A recent study has underlined the principle of synergy that permeates physiology. Researchers at Cardiff University noted that after undergoing cosmetic surgery for reduction of wrinkles and lines associated with smiling and laughing, patients would have increased incidences of depression.
This is no surprise, as the body is a system that has multiple feedback loops and pathways that keep tight control over thousands of processes. Generally when we are exposed to a stimulus that initiates happiness or humorous feelings, our brain plays out a specific motor pattern to cause our facial muscles to express a smile, or with the inclusion of many more muscles in the body, laughter.
However, this isn’t the end of the cascade as most people often surmise. The action of smiling or laughing then feeds back into the brain to relay signals that we are performing these actions. The brain then releases specific patterns of neurotransmitters to create the actual feelings of happiness. By paralyzing the muscles using Botox, the patients who underwent the surgery have put a spanner in the works of the entire system; their brains no longer receive the signals from the muscles to complete the circuit, so the usual resultant feelings are not felt.
Many processes in the body are two-way doors and our emotions and the physical body are inextricably interlinked. I’m sure whenever you’ve felt positive emotions you probably would’ve expressed this in particular movement such as a little jig. But it also works the other way too, movement also creates emotion. You can read a bit more about how particular body positions can influence physiology here http://
The fastest way to change how you feel is to move in certain ways, remember ‘Motion Creates Emotion’.
References
http://www.cf.ac.uk/news/
No comments:
Post a Comment