The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live - and How You Can Change Them
Written by Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D. and Sharon Begley
Narrated by Arthur Morey
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Why are some people so quick to recover from a setback while others wallow in despair? Why are some so highly attuned to others that they seem psychic, while others put both feet in it over and over again? Why are some people always up and others always down?
In this hotly anticipated audiobook, award-winning, pioneering neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson answers these questions by offering an entirely new model of our emotions-their origins, their power, and their malleability.
Davidson has discovered that each of us is composed of six basic "Emotional Styles": Resilience, Outlook, Social Intuition, Self-Awareness, Sensitivity to Context, and Attention. Our own personal emotional fingerprint results from where on the continuum of each style we fall. He explains the patterns of brain activity that underlie each style in order to give us a new model of the emotional brain, one that will even go so far as to affect the way we treat conditions like autism and depression. And, finally, he provides strategies we can use to determine our own Emotional Style and to change our own brains and emotions-if that is what we want to do.
Written with bestselling author Sharon Begley, this original and exciting audiobook gives us a new and useful way to look at ourselves, develop a sense of well-being, and live more meaningful lives.
Related to The Emotional Life of Your Brain
Related audiobooks
Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emotional Sensitivity and Intensity: How to Manage Intense Emotions as a Highly Sensitive Person Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neuroscience of Mind Empowerment: Epigenetics, Neuroplasticity, Meditation, and Music Therapy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Confident, Be Confident: A Four-Step Program to Eliminate Doubt and Achieve Lifelong Self-Esteem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gift of Adversity: The Unexpected Benefits of Life's Difficulties, Setbacks, and Imperfections Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A General Theory of Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emotional Advantage: Embracing All Your Feelings to Create a Life You Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Life of the Mind: How Your Brain Thinks, Feels, and Decides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The As If Principle: The Radically New Approach to Changing Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShame: Free Yourself, Find Joy, and Build True Self-Esteem Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why We Meditate: The Science and Practice of Clarity and Compassion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walking Through Anger: A New Design for Confronting Conflict in an Emotionally Charged World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Move: How the New Science of Body Movement Can Set Your Mind Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radical Responsibility: How to Move Beyond Blame, Fearlessly Live Your Highest Purpose, and Become an Unstoppable Force for Good Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSensation: The New Science of Physical Intelligence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Personal Growth For You
Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Highly Sensitive Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing The Uncommon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Man's Search For Meaning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Banish Your Inner Critic: Silence the Voice of Self-Doubt to Unleash Your Creativity and Do Your Best Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Starts with Self-Compassion: A Practical Road Map Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/58 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Boundaries: When To Say Yes, How to Say No Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Paris: The Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Emotional Life of Your Brain
12 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Emotional Brain: Character, Personality, and TemperamentThose of us committed to personal growth will find much that is rewarding in The Emotional Life of Your Brain. Davidson draws on an array of scientific experiments and studies to develop a set of ideas that can add to our understanding of how the “emotional brain” works, how its unique patterns affect the way we think, feel, and live, and how we can change them. Three of these ideas are worth highlighting here. The first is that contrary to the way we tend to think about it, personality and temperament, though innate, are not fixed or immutable. That traditional view was reinforced in the age of genetics by “The dogma that ‘genetic equals unchangeable.’” If a “negative” trait (say shyness) is inherited and in your genes, you’re stuck with it. Instead, says Davidson, “plasticity is intrinsic to the brain,” and its “ability to change its structure and function in significant ways” extends into adulthood and “through the life of the individual.”The second idea is that such “change can come about in response to experiences we have as well as to the thoughts we think.” Traits that are genetically based can be altered because “the mere presence of a gene is not sufficient for the trait for which it codes to be expressed. A gene must also be turned on, and studies . . . have shown that life experiences can turn genes on or off.” Thus, “In terms of the shopworn debate called nature vs. nurture, nurture is able to act on nature.” Our brain can be altered by these “experiences as well as by conscious, intentional effort . . . through the intentional cultivation of specific mental qualities or habits.”And, thirdly, the reason such change is possible is that head and heart are more closely linked in the brain than previously thought: “the barricade that psychology had erected between reason and emotion has no basis in fact.” Emotion involves neural activity in the right and in the left side of the brain, in the amygdala and in the prefrontal cortex. “The circuitry of the emotional brain often overlaps with that of the rational, thinking brain,” so that “Emotion works with cognition in an integrated and seamless way to enable us to navigate the world of relationships, work, and spiritual growth.”These ideas have broad implications. They suggest that we are not irremediably shaped by our genes, upbringing, environment, or of this or that neural circuitry in our limbic system. We are not at