Do Emotions And Reason Mix?Is your picture of a cool-headed decision maker one who keeps
his or her distance from deadly emotion? We find eighty-two percent of those
surveyed voted yes to the belief, Rule your emotions or your emotions
will rule you.We care because emotion has a bad rap since the Old Testament, while recent
neurological research indicates our emotions rule learning and memory.
One more once: there is neither learning nor memory without our Limbic System,
the site of our emotions.Pain and PleasureWhat is your purpose in life? Do we all have one?
Religious people are certain even the lowest and poorest of us come earth bound with a defined purpose. What do you think Darwin said?Perhaps it is worth mentioning that humans come hardwired for Pleasure and Pain,
Reward and Punishment, and Advantage and Disadvantage.
We spend our lives seeking out one, and avoiding the other. Is that our purpose?Normal, mentally healthy adults have imprinted on their mind a single question
repeating itself 24/7, in one form or another. It is part of the structure of our
brain, located in the Ventral Tegmental Area, next to the Nucleus Accumbens, and
activated by the neurotransmitter, Dopamine. It is reward and pleasure; our pain receptors are located in our Cingulate Cortex.The question our mind asks without end is: What is in it for me? (WIIFM?)The answer may be as instinctual as love for a spouse, progeny, and parents.
It may be as complex as the hierarchy of values by Dr. Abraham Maslow.Hierarchy of Five Human NeedsJust a refresher: the core human need is number 1, physiological (oxygen, food, drink, and shelter). Number 2, is safety needs, dealing with personal survival. We need structure, order, security, and predictability in our environment.These two are Deficiency Needs, meaning if they are not satisfied, we cannot think about the rest of the Maslow list. A good example is the TV show – Lost – which depicts uncivilized behavior until the survivors have their personal survival under control.If you are hunger or thirsty, can you think of helping others to survive?Third on the list is Love and Belonging; having friends, a supportive family, intimacy, and being part of a group.Fourth is Esteem, including status, competence and self-confidence.Fifth is Self Actualization: releasing our potential, and helping other do the same.
It includes the elements of creativity, problem solving, using objective judgment,
and using internal beliefs and ethics to play nice with others.Note there are D-Needs, #1 & 2 (Deficiency), and B-Needs, #3, 4 & 5 (Being), which arise only after we have covered our core D-Needs.Antonio DamasioMaking decisions based on emotion, is not an exception, it is the rule. It is the emotional flavor that animates us, not logical and reasoned thought, according to
Dr. Damasio. This is not a hypothesis or an opinion, but a scientific proof based on
fMRI scans. How can we have gone so wrong for so long? It is that urban myth in action.Robert Sylwester, famous educator, calls emotion an unconscious biological thermostat. It shows that both dangers and opportunities (pain and pleasure,
reward and punishment), exist together.In our brain is located the Limbic system, the seat of our emotions, and specifically the amygdala (almond-shape). It functions as our early warning system to protect
against terrorists in the form of danger.Is what we perceive a threat or benign?
Is it time for fight or flight or relaxation and a possible rewarding experience?Our mind searches our long-term memory files for past experiences. Is it a snake we
see or a twisted stick we stepped on? Perceptions are filtered from our feedback loops located in the amygdala and hippocampus, located in the Limbic SystemWhen in doubt think survival, says our brain, and we feel bodily sensations that
command, Feet, do your duty! Suddenly we get a dose of adrenalin (epinephrine),
from our Sympathetic Nervous System, and our heart pumps out double our normal supply of energy, our blood pressure rises sharply, and our breathing changes by
additional oxygen to our lungs. We are ready for fight or flight.Do you doubt that the right emotions speed up decision-making?
Later you mention to your significant other, how it felt to run like an Olympic
miler. If you waited to consciously analyze the facts for a reasoned decision,
you would not be around to produce progeny with your genes. Emotion rules.EndwordsEmotions activate our attention and focus our concentration for action. Feelings
(emotions), locate the source of pain or pleasure, reward or punishment, the danger
or opportunity, and send this information to our prefrontal cortex for cognitive
processing. The time for logic, reason and thoughtful consideration is after
our first line of defense has rejected fight or flight. Humans are flying on
auto-pilot day and night for survival sake. We activate our mind only after
there is certainly we will survive the present.Cognitive processing is about the presence or absence of things. We can analyze,
measure, and ponder our hypothesis based on logic and reason, and use the
scientific method and a double-blind test. It is all about Left-Brained.Emotion is about whether it is good or bad, pleasurable or life threatening
for us. We are fed information from our gross and fine senses, and our brain stem/
It is all about our Right-Brain.Google: Gerald Clore, University of Virginia.Do you still want to distance yourself from your bad-mouthed deadly emotions?See ya,copyright © 2006
H. Bernard WechslerAuthor of Speed Reading For Professionals, published by Barron's;
business partner of Evelyn Wood (1909-1995), creator of speed reading,
graduating 2 million, including the White House staffs of four U.S. Presidents.Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine on speed reading
and learning skills.http://www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org
Keyword : speed reading, learning, training, memory, personal growth
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