At 70 I’ve realised that the most stressful situation you deal with are the antics of my fellow humans. I practice conscious awareness , most days. It can be small things that can be annoying or occasionally big things. I think about trying to keep calm and being able to immediately identifying those annoyances as they happen. Living your life in conscious way and having the ability to control your emotions for me is a the art of living a long and peaceful happy life.
Saw the movie “marriage story” and there’s one HUGE fight between the husband and wife and SPECIFICALLY Adam drivers part of the argument really Impacted me. I sat there quietly weeping after seeing that scene. So, here I am, learning how to show more emotion, dreaming of becoming an actress
Or let's change things around a bit to trick your brain. Take a step back and try to detach the hate (just for a few seconds) and realize how fortunate you are to be able to experience any emotion including hate. Thanks Buddhism :)
I really like this researcher Paul Ekman because not very long ago, I started using methods like this because I understood that my emotions were chaotic and sometimes dangerous, so I started controlling my emotions and using techniques to delve deeper into myself. Mister Paul Ekman is the first person that talks about these methods and acknowledges that techniques, like the ones I try to use, are beneficial for life.
+AlterEgoKEB Smiling for the sake of smiling causes emotional exhaustion, and withdraw. But thinking of pleasant thoughts or change the perspective of which you view what you are doing and having happy thoughts because of that are a more effective way and healthy way or having the same affect. www.livescience.com/47227-when-smiling-is-bad-for-you.html metro.co.uk/2011/02/24/fake-smiles-could-cause-depression-says-michigan-state-university-study-640802/ www.futurity.org/dont-bring-your-fake-smile-to-work/ www.teenboardingschools.com/alternativesummercamps/news/study-faking-a-smile-can-lead-to-sadness-withdrawal-04062.html
It hasn't just helped me be a better person, it's helped me better understand other people. It's... still kinda amazing to me what he identified, researched, and published. Which is why I check up on it to make sure I got the story straight. I love it. I think that identifying the faults of those who are great thinkers, helps us better understand them. And helps us better understand and identify faults in ourselves, and others. Being able to see what's not as correct, among what is.
This is why we need more communication between artists and scientists. This video could seem enlightening to laypeople but this is common knowledge to any trained actor. It's like how many knew Earth was a globe long before it was accepted.
***** I don't think that was Shane's point. How long did Native Americans know that Aloe was healing before science finally attempted to study it?... I think it's more like what Anthropology points out- the question is one of biggest manipulators to an answer. Anthropology looks at the world as it is, and just gets to know it, before forming a question. I didn't take Shane's comment as a question of the science- but of how long it took for science to look around. I think Ekman is awesome- but I think Shane's comment isn't about the finding, it's about why science as a whole looks so narrowly- causing a lot of scientific study to come around rather slowly. Art and Anthropology could definitely speed up scientific discovery! Science as we've been brought to know it is generally all left brain. Art is generally all right brain. A whole brain will always be most efficient. When we see science and art come together, I think we'll see a massive leap forward in human knowledge and development. And I know I'll be considered completely radical- but when spiritual development is added to this- we will see a whole new paradigm. I honestly think though, that Ekman is one of the rare scientists whose work Has begun this balance of left, right, and spiritual. The whole of his work has an impressive span in this light. Ekman impresses me with how rounded his approach to material is- which is why he has made such fascinating and useful discoveries where many before him simply droned on and on about talk therapy- he's changed the whole field!
Fascinating comment Jennifer. You might be interested in J.Krishnamurti's work, who talked a lot (far beyond just intellectually) about the WHOLE human being, the merger of the religious and the scientific mind.
Paul Ekman and his work are absolutely outstanding. Right now finishing his book "Emotions Revealed" a life changing journey!!! And by the way I now know for a fact that most of the psychologists I ever happen to encounter in my life were just bunch of mediocre ones,...
@@Hereforthecomments1I read the book twice it is super interesting and mega helpful. I strongly recomend it. And now rereading another outstanding one called "Influence" The psychology of persuasion (Bob Cialdini).. wow mind blowing stuff both books.. absolutely essential to understand how we humonkeys are wired. Cheers!!!!
I used to have pretty bad anger issues when I was younger, but the people around me helped me through it. I still get angry now, but I realise that I'm feeling angry as soon as it starts, then I can start to combat it and feel better.
Evolution doesn't by itself dictate every action that we make - he's making the case that we use that connection between expression and emotion to control our own emotions, when it wasn't evolved for that purpose. Thus, outsmarting evolution - though it is bombastic way of saying it
Hes talking about being aware of, and responding to the currently evolved emotional reaction. You can outsmart that. Yes, in a sense anything you change/overcome/create in the mind is evolving it, but overcoming/manipulating our standard pre-programmed responses is what hes getting at.
Every successful salesperson already knows this stuff: You affect a positive expression to inspire your potential customer, and it also inspires you yourself.
