{"id":4964,"date":"2022-06-25T02:08:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T18:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darylchow.com\/frontiers\/?p=4964"},"modified":"2024-05-28T21:17:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T13:17:39","slug":"emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darylchow.com\/frontiers\/emotions\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotions Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Note: This is a compilation of Frontier Friday<\/a><\/strong>, a weekly Substack published, originally released on 25 Jun. 202<\/em>2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PART I<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. \ud83c\udf81 New from My Desk: Why You Need a Guide To Go Deep<\/a><\/strong>
    In this new post, I shared my experience about being at a therapy workshop, what I’ve learned from Les Greenberg, and why a slow, soft and singular focus is needed in approaching difficult emotions in therapy.
     <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. \ud83d\udcd5 Book-Read:<\/strong> How Emotions Are Made<\/a><\/strong>
    Hands down, this is book by Lisa Feldman Barrett is probably one of the most important (and current) text on the topic of emotions. 
    While compiling this, I  found out from another version of this book that Dan Gilbert called Feldman Barrett “…the deepest thinker about this topic since Darwin.”  <\/em>
    After you’ve read this book, you’d know why. Feldman Barrett turned my world upside down.

    Key Grafs:<\/strong> 
    – An emotion is your brain\u2019s creation of what your bodily sensations mean, in relation to what is going on around you in the world.
    – Contrast the classical view of emotions, the theory of Constructed Emotions is
    – “Your emotions are not built-in but made from more basic parts. They are not universal but vary from culture to culture. They are not triggered; you create them.”
    – “Emotions are real, but not in the objective sense that molecules or neurons are real. They are real in the same sense that money is real \u2014 that is, hardly an illusion, but a product of human agreement.”

    – “You are not a passive receiver of sensory input but an active constructor of your emotions.”<\/em>
    – Variation is the norm. 
    – Body budget: “The most basic thing you can do to master your emotions, in fact, is to keep your body budget in good shape… If they aren\u2019t, and your body budget gets out of whack, then you\u2019re going to feel crappy no matter what self-help tips you follow. It\u2019s just a matter of which flavor of crap.”
     <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. \ud83d\udc53 Web-Read: Facial Expressions Do Not Reveal Emotions<\/a><\/strong>
    One of the most compelling arguments Lisa Feldman Barrett makes is in Chapter 3, The Myths of Universal Emotions. Here, she challenged the classical view in the likes of Paul Ekman universal facial expression. 
    In this American Scientific article, LFB provides a glimpse into this argument. Worth reading.  

    Key Grafs: <\/strong>
    – \u201cThere\u2019s also considerable evidence that facial movements are just one signal of many in a much larger array of contextual information that our brain takes in. Show people a grimacing face in isolation, and they may perceive pain or frustration. But show the identical face on a runner crossing the finish line of a race, and the same grimace conveys triumph. The face is often a weaker signal of a person\u2019s internal state than other signals in the array,”<\/em>

    – “People may indeed widen their eyes and gasp in fear, but they may also scowl in fear, cry in fear, laugh in the face of fear and, in some cultures, even fall asleep in fear. There is no essence (on Essentialism).\u201d
    – “Other scientists point to a mountain of counterevidence showing that facial movements during emotions vary too widely to be universal beacons of emotional meaning. People may smile in hatred when plotting their enemy\u2019s downfall and scowl in delight when they hear a bad pun.”<\/em>
     <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. \ud83c\udfa7 Listen: Balancing the Body Budget<\/a><\/strong>
    If you prefer to listen, check out several of LFB podcast interviews. This is one of them on     The Knowledge Project by Shane Parrish.<\/a><\/strong>

    Key Grafs:<\/strong>
    – When it comes to emotion, as with almost everything in biology, variation is the norm. There isn\u2019t one anger. You have a whole population of angers that you can feel and your brain doesn\u2019t conjure them randomly. It conjures them according to your brain\u2019s best guess of what\u2019s going to work in a particular situation.

    – The brain: most expensive metabolic budget (20%). When brain depletes, less budget for the body to move.
    – Fallacy that emotions trip you up: Sometimes thinking trip you up too; false dichotomy of logical vs emotional brain… “you have one brain.” 
     <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. \u23f8 Words Worth Contemplating: <\/strong>
    “The body doesn’t keep the score. Your brain keeps the score. Your body is the score.”  <\/strong><\/em>
    ~ Lisa Feldman Barrett
    <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Reflection:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    HALT.  Take a moment to check your body budget. Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    PART II<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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    1. \ud83d\udc53 Read: What Is the Emotion Often Denoted Being Moved?<\/a><\/strong>
      This article published in Emotion Review (2019) offers a fascinating insight. The researchers from Norway and LA conclude that “being moved”<\/strong><\/em> should be treated as a distinct emotion.<\/strong>
      Take a look these tables:
      <\/a>
      \"\"

      Isn’t it interesting that based on a body of literature on the topic of “Being Moved” is perceived as a passive experience? 

      In Chinese, “being moved”  g\u01cen d\u00f2ng [\u611f\u52a8]<\/strong>, literally translates \u201cto feel movement<\/strong>.”
      My Chinese secondary school teacher would be proud of me here. I failed the subject terribly (twice) at my GCE exams. No kidding. I couldn’t read 80% of the text, so I did my Mandarin oral exams in English. I talked about B.B. King.

      Here’s another table from this article: 

      \"\"
      <\/a>
      Another interesting pattern emerged from the body of studies. The lexeme being moved <\/em>not only fosters approach and prosocial tendencies, but also lead to “insight, meaning and personal growth.”

