The Emotional Life of Your Brain
How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live - and How You Can Change Them
Richie Davidson is one of the world's leading neuroscientists and was the first guy to check out monks' brains in a lab. He founded the affective + contemplative neuroscience fields and is, quite simply, a neuroscientist rock star. In this Note, we explore some of his best Big Ideas, understanding how our thoughts and behaviors affect the very structure of our brains and the emotions we feel. We'll also look at how to dial it all in.
Big Ideas
- Emotional StyleHow’s yours?
- The Six Dimensions of Emotional Style...of Emotional Style.
- You can change your brain (+ emotional Style)It’s fun! :)
- Double helixes + music collections+ music collections.
- Cognitive-behavior therapy = awesome= awesome.
- Mindfulness Meditation= super powerful.
- Little things + Big thingsAnd big things.
“This book describes a personal and professional journey to understand why and how people differ in their emotional responses to what life throws at them, motivated by my desire to help people lead healthier, more fulfilling lives. The “professional” thread in this tapestry describes the development of the hybrid discipline called affective neuroscience, the study of the brain mechanisms that underlie our emotions and the search for ways to enhance people’s sense of well-being and promote positive qualities of mind. The “personal” thread is my own story. Spurred by the conviction that, as Hamlet said to Horatio, “there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of” in the standard account of the mind provided by mainstream psychology and neuroscience, I have ventured outside the boundaries enclosing these disciplines, sometimes getting struck down, but in the end, I hope, achieving at least some of what I set out to do: to show through rigorous research that emotions, far from being the neurological fluff that mainstream science once believed them to be, are central to the functions of the brain and to the life of the mind.”
~ Richard J. Davidson from The Emotional Life of Your Brain
Richard Davidson is amazing. (And so is this book.)
Richie (as he’s affectionately known) founded two fields that have greatly shaped our understanding of what it means to live optimally: affective neuroscience (the study of the brain basis of human emotion) + contemplative neuroscience (the study of the effects of meditation on the brain).
Richie is the guy who first approached the Dalai Lama about studying the brains of experienced meditators. (Matthieu Ricard’s brain was first studied in his lab. Incredibly cool stuff.)
His path to break the boundaries of what was being studied at the time is, in my mind, truly heroic and deeply inspiring. And, the wisdom gained in the process is extraordinary.
So, basically, we have him to thank for a huge part of the burgeoning field of neuroscientific research and how we can apply that scientific wisdom to optimizing our lives. Thank you, Richie.
This book is a fascinating look into his research lab over the last few decades and is packed with Big Ideas. I’ll focus on a handful of inspiring, practical gems. Get the book (here) for the deep dive into the scientific details of his experiments + adventures.
For now, let’s jump in!
Download MP3
Download PDFI wasn’t interested in measuring the patterns of brain activity that accompany meditation, though that might be perfectly interesting. Instead, I hoped to see how thousands and thousands of hours of meditation alter brain circuitry in a sufficiently enduring way as to be perceptible when the brain is not meditating.
Get the Book
Listen to the PodcastEmotional Style
“Over the course of my career as a neuroscientist, I’ve seen thousands of people who share similar backgrounds respond in dramatically different ways to the same life event. Some are resilient in the face of stress, for instance, while others fall apart. The latter become anxious, depressed, or unable to function when they encounter adversity. Resilient people are somehow able not only to withstand but to benefit from certain kinds of stressful events and to turn that adversity into advantage. This, in a nutshell, is the puzzle that has driven my research. I’ve wanted to know what determines how someone reacts to a divorce, to the death of a loved one, to the loss of a job, or to any other setback—and, equally, what determines how people react to a career triumph, to winning the heart of their true love, to realizing a friend will walk over coals for them, or to other sources of happiness. Why and how do people differ so widely in their emotional responses to the ups and downs of life?
The answer that has emerged from my own work is that different people have different Emotional Styles.”
Emotional Style. This is the cornerstone of Davidson’s work with Affective Neuroscience. Whereas other “personality type” kinda tests are interesting, none of them can be traced to a specific, characteristic brain signature like his Emotional Styles. Before we go into a little more detail on what Emotional Styles are, let’s distinguish them from states, moods and traits. As Davidson explains: “The smallest, most fleeting unit of emotion is an emotional state. Typically lasting only a few seconds, it tends to be triggered by an experience… A feeling that does persist, and that remains consistent over minutes or hours or even days, is a mood, of the “he’s in a bad mood” variety. And a feeling that characterizes you not for days but for years is an emotional trait.” OK. So, we have emotional states, moods, traits and style. We’re interested in STYLE. Let’s unpack that a bit more.
Just as each person has a unique fingerprint and a unique face, each of us has a unique emotional profile, one that is so much a part of who we are that those who know us well can often predict how we will respond to an emotional challenge.