His idea is for the individual to manipulate his/her own emotions, and focus on that self-generated feeling. This way a person can become more aware of the distinct difference between HOW you feel and WHY you feel that way. You can do that at home with or without the facial expressions. Just takes meditation. Heavily consider how you feel. What caused the feeling and what would dispel it? How reasonable was your response? how conditioned is your perspective? Learn yourself to improve yourself.
I love Eckman, and I still find myself double checking the work he published on wikipedia etc to make sure he really did the groundbreaking research I love most. I want it to be true, so I keep making sure I get it. We're still human, however. With our faults and failings, alongside our feats of pretty epic insight like his. I find his treatment of, and deference to bhuddism and the dali lama to be his most apparent fault. And that's only an issue to me due to my overexposure to his work :P
I have been using fake smiles all my life and have found that people do read your eyes before anything else most often. And if you aren't smiling with your eyes they realize you don't mean the smile. And I figured out how to fake smiles a long time ago. I often have to try to project the feeling of a smile to my eyes. It's difficult to explain. I've always found it kind of easy to read what other's are feeling and what to do and how to act to get the best reaction out of them. What to refrain from doing and what things please them the most and how you present yourself around them. I've learned to do that to fit others simply by reading their feelings and their body language. I met a psychiatrist once and asked them what they could tell about me. She told me that I was really good at faking a smile right off the bat. And that she is also very good at it so she recognized it. And that I'm often times very upset and I try not to show it. Which is true. And she could read it because she knew how to by feeling the same way and learning about it. I think I know what he is trying to describe on the muscles to use around your eyes when using a fake smile. It's is the bottom lid area and the outer corner of the eyes as well as a slight squint to your eyes. Kind of feels like you are lifting your eyes into a smile while also projecting kindness and happiness to that person through your eyes.
Flabber Gasted sometimes, I get lucky and align the joke in my head, perfectly with my interactions. My eyes are smiling but it's genuinely not for that person.
I believe this is true for much more than facial expressions. Muscles throughout our bodies seem to change for our emotional state, and relaxing or tensing them in the correct way might do a similar thing to this, at least that's what I've been discovering. The very way we are being reflects in our emotional state, or perhaps our emotions are an accumulation of our entire bodily state represented as a singular qualitative feeling, for the sake of understanding that vast information more easily. . though it's really not easy to do.
Yes! I can consciously generate the eye movement that's necessary for joy! I just tried it! It works. I find that interesting because I've never been one to fake a smile (or trust anyone who would), always understanding that the telltale eye movement is crucial.
Ekman accepts the traditional view that there are specific emotions which are identifiable from facial expressions. Expressions provide a speculative indication of a variety of feelings but do not prove relationship specifically to a specific feeling (emotion as he describes it). His set of photographs used in psychology literature show e.g. one face which can represent fear or surprise, another disgust, resentment, disapproval or taking offence,, another joy, approval or amusement,
I get what you are saying, but I have bipolar disorder, and my life has been a struggle with what I call "inappropriate emotions". Sometimes what I am feeling is not really relevant to the situation. I used to try and justify them to myself and others, but as I get older, I see that sometimes the emotional centers of the brain can just get things wrong, like a skipped heartbeat. Like he was talking about the toast and the misunderstood gesture. When "appropriate", the feelings are truer.
Only consistency and effort are rewarded when you're trying to change yourself. The only advice I can offer is to continually try to improve yourself and from the same mindspace. If your approach differs everytime it will be weaker because your mind is not ready or practiced, and you will have no comparisons available to you. I try to sit at the foreground of my emotions, to excite them by expression, but then to quell them control of the expression (usually in the length of the sustain).
... we still use those evolutionary reaction mechanisms to handle situations to the point where *can* become unconscious of what we are actually doing, or emoting.
While I agree with the gist of what you're saying, there's no reason to stop someone from smiling at a funeral lol. Maybe a happy thought comes up and you just happen to smile and reminisce in the memory. Plus, he's not saying you should smile at a funeral, he's saying you shouldn't break down so bad and cry like most people probably would, because too much sadness, believe it or not, can be a bad thing for you.
This is what Buddha taught some 2,500 years ago. Th technique is called Vipassana. Vipassana is a way of self-transformation through self-observation. It focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind.
The most tricky part in this equation is whether our conscious conclusions about our emotions are of better quality than the emotions they judge. I think in same cases this is clearly the case, but I also suspect that with good intentions in mind, we can negatively prime our emotional system (e.g. decide to habitually suppress 'negative' emotions that point to an important issue). Nothing against his talk though, he was humble and his points about emotional awareness are very valuable.