      To me, beyond semantics, this has important implications in the practice of psychotherapy: 

      a. Deep emotional experiencing within-sessions helps to soften the ground;
      b. In turn, when the emotional grounds are soften, tapping into one’s emotional needs are more likely, and 
      c. The person is more likely to “be moved” beyond their current state.

      When I see or hear emotional responses or visceral changes in the person (e.g., sighs, tears, reporting of chills), I check in, and see if we can takes one more step towards their healing and growth edges. I learned this from watching my supervisor work. It’s deeply moving. 
       <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. \ud83d\udc53 Read: Bodily Maps of Emotions<\/a><\/strong>
      I was introduced to this PNAS article by Les Greenberg during an emotion-focused therapy workshop. 
      I’m a little skeptical if this is universal across cultures (even though there is a       recent study<\/a><\/strong> that claimed it is), as well as across individuals (For example, a composite brain scan of hundreds of individuals doesn’t necessarily mean that each person’s neuro-activation is exactly like the aggregated brain imaging).

      Still, it’s interesting. Emotions are not just in the mind. It is a real bodily experience. (I talked about this briefly in my other blog, <\/strong>Full Circles<\/strong><\/em>:       The Music of Emotions and Why We Should Listen<\/a>).<\/strong>

      \"\"

      <\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. \ud83d\udcdc From My Desk (Archive): Anaesthetic vs. Aesthetic Experience<\/a><\/strong>
      1-minute read.
      Un-numb yourself with aesthetic experiences. 
       <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. \ud83d\udc53 Read: Emotion in Schizophrenia<\/a><\/strong>
      According to the timestamp on this file, I first read this in Oct 2010. 
      It was a useful not to self at that point in time, as I was working in an inpatient and outpatient psychiatric setting:

      Key Grafs:<\/strong>
      – People with schizophrenia have difficulties in anticipatory pleasure.
      – This makes them seek pleasurable experiences less. 
      – Yet, as the authors noted, “…In the presence of emotionally pleasant things, such as films, pictures, tastes, or just day-to-day life, people with schizophrenia report experiencing as much pleasure as do people without schizophrenia.”
       <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. \u23f8 Words Worth Contemplating:\u00a0<\/strong>
      “What are you\u00a0unwilling to feel?” \u00a0<\/strong><\/em>
      ~ Tara Brach
      <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Reflection:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Ask yourself, when I’m conducting therapy, what am I unwilling to feel? As we prepare for the day of clinical practice, can we create some spaciousness to go there with the question? Just a min or two… Make the choice to go there with fierce kindness and curiosity might open doors of possibilities as you work with others dealing with painful emotions. …In turn, creating a spacious invitation for clients to speak the unspokens<\/a>. Allow yourself to be altered<\/a>, to be moved.<\/em>
      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      PART III<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Here’s this week’s Frontiers Friday Five Recommendations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      1. \u2753Question: Are You More Emotionally Accurate With Voice + Facial Cues, or with Voice Only?<\/a><\/strong>
        We prefer for both video and audio inputs for communication. However,         Michael Kraus and colleagues<\/a><\/strong> found that when we have only voice input\u2013that is minus non-verbal input\u2013our emotional accuracy higher!Based on a series of 5 experiments that were conducted with 1700+ folks, contrary to Paul Ekman\u2019s work on the reliance of facial expressions, Kraus noted,

        _…Voice-only communication elicits higher rates of empathic accuracy<\/strong> relative to vision-only…
        The current research suggests that relying on a combination of vocal and facial cues, or solely facial cues, may not be the best strategy for accurate emotion recognition\u2014particularly because facial expressions can sometimes be inconsistent with internal states or used to actively dissemble.<\/em>

        I don’t know about you, but this blows my mind. So what should we do? Insist that we speak on the phone only? Not quite. Maybe we can learn what musicians do on stage when they are deep in the flow of things: They close their eyes.
        I notice that sometimes some people close their eyes when they are intently listening to the other person speaking. Especially in a significant moment of the conversation, constraining the visual input for a blip moment might actually help us to attune better. (For more details on this, see the next Tip in #2).
        Notes:
        1. Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting you close your eyes in the entire session.
        2. I first mentioned this study in         <\/a>Looking Back at 2020<\/strong><\/em>
         <\/li>\n\n\n\n
      2. \ud83d\udc53 Read: Measures of Client and Therapist Vocal Quality<\/strong>
        It’s fair to say that a lot of emotional signal is conveyed in our voice. Psychotherapy researchers seemed to be clued in on this early on in the 80\u2019s when they attempted to codify vocal quality.
        Take for example, in Greenberg and Pinsof\u2019s 1986 seminal edited book, The Therapeutic Process<\/em>, Laura Rice and Gillian Kerr addressed the topic of measuring client and therapist vocal quality as indicators of the depth of processing within therapeutic conversations.

        \"\"

        <\/a>Table 3.1 from Chapter 3 of edited book The Therapeutic Process \u201cMeasures of Client and Therapist Vocal Quality by Rice and Kerr, 1986.<\/strong><\/em>

        If you conduct therapy or trainings online, the implication is clear. Take care of the quality of your microphone input. Invest in a USB microphone. While a microphone headset does a good enough job, the microphone quality is highly compressed, which means that it would sound thinner than a proper condenser microphone.
        Besides having a good mic, make sure that your speakers are clear. Don\u2019t rely on the tiny sound coming out of your mobile device or laptop speakers. Get a headset or external speakers. 

        \ud83c\udf81 Here’s a Tip:<\/strong>
        Personally, I’ve found the theoretical ideas on Vocal Quality proposed by Rice and Keer useful, but hard to operationalise using their four vocal patterns.
        Instead, for simplicity, I pay attention to the content, tone, amplitude, pressure and speed (CTAPS)<\/strong>.\n