intelligence coach who can guide the learning process. It's difficult to change something you can't see clearly - and we don't see ourselves as others see us! Yes, time usually brings improvements in the area of Emotional Intelligence, but you can greatly accelerate the learning curve, with great benefits to your life. HOW TO BEGIN? Taking an EQ assessment is a logical starting point - http:/ inyurl.com/z94t . Don't be surprised to see that you're better at some competencies than others. The ones you are lower in can be raised, because EQ can be learned! ©Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc . I offer coaching, distance learning, and ebooks around emotional intelligence for your continued personal and professional development. Transition, career and relationship coaching. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE ezine.
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