Better Together

25 Commentsadaptive instincts, co-operation, coherence, community, Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, oneness, Uncategorized, Unconscious mind

The human limbic system is composed of a number of areas of the brain – such as the hippocampus and amygdala – which are involved in complex realities such as emotion, behaviour, long term memory and interestingly (to me at least) our sense of smell.

This system is an open-loop system – which simply means it is dependent on factors outside itself for regulation.  There has been extensive research done to confirm what everybody already knows – namely that we are deeply affected by other people when it comes to our emotional well-being and stability.

According to Daniel Goleman, author of books like Emotional Intelligence and The New Leaders, this effect is so profound that it registers physiologically as well as emotionally. He says that even patients in intensive care facilities find the presence of another person so comforting that it perceptibly lowers their blood pressure.

“The open-loop design of the limbic system means that other people can change our very physiology – and so, our emotions.” (1)

Time and again, researchers have found that emotions spread through groups, this ‘spread’ can happen non-verbally as well as verbally, and this appears to be the case simply because of the open-loop design.  It seems that we function together whether we like it or not, even when we don’t consciously choose to do so.  It also seems that we need each other – for better or worse – in order to regulate ourselves, internally, as well as manage the world, externally.

The only way we can live, it seems, is to live together.

So – how might we manage that a bit better?

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(1) Daniel Goleman, The New Leaders, p. 4

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25 Comments

  1. Interesting post – as always. You always come up with great stuff to get me thinking 😉 The book Emotional Intelligence really struck a chord with me. I think on a very basic level if we approach life with the principle of treating people the way we would want to be treated is a wonderful leveller. Thanks for this. Oh and I’m also going to check out “New Leaders”.

  2. Interesting post – as always. You always come up with great stuff to get me thinking 😉 The book Emotional Intelligence really struck a chord with me. I think on a very basic level if we approach life with the principle of treating people the way we would want to be treated is a wonderful leveller. Thanks for this. Oh and I’m also going to check out “New Leaders”.

  3. What a loaded question. I admire your courage in asking it!

    I don’t know that there is an answer, at least not one people will like. Funny, another blogger I follow wrote about this topic, or very nearly, yesterday, too. How do 7 billion people attempt to get along without too many problems? I’ve read in a few places that we have over-populated the earth, that really our planet would function best with no more than a billion humans. I guess I do think there is truth to that. So for me part of the answer is something that is rather touchy and extremely controversial. To do a better job, I think we have to think DEEPLY and take seriously the issue of how many children “we” have. I’m not even going to touch the how of that! 🙂

    But if we want to stick with a simple answer I would say we need to do a better job of teaching tolerance. I know we try, but I’m not sure we do a good enough job.

    1. It’s a complex issue and probably education – of all sorts – does lie at the bottom of it, though. Even to engage with the population question, it is generally the experience that when girls are educated they have fewer children when they grow up. I think that that side of it is the way to go as opposed to imposing restrictions on family size etc. – thanks for the interesting side-bar!

  4. We could do it better and will do it better when we finally make this shift we are in right now to the fifth dimension of living from the heart not the mind…We’re almost there. It will require people waking up and getting free of old issues and living in love, no judgment, no conditions and we must learn to love all equally! Time is running out for us to get this task done. I hope everyone is working on it…..Happy Spring! VK

  10. We do need one another in so many ways. Unfortunately, people often don’t realize it. I’d say education as the answer to your question, but I’m not sure that would work on most either. Angie

  11. This post reminds me so much of the Dan Brown novel, based in Washington,D.C. and the National Mall buildings, that deals with the science of Noetics, of actually measuring the physical weight of combined millions of positive thoughts, especially shared thoughts!

  12. This post reminds me so much of the Dan Brown novel, based in Washington,D.C. and the National Mall buildings, that deals with the science of Noetics, of actually measuring the physical weight of combined millions of positive thoughts, especially shared thoughts!

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