In answer to Sarah on mythoself-tm@yahoogroups.com:
“Very few people have their emotions, most people instead allow their emotions to have them.”
I’m going to layout a brief description of the way emotions are considered in the MythoSelf® Process model, without going through the technical details below. The basis of the model resides in the Soma-Semantic™ model which is a form of physiological epistemology, or a way of forming how we know ourselves and the world to be based on how we configure our experience in it. This model integrates both the larger contextual consideration as well as the individual consideration treating emotions as transpersonal phenomena.
This brief discussion will document some of the principal points of how emotions are considered in the MythoSelf® Process model.
The most basic premise regarding emotions within the MythoSelf® Process model is that:
Emotions are “organized” somatically, i.e.: fundamentally they are muscle memory configurations.
Yet there are the “triggers” that fire in the neural system that are both responsive to and generative of these somatic configurations. Remember within the MythoSelf® Process model there is no distinction between body and mind. There is a distinction between body and brain, within this model the “mind” is not the same a “brain.” The “mind” is present and pervasive throughout the entire conscious and somatic experience. There is an interplay between the brain and the body and they “make sense” of one another, loosely using that term. The brain tracks the body in what we would call consciousness awareness, i.e.: we know ourselves to “be” in someway and that way is thoroughly embodied. The body knows the brain in that it is “aware” of the impulse or signal to move or hold a form, i.e.: posture, gesture or expression. This interplay organizes what I would refer to as mind, the interface between the internal and external extant reality as it is perceived by the individual.
Let me restate something simple that is also fundamental to the model: Perception is subjective (individual/personal), while Experience is inter-subjective (interactive/interpersonal).
Emotions are subjectively perceived and inter-subjectively experienced. We “experience” the emotions of others and “experience” our emotions in relation to others.
The body is the form through which we experience interface with others, with the world, with the cosmos. It is where the sensory systems are organized, and I hold we have more than five ... the five most often referred to are: sight, sound, feeling, taste and smell. However there are other sensory forms that we organize, like proprioception which someone could subsume into the kinesthetic sense, yet for me this is way too simplistic. The proprioceptive sense is organized in the recursive loop between the muscular system and the motor cortex tracking the body movement and position in space. Yet it also seems to be referenced in relation to the visual markers that a sighted person uses, so that it extends the process outside of or beyond the kinesthetic. However, I hold that sight is a body process as much as a brain process. To “see” something you have to aim your eyes towards what you want to see and have the body skills to do this and the ability to move in this manner including holding yourself stable enough to keep the image in focus and stable as well, this is a somatic response not “just” a brain function. In all these ways the senses are both somatic and cognitive forms.
The emotional response of the individual is also related to the mirror neurons, those neurons which are associated with memory and recognition. Simply put in relation to specific stimulus these “trigger” neurons fire and “light up” a pattern in the neurology that both release and respond to neurochemicals associated with that pattern. This pattern and the neurochemical response are somewhere near the base of what might be called emotions. And there will be a corresponding somatic response ... a tightening here and relaxing there. One exciting part of this is that when we see others move in particular ways these mirror neurons are capable of replicating the patterns of neural response that would be associated with moving in that way ourselves. This is the basis of modeling and replication as well as empathic responsiveness. Then of course there’s the “thinking” part of emotion, what “meaning” a person makes of what’s going on inside them and in relation to the context they are experiencing (remember the inter-subjective stance I hold).
The fundamental state of experience, including all emotional states, is perceived through the body organization in relation to sensory inputs - both internal and external - at any given moment in time. This will be the way the individual knows themselves to “be” in that moment, even when there is no conscious awareness of it. Within this model this organization is referred to as the ontological ground, or the fundamental way of being for an individual.
Your way of being is contained in the way you organize yourself, and becomes directly related to your “emotional state” when you make it an identity issue, i.e.: “I am sad” ... “I am joyful” ... “I am depressed” ... “I am ecstatic” ...
The confusion of making an emotional state an identity issue is fully integrated with the idea of the “ego” as an identity position that’s held by the individual. Even the way people speak about their emotions, especially the “bad ones,” brings out this confusion, as in the exclamation, “How come I’m so sad all the time?” This nominalizes the emotion instead of holding it as something that’s occurring, as in the alternative statement, “How come I’m experiencing sadness so often?” However, what’s happening at any moment in time when the individual is sad, or joyful, or depressed, or ecstatic ... is that it is also being experienced in the body outside of or beyond the meaning being made of it. There is a direct somatic experience, i.e.: this muscle is tight, this muscle is relaxed ... in a particular sequence and configuration. In this model that is where the emotions are, in the muscular sequences and configurations held. The “meaning” of emotion is organized in relation to brain states which are always in reference to body states, the interplay between them constituting mind (in this model).
So going back to the beginning your question was essentially, “What about emotion?”
The ability to organize yourself to perceive your emotions as body states, or sequences and configurations of muscular contraction and relaxation, gives you plenty of play with how you’ll experience them. You can choose to reorganize your body even while your brain is organizing in relation to the emotional state you’ve defined, creating a new one almost instantly. This is the power contained within this model to address the emotional experience an direct it in relation to others as well. However the “skill set” of how to do this, i.e.: run your somatic experience, is a highly trained and one that few people possess. Instead they think of themselves as victims to emotion, especially to the “moods” of others – or the form that permeates the system in the configurations others bring into it.
When you make your emotional state an experience you are perceiving in a particular way, directly under your control to modify at will, you cannot be a victim of emotion any longer – yours or anyone else’s.
I for one think this kind of training is essential and foster it in all my clients and especially my children. I also understand that you don’t get to have some emotions, “the good ones” and not others “the bad ones.” When you are open to and able to have the complete range and spectrum of human emotion you are ever more human as a result. One of the most valuable realizations I’ll offer that you can have about this is the relationship between your emotional states and your behaviors. If in fact you choose your emotional response within this model it would mean that you’ve chosen the specific body response your having as well. This would allow you such things as organizing yourself to be or become motivated as this too is a form of somatic organization, regardless of how you “feel” about something or someone, and get on with your life accomplishing those things you value most highly.
The only thing that I’d add in is to again pose the question, “Are you in control of your emotions or are they in control of you?” To put it another way:
The fundamental question within this model is, “Are you having your emotions (emotional response) or are they having you?!?
When you can and do answer this question in the affirmative that you indeed are having your emotions then you are on track with where this model goes, whether or not you are using the specific skills as they are organized within this model. If you cannot answer this question affirmatively then you might like to know that you can when are ready to do something about that ... and ultimately make the response you have a default one as well ... operating in relation to a world that works.
Sorry for the short answer but going into the explanations of brain function and neurochemistry in any depth seemed overkill ;~>
Best regards,
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Architect and Designer of the MythoSelf® Process
http://www.mythoself.com
[Author’s Note: Motivation is a specific configuration of the proprioceptive and vestibular system in relation to a teleological proposition held by the individual. Trans.: When you have a sense of moving forward and are slightly out of balance in regard to staying where you are, while simultaneously retaining a sense of what will be true when you attain what you’re moving towards that is highly desirable to you, you’ll easily be able to hold and retain a sense of motivation in regard to doing the things necessary to bring about what it is you desire. This is in spite of and regardless of what it is that you want to become motivated about, e.g.: losing weight, getting a better job, treating people better, becoming more healthy/fit, quitting smoking, attaining enlightenment ... .]
NOTE: A new Mytho2 – MythoSelf® Process Facilitator’s Training program is beginning soon in Tiburon, California (about 30 minutes north of San Francisco) - get complete details at the MythoSelf website ... http://www.mythoself.com.
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