The Six Dimensions of Emotional Style
“Emotional Style comprises six dimensions. Neither conventional aspects of personality nor simple emotional traits or moods, let alone diagnostic criteria for mental illness, these six dimensions reflect the discoveries of modern neuroscientific research:
Resilience: how slowly or quickly you recover from adversity.
Outlook: how long you are able to sustain positive emotion.
Social Intuition: how adept you are at picking up social signals from the people around you.
Self-Awareness: how well you perceive bodily feelings that reflect emotions.
Sensitivity to Context: how good you are at regulating your emotional responses to take into account the context you find yourself in.
Attention: how sharp and clear your focus is.”
Resilience + Outlook + Social Intuition + Self-Awareness + Sensitivity to Context + Attention.
The six dimensions of Emotional Style.
Davidson provides an awesome chapter to help us identify where we land in each of those dimensions and then provides the science behind how he arrived at the importance of each while providing practical tips on how to optimize them.
Great stuff.
What’s *really* interesting is the fact that we can CHANGE our brains and thereby optimize our Emotional Style…
I would go so far as to assert that of all the forms of human behavior and psychological states, the most powerful influence on our physical health is our emotional life.
You can change your brain (+ emotional Style)
“Although Emotional Style is ordinarily quite stable over time, it can be altered by serendipitous experiences as well as by conscious, intentional effort at any point in life, through the intentional cultivation of specific mental qualities or habits.
I am not saying that it is theoretically possible to shift your place on one of the continua of Emotional Style, or that such a shift is possible only in principle. In my research, I have discovered practical, effective ways to do so… for now suffice it to say that you can modify your Emotional Style to improve your resilience, social intuition, sensitivity to your own internal emotional and physiological states, coping mechanisms, attention, and sense of well-being. The amazing fact is that through mental activity alone we can intentionally change our own brains. Mental activity, ranging from meditation to cognitive-behavior therapy, can alter brain function in specific circuits, with the result that you can develop a broader awareness of social signals, a deeper sensitivity to your own feelings and bodily sensations and a more consistently positive outlook. In short, through mental training you can alter your patterns of brain activity and the very structure of your brain in a way that will change your Emotional Style and improve your life. I believe this is the ultimate step in mind-body interaction.”
Wow. So much of that is so inspiring.
Let’s recap.
First, let’s note: “The amazing fact is that through mental activity alone we can intentionally change our own brains.” That is truly amazing. Neuroplasticity 101.
By simply changing our mental activity (aka thoughts!), we can “alter your patterns of brain activity and the very structure of your brain.” And, as a result, we can optimize our lives.
That is so incredibly inspiring.
Here’s some more goodness on how are genetic makeup fits into the equation:
Since the brain contains the physical underpinnings of Emotional Style, and since the brain can change in these fundamental ways, Emotional Styles can change.
Double helixes + music collections
“These were the first hints that our emotional and psychological fate does not lie solely within the twists of the double helix. Depending on the experience a child has had, a genetic basis for shyness, or aggression, or delinquency might or might not manifest itself. Rather than thinking of DNA as the software running our cells—or the player-piano sheets that dictate what notes will be played—it is time to think of it as a music collection. Whether you store your music on an iPod or as a stack of CDs or (are there any of us left?) vinyl records, what music we hear depends on which music gets played. Just because we have it doesn’t mean the harmonies encoded in the bumps and valleys within the grooves of an LP will reach our ears. Now we know that just because we have a particular gene doesn’t mean that it’s music will be part of our lives. Or, if I may abandon the music analogy, think of it this way: Genes load the gun, but only the environment can pull the trigger.”
Key point: Our genes DO NOT determine our lives. Period.
They may load the gun, but it’s only our environment (+ thoughts + behaviors) that can pull the trigger.
This is VERY good news.
Why?
Because WE create our day-to-day environment via our thoughts and behaviors. And, of course, we always (!) have the opportunity to train ourselves to more consistently choose better thoughts and behaviors.
As a guy with arguably less than awesome genes (as I’ve mentioned before, my dad was an alcoholic and his dad was an alcoholic who killed himself), I find this incredibly liberating.
You?
P.S. “In short, the revolution in neuroplasticity has shown that the brain can change as a result of two distinct inputs. It can change as a result of the experiences we have in the world—how we move and behave and what sensory signals arrive in our cortex. The brain can also change in response to purely mental activity, ranging from meditation to cognitive-behavior therapy, with the result that the activity in specific circuits can increase or decrease.”
(Alrighty, now that we’ve established the *scientific* FACT that we can change our brains, let’s take a quick look at a couple of the most significant ways to take control of our internal environment: cognitive-behavior therapy + mindfulness meditation...)
As with every dimension of Emotional Style, enduring change will come about through mental practice that shifts patterns of neural activity.
