7 Truths about Emotions
Friday, December 05, 2008
By Telana Simpson
Meaning doesn't exist. You can't see a chunk of meaning in the fridge. Or trip over a piece of it on the floor.
We as humans though have the cognitive ability to give things meaning. A question that follows is: how do we register meaning then? Or expressed another way: does meaning have a feel to it? How do we know what meaning we have given to some thing or some event? We do so by feeling meaning through our emotions.
If that is the case, then emotions are very useful. They are our body's way of telling us about the meanings we are experiencing or not experiencing. How else would we know if something is an experience we want to repeat or not, if not through the emotions of happiness or sadness etc?
Dr Hall explains emotions as "an action tendency generated by the information in our cortex that activates our motor cortex and other brain structures (amaygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, adrenal gland, etc)". We experience them as inner urges that propel us to move or change. They are energy in motion: e-motion. Dr Hall further talks of seven key truths about emotions. These are:
1. Emotions measure the difference between our map and territory.
When there is a difference between what we expect (our perceptions, or mental maps) and what we actually got (reality), we experience an emotion that shows us there is a difference. (Read more about this in our previous issue on 'Elusive Happiness')
2. Emotions are processes
Like meaning, you cannot put a chunk of emotion in the fridge. The word 'emotion' describes a process, not a thing. Emotions are activities that go on within our mind and body. Thus they can be produced at any moment, and can change quickly.
3. Emotions are always right
A certain mental map and experience of the world will produce an emotion that is right for that map and experience- it is correct in that it is showing a difference between that map and that experience. Thus no emotion can be wrong (it is more how that emotion is expressed or dealt with that can be considered "wrong" to certain maps)
4. Emotions are just emotions
Emotions are just signals. Thus they are not commands on what to do. Nor are they actual indicators of external reality. All they can be are signals, and thus are completely fallible and not perfect.
5. Emotions are always relative, conditional and liable to error
When dealing with emotions, we need to keep in mind the map and experiences they relate to. They are references to information about how we have mapped things mentally about an experience, and how we sense that experience. Thus to the outside world the emotion can appear to be wrong, and may even show erroneous thinking or reasoning (maps), (yet to that person they are right).
6. Emotions are somatic registering of our meanings
We experience an emotion internally- in our body and can usually indicate where in our body we are experiencing this energy. The more uncomfortable the emotion, the more we try to avoid experiencing that emotion and thus we can see it as a signal to look at our meanings in that situation, to see if they need to be adjusted.
7. Emotions can be responded to in a variety of ways.
We can 'do' a lot with our emotions. We can act on them, or not. We can listen to them, even question them. We can express them, release them, hold onto them, ignore them. The choice is ours, as they are just our signals.
To you using your emotions as signals to navigate through life!
Telana
Reference: Dr Michael Hall. The Ultimate Self-Actualisation Workshop. 2007
We as humans though have the cognitive ability to give things meaning. A question that follows is: how do we register meaning then? Or expressed another way: does meaning have a feel to it? How do we know what meaning we have given to some thing or some event? We do so by feeling meaning through our emotions.
If that is the case, then emotions are very useful. They are our body's way of telling us about the meanings we are experiencing or not experiencing. How else would we know if something is an experience we want to repeat or not, if not through the emotions of happiness or sadness etc?
Dr Hall explains emotions as "an action tendency generated by the information in our cortex that activates our motor cortex and other brain structures (amaygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, adrenal gland, etc)". We experience them as inner urges that propel us to move or change. They are energy in motion: e-motion. Dr Hall further talks of seven key truths about emotions. These are:
1. Emotions measure the difference between our map and territory.
When there is a difference between what we expect (our perceptions, or mental maps) and what we actually got (reality), we experience an emotion that shows us there is a difference. (Read more about this in our previous issue on 'Elusive Happiness')
2. Emotions are processes
Like meaning, you cannot put a chunk of emotion in the fridge. The word 'emotion' describes a process, not a thing. Emotions are activities that go on within our mind and body. Thus they can be produced at any moment, and can change quickly.
3. Emotions are always right
A certain mental map and experience of the world will produce an emotion that is right for that map and experience- it is correct in that it is showing a difference between that map and that experience. Thus no emotion can be wrong (it is more how that emotion is expressed or dealt with that can be considered "wrong" to certain maps)
4. Emotions are just emotions
Emotions are just signals. Thus they are not commands on what to do. Nor are they actual indicators of external reality. All they can be are signals, and thus are completely fallible and not perfect.
5. Emotions are always relative, conditional and liable to error
When dealing with emotions, we need to keep in mind the map and experiences they relate to. They are references to information about how we have mapped things mentally about an experience, and how we sense that experience. Thus to the outside world the emotion can appear to be wrong, and may even show erroneous thinking or reasoning (maps), (yet to that person they are right).