A lot of doubters in the comments but I agree with him, not in the absolute sense that facial features will completely rewire your emotions but they do have a *strong* effect. Another discovery is that body language immiedately changes perception of ones self. We are social animals, and more so than any other mammal the social influence on us is a fundemental part of our emotional structure. Your facial features and physical language is half the battle. "Perception is Everything."
Ouspensky wrote: We aren't fully conscious,("awake"), over 7 minutes at a time. Convincing subjective evidence: With a soundless timer; 1/Sit in quiet room w/no distractions. 2/Choose phrase, (ex: "I'm here"), to hold in your mind. 4/ At some point the phrase will -come back- to you. You'll then realize it -left- you for at least a moment. 4/Check timer. ///The point: We mustmake the most of conscious thought to rehearse skills, thus enabling them to continue thru our unconscious moments.
I really liked the talk as well! He did address the issue you are mentioning when he used an example, wherein participants were reflective about the emotion, and then reacted to the situation. If one can reign control the emotion by consciously throwing another face on, to bide time, one can properly reflect upon the original emotion. Personally having a history of habitual repression, I experience a lack of emotions in most situations - priming myself gets me engaged.
Crazy how at some point in life you realize that problems don’t really exist. Only situations that require decisions and every decision will have a different outcome and that outcome only matters to you depending on what your goal is. But your life decisions and experiences won’t matter much in a decade or two.
A body-psychotherapist whose books I've read used to describe what would happen when they would videotape his clients during varied or specific interactions during group therapy: people would be awed by what they'd see on video: themselves! Comments like, "My gosh! I can't believe that's really me!" were common. They were seeing for the first time what had never been possible for them to see so far: their own reactions and over-reactions, their prejudicial attitudes, etc.
I'm no expert but yeah! I do like it very much. With Dr. Ekman's book it's easy for me to understand complicated things that I never got from other psychology books. There is an excerpt of a taped interview between Dr. Ekman & his holiness the 14th Dali Lama. I listened to it & although it wasn't the full in length version it just blew my mind. I'm not Buddhist but that conversation resonated with me. It helped to reaffirm things that I've learned on my own as well as new perspectives. :)
Humans evolved in order to survive animal attacks and other hazardous earthly endeavors. This caused nature to build into our physiology reaction mechanisms that could be actuated without use of our conscious thoughts. Much like you'd dodge a ball in dodgeball, avoid a car accident, or even have an argument with your boss/friend etc, we still use those evolutionary reaction mechanisms to handle situations to the point where we become unconscious of what we are actually doing, or emoting.
Let's rephrase your question like this: Placebo = convincing yourself that a change has been made to the way you feel Ekman's technique = changing the way you feel by convincing yourself to feel that way Therefore your question really = "Was his experiment to change the way you feel by convincing yourself you feel that way REALLY just convincing yourself you feel differently to change the way you feel?" You see the problem? You are confusing placebo and "fake" as the same concept - they're not.
Damn, I learn more cool stuff listening to Big Think and TED Talks than I ever learned sitting in a college classroom. Now that all the bookstores are closed and I can't sit around and read books and drink coffee all afternoon, it's nice to have the net. And when I really get to missing books, there will always be used bookstores. Public libraries are lame and the books are always 15 years behind the times.
here is a simpler way to engage in an emotion. To engage in joy, do something you enjoy. To engage in sadness, watch a sad film or listen to a sad piece of music.
You just make a float and sink generator and make a deep hole besida your house and fill it with water, then you let the generator sink and float continuesly in the waterhole and generate electricity thru a propeller that spins by the resistance in the water. Just push in a bit of air from the bottom to make it float to the surface again to restart it.
Honestly, I'm not too keen on the idea of controlling your emotions. Evidently it has its benefits, but at the same time, I believe there's a distinction between rational and emotional decisions for a reason. Maybe we do need better control over what our emotions do to us, but at the same time facing them on such a rational front, to me, seems to dehumanize them a little. Or maybe overhumanize them.
I am the one proving you have a Maker because working mechanisms always have an ultimate Maker. You are the one not proving objects made you, without being directed.
"nature didn't want you to do that" - Are we not part of nature? Maybe it's not that nature doesn't want us to do it but that we are the only part of nature that can. Also, the idea of transforming through conscious awareness has been around for a LONG time, as long as meditation has been around and possibly longer. That being said, I'm glad that western science is finally getting on board with ideas like this, instead of marginalizing them.
My sadness/anger is also gone for no cause. A close aunt passed away and I didn't feel anything. My parents separated a month later and I didn't feel anything.
+Pure Villainy Could be just simply what I have with my relatives, not connected at all. Or it can be just the feeling you can have that day(not caring) and when ever your aunt comes to mind, you automatically link that 'i don't care' to that experience. Personally I don't feel anything for anything much really, but that is because I distant myself from the ordinary life and live in isolation.
