picture in my mind

This is cool!

💜

This lady scientist explains that our emotions are basically what our brains make of physical sensations; our brains predict what these physical sensations are based on past experience and also our vocabulary. This explains a lot about what we speechies see in individuals with language difficulties -- emotions are so entwined with the language that we use, such that changes in linguistic competency often correlate with behaviour and emotional well-being.


This also gives credence to the nature vs. nurture dilemma -- it's been a debate because it's both, isn't it? Yes, individuals have certain innate patterns of predictions as well as particular sensitivities to surroundings (Highly Sensitive Persons, duh! who actually have more severe physical responses to anything since infancy), but it is also partly their past experience that shapes the brain predictions. So parenting and caregiving matter as well. So if a highly sensitive child feels such a stark physical sensation in response to an environment, his parents' language and responses tell him how to make of what's happening -- and this just accumulates over time and creates a person's worldview. It really shows how much the parent impacts a child, and how an emotionally-stable parent creates an emotionally-stable child, the parents' worldview informs the worldview of the child; and the best thing a parent can be to a child in every aspect I can think of, is a role model. To me, this is an almost-revelatory insight. (And I've been thinking that maybe the toughest child to deal with on hindsight is the highly sensitive -- aka yours sincerely -- because even if you are the best person you think you can be as a parent, your highly sensitive child who scrutinizes the parent model will find out your flaw. Hah! Congratulations for giving birth to an extremely perceptive and sensitive child.)

I love it when dots are connected.


The question then becomes how (or how difficult it is) to overcome a lifetime of poor brain predictions, ahah.

physical sensations + past experiences + emotional vocabulary --> current predicted emotion


variables you have control over:
*emotional vocabulary
*personal experience -- we need to create patterns of experience that allow varied and alternative predictions

hmmm, I wonder if one can desensitize oneself from certain physical sensations...