There are many more similarities between humans and night moths than it might seem at first glance. We also have one common root problem that interferes with our survival and pretty poisonous for our existence. Moths, like many other insects, use light from the stars and the moon to navigate space. Their nervous system is guided by the following rule, which is elegant in its simplicity - you need to plot the course so that the rays of light enter the eye at an angle of, say, 30 degrees. Thanks to this, the light cues allow them to fly in an almost perfectly straight trajectory, as well as successfully return home after completing their search for food. Celestial bodies, which serve as a reliable assistant for night moths, are located at such a great distance that all rays emitted or reflected by them are parallel to each other. Artificial light sources, on the contrary, are much closer - the rays from them come out at an angle, fan-shaped. For mathematical reasons, this leads to the fact that the use of navigation along an acute angle, which has already existed for 300 million years, makes the unfortunate insects rush to self-immolation in narrowing spirals, if they only collide with a light bulb or candle.
Just like moths, humans tragically stick their heads in flames and hurt themselves as our hardware and software is hopelessly outdated and never intended for the tasks they have to deal with now. The human brain is a layered structure, and the deeper its parts are, the older they are usually. What we associate with the human essence proper is the youngest of them - the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It is located, roughly speaking, in the forehead area, and we share the developed prefrontal cortex with all great primates. The most advanced and modern, it at least cope with its tasks and provides all forms of mental purposeful activity.
With the emotional part of our "I", the situation is quite different. Mainly responsible for it is the so-called limbic system, located closer to the center of our brain and dating back hundreds of millions of years. We already share the developed limbic system with all mammals. Finally, a significant part of our emotional life is regulated by the most ancient and deepest part of the brain, called reptilian in popular science literature - although this is not true, since it is much older than reptiles. The age of the ancient brain is about 500 million years, and we have it in common not only with reptiles, but also with fish. Its main function is to control automatic forms of behavior and basic instincts - "fight or flight", reproduction, aggression, the struggle for status and position in the social hierarchy, and others.
Not surprisingly, then, the realities of human life generate many computational glitches in structures that have existed on earth for several hundred million years (longer than trees). First of all, the limbic system is not ready to work with imaginary stimuli, for those pictures that we draw in our minds and for which we receive shocks of emotional current, despite their unreality. Michel Montaigne said it wonderfully: "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened." Modern man is shrouded in a suffocating cloud of stress and suffering of various forms of intensity, which are generated by our brain in response to chimeras generated by the mind, without any benefit for survival and development.
Further, for evolutionary reasons, the limbic system of any mammal is significantly biased towards negative emotions. We are all the ancestors of those creatures who preferred to perceive the rustle in the bushes as a sign of a predator lurking there, and not the euphonic play of the wind. It was those who assumed the worst, were constantly on the alert, who did not know peace and looked around in search of danger, who perceived the world with primordial "pessimism", survived and passed on their genes further. Due to this circumstance, negative emotions in living beings generally prevail, they are much more intense than positive ones, they are much easier to evoke and they calm down longer. Indeed, a panic flight or a cry of pain is much more frequent than an escape from joyful excitement or a cry of pleasure - and they are infinitely easier to cause.
Do not be fooled and judge the emotional state of animals by documentaries and the behavior of domestic cats. A well-fed and blessed lion, resting on the vastness of the African savannah, does not taste euphoria at all. Most likely, he is hot, he is tired, he definitely has a lot of pains, and very soon he will face difficult trials with uncertain outcomes. Peacefully grazing in the meadow, the zebra is in almost constant anxious tension, it is periodically painfully bitten and pushed by its fellows who assert their status in the hierarchy of the herd, and are harassed by the heat and insects. A lizard that crawls out to bask in the sun does this to avoid sudden death from hypothermia. The more she is in the shade, the more her stress hormone cortisol rises, until finally it reaches such high values,which makes her get out of hiding. Under these blessed rays of the sun, she is in a state of utmost vigilance, ready to instantly respond to the slightest rustle and with every fiber of her reptilian soul anticipating trouble. Finally, the stress hormone rises again to critical levels, which forces her to seek refuge again. You can only die once, and there are many opportunities to receive rewards and satisfy a need. Negative incentives, because they allow us to avoid injury, any threats to survival and death, are stronger than positive ones - those that motivate us to meet needs and reward us for success.ready to instantly react to the slightest rustle and with every fiber of her reptilian soul anticipating trouble. Finally, the stress hormone rises again to critical levels, which forces her to seek refuge again. You can only die once, and there are many opportunities to receive rewards and satisfy a need. Negative incentives, because they allow us to avoid injury, any threats to survival and death, are stronger than positive ones - those that motivate us to meet needs and reward us for success.ready to instantly react to the slightest rustle and with every fiber of her reptilian soul anticipating trouble. Finally, the stress hormone rises again to critical levels, which forces her to seek refuge again. You can only die once, and there are many opportunities to receive rewards and satisfy a need. Negative incentives, because they allow us to avoid injury, any threats to survival and death, are stronger than positive ones - those that motivate us to meet needs and reward us for success.stronger than positive ones - those that motivate us to meet needs and reward us for success.stronger than positive ones - those that motivate us to meet needs and reward us for success.
