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. |
It's EQ, Not IQ, That Will Make You More
So much credit is given to those that are smart or have an intelligence for success. But what if I told you it was EQ, not IQ, that led to that success? It was the fact that he died a very poor man.
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It's unfair, really, that such a great man never enjoyed financial stability, but according to the biography I read it was his own fault.
While Tesla's main focus was always on discovery, he often neglected to ensure he would gain financially from his inventions.
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Now, that may sound noble, to give and not worry about receiving, but in later life Nikola Tesla was often halted from continuing the research he loved by lack of funds.
Had he merely secured patents and royalties on each of his inventions as he went along, instead of selling them for smaller one time sums or allowing others to take them, he would never have run out of money.
While Nikola Tesla was arguably one of the most intelligent individuals ever to have lived in terms of IQ, it was his EQ that routinely stopped him from achieving his goals. WHAT IS EQ? EQ is emotional intelligence. Now before you think this is going to be just another discussion on the basics of self motivation or building your self esteem, I want you to realize something. Your emotional intelligence or EQ can have a greater impact on your life or business success than your IQ ever will. There are real world, specific, business functions that require the use of emotional intelligence, AND they can have a large impact on your profits. Emotional intelligence begins with you and stems out to others you are involved with. It requires understanding, self-control, responsibility, and optimism, but some of it's rewards are the increased ability to influence, communicate with, and inspire others. Perhaps now you can see how your EQ directly influences your bottom line. BASIC ASPECTS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE There are both personal and social competencies involved with emotional intelligence. Self awareness, self regulation, and motivation make up the major aspects of personal EQ, while empathy and other social skills make up the social element. However, it's more important at this point to understand what developing your emotional intelligence can do for you and your business than to breakdown the science of it. WHAT A HIGHER EQ CAN DO FOR YOU What are some of the common difficulties associated with running your business? *getting the most out of the time you invest in it *constantly motivating yourself and others you work with *making sales One aspect of emotional intelligence deals with identifying and building around your individual strengths, knowing your limits, and staying confident. Does it make sense to work at a job you're not good at? Of course not, but how often are you stuck doing a task better left to another individual who is more capable? Ever wonder how much further you could take your business if you could focus more of your time on the aspects of it you most enjoy and are the best at? Would there be less difficulty in staying motivated if you could do this? What if you could do the same for others who work for you or are in your downline? Can you imagine the results? What if you could relate better to your potential customers? Don't you think having a better understanding of their emotions and their needs would in turn increase your sales? After all, isn't your business based on filling a need? And aren't sales accomplished by appealing to people's emotions and presenting them with the benefits they will receive? YOU CAN INCREASE YOUR EQ Fortunately, your EQ is something that can be improved. You CAN learn emotional intelligence. As with anything, it simply requires your attention and study. This means that anyone can develop their EQ, and succeed with their desired goals, regardless of their IQ. EQ is a greater factor in business and personal success than IQ ever will be. The story of Nikola Tesla mentioned above is but one example. I'm sure we all know of others we don't consider to be all that smart that have achieved financial success, too. Ever wondered how they really did it? Was it just dumb luck? Or did they have EQ that made up for a lack of IQ? Emotional Intelligence, while not discussed by many, has a direct impact on our personal, social, and business lives whether we embrace the concept or not. Emotions are part of us, and in fact are our only tools for understanding and relating to others. Gaining a better understanding of and developing our EQ can only be beneficial to all of us.
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