分类： PHP
2014-01-11 10:26:08
Do you think you can't control your emotions? If you understand that the way you feel about yourself or your spouse is something you can't change, then I've got good news for you. If knowledge is power, then knowledge about how your brain functions can empower you to take another look at your feelings, especially as they relate to your marriage.
We know that experience effects the brain. This is the brain's neuroplasticity. However, toward the end of the twentieth century, researchers were astonished to learn that your brain's chemistry and wiring could change just by thinking differently about sonething.
Here are a few examples:
In a 1998 study, people exposed to what they were told was poison ivy developed a rash!
In one study, people with colds were given either echinacea or a placebo or nothing. Do you think the people given the echinacea had the shortest colds? They didn't. The ones who got the placebo did! These people guessed that they might have been given the echinacea because of the questions they were asked about its effectiveness prior to starting the experiment. And that thought alone created a placebo effect which shortened the cold. But that only was true if the people believed that echinacea works.
In 2007, a Harvard researcher compared hotel maids who were divided into two groups, one of which was told that their jobs constituted a "workout" while the other group was not told anything. Neither group changed their habits, but when the study was over, the group told that their jobs were a workout had lost about two pounds, dropped blood pressure 10% and lost ? % of their body fat! Remember, the two groups did the same work and neither group changed after-hours habits. Apparently, belief alone raised the metabolism of the first group.
Now, researchers are examining exactly which areas of the brain are affected by our thoughts. Scientists at the University of Toronto wanted to compare placebos, antidepressant medications, and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Antidepressants such as Paxil work by reducing activity in the limbic system of the brain (where feelings are generated) and increase activity in the cerebral cortex (where we reason).
This makes sense if you're depressed: Stop feeling so upset and start thinking positive.
Placebos have been found to have the same impact on depressed people's brains, so researchers wanted to know: Would cognitive therapy also act in a similar manner? They found that the people in the therapy group did improve to the same degree as the group that received the medication, but their brains reacted in exactly the opposite way: talk therapy, which helps people learn how to stop worrying and enjoy feeling well, decreased activity in the cortex and more activity in the limbic system! Same effect, different mechanism.
Other researchers compared brainwaves of Buddhist monks to those of non-meditators. Both groups were asked to focus on "compassion." The monks generated very strong gamma waves. This wave occurs when information stored across the brain is brought together to create a whole impression. It represents greater conscious awareness, perception, and problem solving. The novice volunteers also developed a gamma signal, but when the meditation part of the experiment was over, the monks continued to show that gamma signal for hours after and the non-meditators didn't.
Interestingly, the parts of the monks' brain that showed the greatest activity are associated with empathy and the parts that displayed the least are associated with "self." What's more, the longer the history of meditating a monk had, the greater the changes in these two areas.
What conclusions would scientists draw from all these studies? - Brain function follows thought and not necessarily the other way around. So next time you believe you can't alter how you feel, maybe you really can. The brain is very powerful, and you really are its master.