the mercy of our emotions. We can change because our brain can change. The question of course is how. Davidson answers this question in the terms of traditional psychology by focusing on personality and temperament, offering a new classification of these traits which he calls “Emotional Style.” His claim is that “Understanding the neural underpinnings of the six dimensions of Emotional Style can empower you to recognize your own” overall style and apply various techniques he recommends to change it in the direction you desire.Briefly stated, the six dimensions are: Resilience (how fast you recover from adversity); Outlook (optimist vs. pessimist); Social Intuition (how adept you are at picking up social signals); Self-Awareness (how well you are in touch with your feelings); Sensitivity to Context (how well you adapt your emotional responses to a given context); and Attention (how well you can focus).To get an idea of the problems that arise with Davidson’s model, let us consider an example he gives of a situation involving two of these categories: “You might be irritable for a whole day after a morning argument with a coworker but not realize that your funk is the result of being Slow to Recover (This ability to introspect and understand our own emotions is an aspect of the Self-Awareness dimension).”Now, suppose I answer the book’s questionnaires for these categories, identify their neural correlates in the brain, conclude my styles are “Slow to Recover” and “Self-Opaque,” and follow Davidson’s techniques in the back of the book so that, assuming they work, I’m able to recover faster after my morning argument with my coworker.Does that improve my relationship with my coworker? Not necessarily. In fact, it could even worsen it, for the more successfully I reduce their negative impact on me and the faster I recover from these arguments the easier it is to continue having them. They just won’t bother me that much anymore. But they may bother my co-worker, other colleagues, and my boss. My “resilience” could actually end up making a lot of people unhappy, affect my work, and even cost me my job.This is because traits of personality and temperament do not necessarily correlate with the rightness or wrongness of what I’m doing. They are not moral categories. A high degree of optimism can lead me to take unreasonable risks in business or the stock market and leave me in financial ruin. High social intuition, self-awareness, and sensitivity to context can all help me manage myself better the better to lie and manipulate people. Being highly focused can help me succeed in my career even as it leads me to neglect my family and fail as a spouse and as a parent.In the situation cited by Davidson, I need to look at more than my “emotional style.” I need to look at what I might be doing wrong, at the moral dimensions of the situation. This means looking at my character, understood as a moral category. Traits of character determine whether a trait of personality or temperament serves a morally worthy or unworthy end, whether it works for good or for ill. But Davidson’s model, which is based on personality and temperament to the exclusion of character, makes no provision for such considerations.A more effective model for personal growth is found in the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, whose principles, it should be noted, can be practiced by anyone. One of these principles is the discipline of self-examination, where I make an inventory of my character defects and associated emotions, taking into account the positive character traits and associated emotions which can displace and replace them. Considered principles of the good life, these positive character traits are traditionally known as virtues, among which, honesty, for instance, is essential to the process of self-examination.Honestly looking at myself in the above situation, I might find that my “funk” is the result of my nursing a resentment against my coworker. I may be “irritable” because I’m still angry over something she said or did that affected something that is important to me (e.g. my self-esteem), and I’ve been obsessing about it all day. Upon further examination, I may discover that I said or did something which started or contributed to the argument, and that behind my words and actions there were certain character defects at work, perhaps impatience, or unkindness, or intolerance. My adversity, as is often the case with many of us, may have been self-inflicted.Having made such an examination, I move to take corrective action by practicing other applicable principles. Where I am in the wrong, I promptly and humbly admit it, and I sincerely make amends. Where my coworker is in the wrong, I forgive, turn the matter over, and let go of any ill feelings.By practicing these principles, I can surrender my resentment and obsession, reconcile with my coworker, and restore peace and harmony to our relationship. Not only do I recover from negative emotions myself, but I can help my coworker to do the same. My recovery goal is not self-centered. I’m not selfishly concerned only about my own well-being.Depending on the situation, I will find other principles that can help me to recover from adversity: after a loss, for instance, acceptance of the things I cannot change, and gratitude for the things I still do have. By practicing these principles day in and day out and in situation after situation, I am engaging in the kind of conscious, intentional, and repeated effort which Davidson says can help me to acquire the habits which can alter my brain and reshape my thoughts and emotions. I will become better at recovering from adversity, but my recovery will reflect fundamental character and emotional changes, not just an improved personality trait (more resilient). That personality and temperament are malleable, that emotion and cognition work in an integrated manner, and that experience and thought can reshape the brain are important ideas in Davidson’s book. When it comes to translating these ideas into practice, however, the 12 Steps remain the best program of action.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Davidson essentially founded neuropsychology, and lays out much of his life's work in these pages. Really interesting reading. A bit light on “how you can change them” (he suggests cognitive reframing and a few meditation techniques), but he freely acknowledges that the field is still in its infancy. The book was worth the reading just for its breakdown of the six components of emotional style (resilience, outlook, social intuition, sensitivity to context, self-awareness and attention). Also found the mention of the four immeasurables (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy & equanimity).
1 person found this helpful