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A review by cameliarose
Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking by Leonard Mlodinow
4.0
A nice summary of the updated research on human emotions.
“Scientists now know emotion is profoundly integrated into the neural circuits of our brain, inseparable from our circuits for rational thoughts. We could live without the ability for reasons, but we would be completely dysfunctional if we couldn’t feel. Emotion is a part of the mental machinery we share with all higher animals, but even more than rationality its role in our behavior is what sets us apart from them.”
Some takeaways:
Chapter 3: The Mind-Body Connection: Two core body effects: negative and positive. Mindfulness meditation makes you aware of your core body effect. Emotions are tightly linked to our core body effect. Emotions arise without intentional effort. What used to be called “drives”, such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire, are now seen as emotions. Gut-brain connection is bi-directional. The separation of the brain and the body is artificial.
Chapter 5 Where Feelings Come From: The theory of emotional construction, at least to some extent. Emotion is not innate and hard-wired, or not always?
Chapter 6: motivation: wanting versus liking: neurological basis for the difference between wanting and liking. Patients suffering from addiction stop liking what they are addicted to but they keep wanting it. The discovery of the brain region that is in charge of motivation.
Chapter 7: Determination: aerobic exercises that boost your heart function can also help your general mental grit. Benefits of meditation: attention control, emotion regulation and to increase self-awareness.
Part III is Emotional Profile. The author has listed several questionnaires that would help you find out your own emotional profile.
“Scientists now know emotion is profoundly integrated into the neural circuits of our brain, inseparable from our circuits for rational thoughts. We could live without the ability for reasons, but we would be completely dysfunctional if we couldn’t feel. Emotion is a part of the mental machinery we share with all higher animals, but even more than rationality its role in our behavior is what sets us apart from them.”
Some takeaways:
Chapter 3: The Mind-Body Connection: Two core body effects: negative and positive. Mindfulness meditation makes you aware of your core body effect. Emotions are tightly linked to our core body effect. Emotions arise without intentional effort. What used to be called “drives”, such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire, are now seen as emotions. Gut-brain connection is bi-directional. The separation of the brain and the body is artificial.
Chapter 5 Where Feelings Come From: The theory of emotional construction, at least to some extent. Emotion is not innate and hard-wired, or not always?
Chapter 6: motivation: wanting versus liking: neurological basis for the difference between wanting and liking. Patients suffering from addiction stop liking what they are addicted to but they keep wanting it. The discovery of the brain region that is in charge of motivation.
Chapter 7: Determination: aerobic exercises that boost your heart function can also help your general mental grit. Benefits of meditation: attention control, emotion regulation and to increase self-awareness.
Part III is Emotional Profile. The author has listed several questionnaires that would help you find out your own emotional profile.