+Pure Villainy lol thats a sign of denial and or depression. and just because you think your not depressed doesn't mean your not. I've seen people who say they are not depressed and they think they aren't becasue they say they aren't sad. But in reality they are so far in denial they made them self's believe it. But it always shows in the persons behavior, later on weather its they stop caring about there school work or stop caring about them selfs. worst part is they never realize why and stay in denial.
+John Doe- I think it could be a lack a sadness toward a situation. So to say, you're not sad over the fact that you'll never see that person again or that you'll never get to talk to them. Maybe your glad that you got spend time with them while you still could and that you're not focused on that they're gone and dead. Perhaps it's a matter on what you're focusing on at the moment come later you focus on a different matter that was about the same moment before. Maybe then you would have different feelings. Just a theory.
Yes, youre right :) I just practice Vipassana and couldn't think of a better way to express in words about what it is. Therefore, took the short-cut of cut-paste from the official dhamma website. I think you meant the book titled "Whereever you go There you are" sounds like a good book... I will surely read it.
I don't mind Dr. Eckman's deference to Buddhism or His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I love his work too. I believe his research has helped me become a better person, long story short. :)
A Maker is able to write directives to make you a human because nothing else can. The programmable elements programmed inside of you are observable. There is no question about it. Your brain is only partially on and partially off. You have to grab hold on all of the concepts and not just selective hearing. I proved it whether you understood it or not.
iam 100% behind you on that. Most of our primal instinc, that we still carry even to this day, still creeps around everytime. Exemples: Glutonny:no im not talking about the religous sin, im talking about the fact. the fact that people eat more then they should. Why is that you might ask. Simple really. Brack in the days, food was scarce, so being fat was a sign of health, a good thing to do if you could do it. Nowadays we prefer slim, however both slim or fat, the humans race is safe. Obsolete.
This is sheer bunk. You can neither genearate or control "emotion". Emotion is a signalling process which induces physiological changes,when we perceive threat or promiseand enables us to best cope. Like other "emotion" theorists Ekman describes feelings and thoughts as emotions and categorises such and related expressions with "emotion word labels" Emotion, as subjective experience, can induce or lead to certain feelings but is itself a discrete process.
Well you have to understand that THIS is a specific procedure, developed by social physchologist Paul Ekman. This is his job: he writes books and sells training material on this topic. If you want to purchase some of his material on microexpressions, google. paulekman He has a website where you can learn more. If you want to develop your own techniques, just build upon the core concept: Sit down...and Attempt to feel an emotion. Once you can CREATE them, you can stop being a slave to them.
Same here, i sometimes just smile to myself at the mirror, make it bigger and make it seems more and more natural, and i start to feel it and even giggle a bit :D I learned it myself :) Without a mirror is harder though, because u need a great facial expression awareness to make a big smile that seems natural, i guess it's a thing for practice :)
Yes, but maybe not today. We can build centripetal artificial gravity already by building a giant rotating wheel and having a person stand in the middle, then rotate the wheel fast enough that the person is pushed into the outside of the wheel hard enough that they don't fall. But increasing the gravitational field forces around us artificially is in my opinion, most probably possible sometime in the near future.
Fascinating discovery. Good to know. Great concept. Similarly, some Botox clients experience a change in personality, because their face is paralyzed and the muscles can no longer form an appropriate expression of emotion.
I looked this up because I realised that changing facial expressions changes the way I feel iv Been using this in daily life I just wanted to see if it is actually common.
I agree with the adaptive model, and that we cannot really know a "truth" for sure (in the context of limited human understanding). There is too much absurdity in the "logic" of human nature, and I am fully aware of this, but because of my conscious awareness, it makes it difficult for me to find ideas such as Ekman's incredibly exciting. Ideas only excite me when I believe it them to be helpful, and the only time I can discern between good and bad is when I'm not dwelling on this absurd reality
Yeah, but emotions are a whole lot closer then a wound is, if you know what I mean. You can stop pain from a wound on your body by taking a placebo, making your brain think that pain there isn't needed anymore, the person already helped it (which didn't actually happen). But this I do not think is a placebo, because emotions dont just look at physical signals. You can smile as much you'd like, but if your in deep emotional pain(like mourning for a fallen loved one), I doubt it'll help much.
fuck it, even if you smile all the way through you probably won't get happy. I honestly advise so to give a damn about your own facial expression. I felt bad for a long time, didn't like me because people kept telling me my eyes somehow are looking though them or be hostile in a way. But i never was hostile then but just honestly curious and tensed about what they were going to say. And i don't want to pretend to be happy still, but i want to be honestly if so. Just when the moment hits you - then you forget about your own expression and express not what you want to (no further manipulation) but really give something out, giving a true signal of your inner state into the outside which then will reflect and come back in an honest way. Otherwise false emotion and play is the only thing you can get. This just is some philosophy of mine... in the hope of helping anyone who tries not to harm and harms himself just because of that. Feel good you jaunty soul!