Cognitive-behavior therapy = awesome
“Cognitive-behavior therapy, which was developed in the 1960s, is at bottom a form of mental training. It focuses on teaching patients to respond to their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in a healthy way. The idea is to reappraise dysfunctional thinking, helping people escape the pattern in which they think, The fact that she didn’t want to go out with me a second time means I am a total loser and will never be loved. Patients learn to recognize their habit of catastrophizing, of turning everyday setbacks into calamities, and with these cognitive skills, they can feel sadness and experience disappointment without tumbling into the abyss of depression.”
Cognitive-behavior therapy rocks. We touch on it throughout these Notes.
Learning to challenge our negative thoughts is a *huge* way to rewire our brains.
And, it’s fun.
In her great book The How of Happiness (see Notes), Sonja Lyubomirsky describes our negative thoughts as “barrier thoughts” and tells us: “Write down your barrier thoughts, and then consider ways to reinterpret the situation. In the process, ask yourself questions like… What else could this situation or experience mean? Can anything good come from it? Does it present any opportunities for me? What lessons can I learn and apply to the future? Did I develop any strengths as a result?”
Make it a game.
Notice even the slightest little crankiness right as it rears its head.
And, challenge it.
Poke around and see if your negative view is the *only* possible perspective. (Hint: It never (!) is.) Then see if you can create a slightly more empowered interpretation. And perhaps even an extraordinarily more empowered interpretation.
Y0u always have a choice which music in your head you’re going to play.
Let’s choose the good stuff.
P.S. Practice, practice, practice!! Sonja reminds us: “Essentially, all optimism strategies involve the exercise of construing the world with a more positive and charitable perspective, and many entail considering the silver lining in the cloud, identifying the door that opens as a result of one that has closed. It takes hard work and a great deal of practice to accomplish effectively, but if you can persist at these strategies until they become habitual, the benefits could be immense. Some optimists may be born that way, but scores of optimists are made with practice.”
Mindfulness Meditation
“To cultivate greater Resilience and faster recovery from setbacks, I recommend mindfulness meditation. Because it produces emotional balance, mindfulness meditation helps you recover, but not too quickly (just as it helps you focus but not get hyperfocused). Mindfulness weakens the chains of associations that keep us obsessing about and even wallowing in a setback. For instance, losing a job might cause your thoughts to tumble from “unemployment” to “no health insurance” to “lose home” to “I can’t go on.” Mindfulness strengthens connections between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, promoting equanimity that will keep you from spiraling down this way. As soon as your thoughts begin to leap from one catastrophe to the next in this chain of woe, you have the mental wherewithal to pause, observe how easily the mind does this, note that it is an interesting mental process, and resist getting drawn into the abyss. I recommend that you start with a simple form of mindfulness meditation such as the mindfulness of breathing, described previously.”
Davidson walks us through practical ideas to help us optimize each of the six dimensions of our Emotional Style.
And, he comes back to mindfulness meditation again and again.
If you want the “mental wherewithal” to slow down, notice the mind’s tendency to spiral into an abyss and land in ickville, then mindfulness meditation may be for you.
Check out the book or other Notes for more meditation goodness. For now, a one-minute version goes something like this: Sit comfortably with your spine straight and feet on the ground (with “dignity” as Jon Kabat-Zinn would advise). Place your hands in your lap. Gently close your eyes. Notice your breath coming in and out of your nose, moving through your body and back out through your nose. In… and out… If your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to your breath coming in… and out…
Ahhhh… :)
Mindfulness meditation carves new channels in the streambeds of the mind.
Little things + Big things
“My research has consistently demonstrated that recovery from the minor challenges we administer in an experiment, such as being burned by the thermode or seeing an upsetting picture, is strongly correlated with and predictive of how someone copes with real-life adversity, particularly how quickly they recover. Resilience on the little things is therefore a good indicator of Resilience on the bigger ones… If they recover quickly from the little setbacks, they tend to be resilient in the face of big ones, and if they become paralyzed by or obsess over the little things, they tend to be laid low for a long time by the big things, too.”
Fascinating stuff.
So, how you respond to little things tends to predict how you respond to big things. Got it.
When I read that, I think of Krishnamurti. Specifically, this wisdom: “To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one.”
If we want to deal with the big things well, we need to train ourselves to deal with the tiny things really well.
Someone cut you off on the freeway? Notice your tendency to lose your stuff. Take a deep breath. Silently send the person some love and remind yourself that you, too, often get in a rush.
Checkout moving slowly at the grocery store and you’re thinking you picked the “wrong” line? Great. Take a few deep breaths, marvel at the magic that is a modern grocery store and appreciate the abundance we’re blessed to have and the fact you’re spending a few minutes, not hours, securing your food.
As the Buddha says: “Little by little a person become evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water… Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water.”
We want to use each moment as an opportunity to express the highest version of ourselves.
Little by little. Drop by drop.
The brain is neither immutable nor static but continuously remodeled by the lives we lead.
Transforming your skill in attention will require some practice, but because attention is the building block for so much else, I believe it’s worth the effort. And I’m confident that most people will experience some benefit in a short period of time.
About the authors
