The Still Face

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Humans are social beings.  We’re not the only ones on the planet but we most definitely belong to that group.

Our interactions with other people do more than just shape our manners and our view of the world, these interactions actually shape our physical brains.  As the saying goes, neurons that fire together, wire together.

As we lumber about in our lives, we often believe, erroneously, that only our big actions count.

If I don’t hit you or shout at you or curse or show my disdain I can tell myself I haven’t revealed anything of myself – or done any damage to you.

But what if that isn’t true?

What if our sensitivity to response is so ingrained in us and so long-standing that we don’t consciously recognise how subtly influenced – or influential – we can be?

Everybody knows that new-born babies respond to the world around them and we instinctively try to interact even with the youngest babies.  But do we realise how vital this seemingly trivial interaction really is?

Watch the video below – if you can handle it – it tells a very interesting story.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzXGEbZht0]

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4 Comments

  1. Hello,

    I’ve been reading Creatingreciprocity and I’m impressed by your blog’s quality and clean presentation, I also like your writing style and love the articles and stories you portray here (this video was really interesting indeed), you have an interesting world.

    Cathy

  2. That was very interesting! Long before language was invented, we all communicated via facial expression, body language, and tone of voice…etc. In one Paul Ekman’s books (emotions researcher) he says, when we make facial expressions, the emotional response follows automatically….for example, if we want to be sad, making a genuine expression of sadness, will trigger sadness…hence very hard to feel another emotion..for example feel happy with a sad facial expression. Just like a facial expression in another person can trigger similar emotion in us, our own facial expressions can trigger the emotions we choose to.

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