6. Emotions are somatic registering of our meanings
We experience an emotion internally- in our body and can usually indicate where in our body we are experiencing this energy. The more uncomfortable the emotion, the more we try to avoid experiencing that emotion and thus we can see it as a signal to look at our meanings in that situation, to see if they need to be adjusted.
7. Emotions can be responded to in a variety of ways.
We can 'do' a lot with our emotions. We can act on them, or not. We can listen to them, even question them. We can express them, release them, hold onto them, ignore them. The choice is ours, as they are just our signals.
To you using your emotions as signals to navigate through life!
Telana
Reference: Dr Michael Hall. The Ultimate Self-Actualisation Workshop. 2007
posted by Telana @ 11:57 am,
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Beliefs and Reality
Dr Elaine Lee talks about the Origins of Man, and why what goes round comes round. Of specific interest is new research into our DNA and how what we think influences what we experience.
Beliefs and Reality
The Origins of Man, and Why what goes round comes round...
Dr Elaine Lee
Where do we come from? Who made us? When? Why?
The fact is, Homo Sapiens is the only new kid on the block. We have blessed ourselves with the name 'wise man' - in fact, Homo Sapiens Sapiens - doubly wise. We obviously think ourselves to be smart! Why then do we have so few answers regarding such questions?
Bill Bryson's book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, makes it very clear that we are a unique species which appeared in a narrow window of opportunity of Earth history. It's actually amazing that we are here!
Modern scientists have spent the last few decades unravelling some of the basic physical secrets of humanity: how the brain functions, and how our biological reality is based on the protein-building blocks encoded in our DNA. Both areas have left us with unanswered questions: given the vast, almost infinite potential of the human brain, why is it so under-utilised? Given that each cell in our body is packed with microscopically small filaments of DNA, (which account for our genetic make-up), why is it that this too seems to be largely useless, in fact described as 'junk'?
While the majority of our species are not overly concerned with such issues, our scientists don't like mysteries. Francis Crick, the scientist who cracked the code of DNA, found it impossible to accept that this complexity came about through 'accident'. Neither could Fred Hoyle, who developed the theory of Panspermia, to account for the origins of the DNA (which remarkably we have in common not only with mammals, but also of insects, bacteria and viruses!). This holds that meteors and comets from outer space were responsible for bringing these basic building blocks of life to Earth.
Yet answers have been provided from ancient times. The earliest civilizations left us evidence carved in stone or clay tablets, which has only been de-coded in comparatively recent times.
Christian O'Brien's book, The Genius of the Few : Founders of the Garden of Eden, Alan Alford's, Gods of the Millennium, Andrew Collins' From the Ashes of Angels, and South African author, Michael Tellinger's recent (2005) Slave Species of the gods, have all been attempts to illustrate with documentary evidence that early civilisations were in fact brought about by extremely sophisticated beings, Nephilim or Anunnaki, whose powers led the indigenous Homo Sapiens crediting them with being 'gods'. Whilst such ideas initially seem bizarre (and are dismissed by many archaeologists out of hand as esoteric) it would seem that the time has come when we have to re-consider our belief systems.
It has always disturbed me that neither historians nor archaeologists have been able to provide satisfactory explanqtions for anomalies such as the ability of 'primitive' man to move from a 'hunter-gatherer' existence in the Ice Age, to the sophistication of building pyramids immediately thereafter!
The abilities demonstrated by the earliest civilizations appeared dramatically. The understanding of astronomy, mathematics, building, and mining techniques demonstrated not only in 'Ancient' Egypt and Sumer, but in South America, China and Korea, are such that only in the past century have we been able to equal or surpass them. Yet in our arrogance, we assume that over the last few hundred years our technological achievements mean we are the pinnacle of human development!
In reality, we are only just beginning to re-gain the knowledge we had over 6,000 years ago. The Book of Enoch was omitted from the Bible - but it is an amazing description of Enoch's visit to "Heaven", with descriptions of technology which could have been 21st century!
The people of the ancient civilisations had few doubts as to who they were, or who had given them these 'skills'. They left us detailed explanations.
Zecharia Sitchin analysed thousands of ancient clay tablets from Sumeria, and there found amazing stories which led him to the conclusion that the early gods were physical beings, who brought us the knowledge on which civilizations were built. These accounts were published in a number of books from 1978 on. He told the story of Enki and Enlil, and the decision of the Council to create a being, a man, who would resemble them and who "will be charged with the service of the gods, that they might have their ease" (Sitchin, The Cosmic Code, p.51).
