SIGHING OVER "SCIENCE"

There's an exciting new concept -- each and every person has an "Emotional Style." Scientific research has found there is a "neural basis" for our responses to life. And we can change them.

Right off the bat, I learned that every individual has his own "emotional fingerprint." These are the key elements: 1.Resilience. 2. Outlook, 3. Self-awareness. 4.Social intuition. 5. Attention. 6.Sensitivity to Context.

Not sure what these terms mean, I tried them on like stage masks. It sort of made "acting" sense.

Then, I tested them on my face. They were hard to do.

The book "The Emotional Life of Your Brain," by Richard Davidson, PHD, with Sharon Begley, Newsweek reporter, inspired these two authors to write a well-crafted article that gathered up the essence of what's in the book, and revealed how you can be in control of you, and your emotional ups and downs.

Emotional ups and downs have been my cup of tea as a performer and wife of an actor, who sometimes needs my directorial eye. So I read on. I have boiled down what I gathered from the article.

PHD author Davidson said, " In decades of research into the neurobiology of emotion, I’ve seen thousands of people who share similar backgrounds respond in dramatically different ways to the same experience." He carefully, not briefly, explained that just as each person has a unique fingerprint and a unique face, each of us has a unique emotional profile. (i.e. the authors wanted us readers to know that people are different.)

The article stated, "This is where the theory of emotional style breaks new ground." After mentioning the usual rats and animal tests, it explained that one's "positive emotions" sit in your frontal cortex behind the forehead -- one's "animalistic instincts, " terrors, fear, anger, and anxiety are deep within the brain's "limbic" system.

I looked it up -- it's the brain structures, common to all mammals, that are involved in olfaction, emotion, motivation, and behavior.

The researchers have learned that if you're "resilient" there's 30 times more activity in your prefrontal lobes. Measuring eye blinks of volunteers reacting to 51 pictures that had varying degrees of ugliness, scientists have learned about "sensitivity" to context.

Based on blinks and other research which the article detailed and explained, when the prefrontal cortex is involved, it shortens the time "amygdala" are involved. (I looked it up -- they're the almond-shaped mass of gray matter in the "temporal lobe.")

The good news is that you can change. You can cultivate greater "resilience" (This word, used frequently throughout the article was not explained -- I didn't look it up. I figure it meant more of less what it usually means.)

Researchers studied London taxicab drivers who must learn how to navigate the complicated network of streets; they also studied violin virtuosos who master complex fingering by repetition and practice. Based on what the researchers actually saw in MRI's, they proved that the brain changes when you repeat a routine or an exercise. They have concluded that with mental activity -- meditation, and behavior therapy -- an individual can develop a deeper sensitivity to his own feelings, and develop a more consistently positive outlook and greater capacity for resilience.

I must say, this seemed unnecessarily complicated. If you exercise, you get stronger muscles, and strong muscles help you do you work better, faster, more easily.

Anyhow, calling this "Mindfulness Meditation," the researchers stated that this meditation helps depressed individuals, who think bad thoughts over and over. You can weaken the connection between your prefrontal cortex and the amygdala by deliberately focusing on the negative thoughts. Repeating them over and over can activate your "circuits." When activated, you can move into the resilience "dimension."

As I read on and on, my resilience was definitely decreasing -- I couldn't help wondering what all this stuff was really saying.

Clearly, it's a hot topic that's selling magazines. A few weeks ago, Time Magazine had an article touting the science of building will power, a cute girl ogling a yummy cup cake, and summaries of three books on the subject -- "The Will Power Instinct," by Kelly McGonigal; "Willpower" by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney packed with science and celebrities as examples; "The Power of Habit, "by Charles Duhigg.

You can buy the books, or take this test in Newsweek.

Click this link. Keep track of "True" or "False" answers; add
them up and you'll know if you're slow to recover or resilient.

I took the test. Goody. I'm resilient. I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, what I learned was a lot of malarky -- i.e. hooey.