At first Sitchin's work was met with derision. Yet the stories are not dissimilar to what we read in the Bible: "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..." "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it..." (Genesis 1.2-6 and 2.15). In Genesis we also read about the inter-breeding between the 'sons of God and the daughters of men', (Genesis 6.1-4).
At the time of Sitchin's early work, we knew little about cloning, or about genetic modification of plants and animals, and even less of the secrets of DNA. Hence when he claimed that the "Anunnaki" cloned the initial hybrids, and manipulated our DNA, it all seemed far-fetched, 'science fiction'. Now we know that modern scientists are playing 'god' in this fashion!
After the unravelling of the human genome, it was found that only 3% of our DNA is required (coded) for the production of the physical body, and 97% was deemed to be "junk" or non-coded areas . What was its purpose?
Graham Hancock, famed for his work, The Fingerprints of the Gods, has recently published Supernatural, (Century, 2005).. Sub-titled 'Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind', it is an attempt to explain the 'greatest riddle in human history' - how all the skills and qualities of modern man appeared fully formed, "as though bestowed on us by hidden powers". From the Palaeolithic cave paintings of Europe, to the visionary experiences of shamans and the founders of early religions, he takes us on a journey of discovery.
Hancock points out that one of the most significant aspects connected with DNA, is a strange even mysterious link with the linguistic codes of language. This is a ratio, documented by linguist George Zipf, between the most commonly to least commonly used words. It is common to all languages. Researchers from Boston University and Harvard Medical School examined the DNA sequencing and amongst other things applied the standard linguistic tests to both "coded" (i.e. the basic protein-building blocks that make up our physical being)and "non-coded" areas (the 'junk'). The amazing outcome was that the Zipf law did NOT apply to the coded areas, but DID apply to the "junk" areas! (Hancock, pages 484-5). The October/November issue of Biophile has a similar article: "DNA is influenced by Words and Frequencies", related to Russian DNA discoveries (Biophile, No.24, 2008, p.36).
Our amazing DNA would appear to be a language! But one that we have not yet apparently learnt. Or have we?
It is some years now since the advent of neuro-linguistic programming, NLP, which is based on the premise that our words act as a programme to our brain. Long ago Henry Ford said, "Whether a man says he can, or he can't, either way he's right". This relates to the biblical text: "As a Man thinketh in his Heart, So is He". We become what we believe, and a belief in limits creates limited people.
This is borne out by work done on brain biochemistry, which demonstrates that negative or fear-based thoughts stimulate the production of adrenaline and cortisol. Cortisol is a known neural-inhibitor - that is, it blocks the transmission of neuro-transmitters from one brain cell to another in the neo-cortex.
Our thoughts are both chemical and electrical, and that energy not only influences us at a cellular level, but it radiates out from us to others. Like attracts like - send out waves of negative energy, and it returns. This provides us with an explanation for that other Biblical tenet, "Man attracts that which he fears".Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
We have been governed by our fears; it is time to eliminate these, and accept our inner power.
A very graphic illustration of this has been provided by the work of Japanese scientist Dr Masaru Emoto. He has worked with photographing crystals formed in freezing water. His initial experiments showed that water from a negative environment reacted completely differently to water from temples and other positive places. The former molecules were misshapen blobs, the latter formed exquisite and unique snowflake-like patterns. His amazing work in subsequent books went further: water placed in containers labelled with positive words similarly resulted in crystals, while that in containers with negative sentiments - I hate you! - resulted in formless, dark shapes (The Hidden Messages in Water).
What are the consequences for us as emotional human beings? We are largely made up of water, and if hate thoughts influence our very basic physical being, we should avoid them! I have tried this with my own students. When someone appears disturbed or angry, I gave them paper cylinders inscribed with the words, Love, Peace, Harmony - and watch the change!
If our expectations are negative, and our words reinforce these, we are contributing to the negative world we live in, governed by fears. Do we want this? If we can accept that we do indeed create our own reality in the sense described in the foregoing, then the challenge is to create the world you want - There's a lot to be said for positive thinking!
Contact us on info@innercoaching.co.za to contact Dr Elaine Lee
Labels: Alan Alford, Andrew Collins, Bill Bryson, Christian O'Brien, DNA, Dr Elaine Lee, Francis Crick, Fred Hoyle, George Zipf, Graham Hancock, Masaru Emoto, Michael Tellinger, NLP, Zecharia Sitchin
posted by Telana @ 11:31 am,
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The Author
Telana Simpson
Telana Simpson is a Professional Personal and Communication Coach. She is a caring and focused facilitator who has a passion for expression. She helps executives, individuals and entrepreneurs find authentic ways of communicating their inner potentials.
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