Finally, the limbic system generates a number of cognitive distortions, the main of which I will dare to call the aberration of range and aberration of proximity. Range aberration means that we tend to emotionally exaggerate an unknown and distant stimulus. A new threat evokes a particularly strong reaction in us, and only then we are convinced that “fear has large eyes” and the scale of the problem is much smaller than it seemed. At the same time, we associate the possession of what we want with an excessively large amount of happiness, which, as we believe, this will bring us. However, a satisfied need and an achieved goal with the same consistency deceive our expectations and reward with joy sparingly and for a short time. The second illusion, the aberration of proximity, impliesthat we underestimate the threatening nature of already known problems and cease to appreciate and derive joy from what has already been achieved, from what we know - from what we have. All this gives rise to a number of complications and inconveniences, undermining a healthy outlook, reducing the effectiveness of decisions made and our very productivity.
The existence of cognitive biases is biologically justified, they are crude tools in the service of emotions, the main task of which is assessment, motivation and learning. A calmly and lazily sprawling lion feels a sudden rush of dopamine at the sight of game. This instantly raises him to his feet, gives strength and directs him to the victim - a positive motivation occurs. At the same time, dopamine binds together the neural pathways that are active at that moment, so this place, circumstances and type of victim will be remembered as promising for satisfying his needs - this is how learning takes place. A monkey, suddenly seeing a snake near him, experiences an instant increase in cortisol - it suddenly jumps back and lets out a cry. Negative motivation occurs ("run", "be on your guard",“Alert others”) and learning - cortisol binds the neurons active at that moment and associates the circumstances of the meeting of the snake and itself with the threat. The more and more often certain situations cause the release of hormones - neurotransmitters, the more stable the neural connection between them. So, if a trip to the dentist as a child was accompanied by certain music playing in the car, it can then cause you anxiety or even fear all your life. Despite the effectiveness of ancient emotional algorithms for the purpose of survival in the wild, in difficult situations of human life, they are not able to determine the adequate intensity and even the nature of the reaction.if a trip to the dentist as a child was accompanied by certain music playing in the car, it may cause you anxiety or even fear all your life. Despite the effectiveness of ancient emotional algorithms for the purpose of survival in the wild, in difficult situations of human life, they are not able to determine the adequate intensity and even the nature of the reaction.if a trip to the dentist as a child was accompanied by certain music playing in the car, it may cause you anxiety or even fear all your life. Despite the effectiveness of ancient emotional algorithms for the purpose of survival in the wild, in difficult situations of human life, they are not able to determine the adequate intensity and even the nature of the reaction.
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Unlike moths, however, not all is lost for us: we can compensate and balance many of the deficiencies in our limbic system through conscious control. Sages of all eras knowingly placed such an emphasis on the saving power of reason in the construction of life. Its role as an instance of the utmost clarity available to us, as the most advanced cognitive tool in the world, is to serve as a regulator that corrects natural distortions of feelings and emotions. This does not mean that the task of our rational principle is to suppress and oppress feelings. On the contrary, it is designed to improve their work and provide them with a more perfect vision, which they usually lack.
The key to understanding how to neutralize negative emotions (they are of primary interest to us) and to deal with distortions lies in understanding the elementary truth, ancient philosophy, and now confirmed by neurophysiology. The prefrontal cortex (higher mental processes) and the limbic system (feelings and emotions) have a mutually inhibitory effect on each other. The main reason is that they compete for limited metabolic resources (glucose, oxygen, and others), and excessive excitement of one or the other greatly weakens the "competitor". For our body, a strong excitement of the limbic system is a signal that it is necessary to take immediate active action to avoid danger or satisfy a need. The strength, speed and endurance of the body therefore increases,therefore, in emergency situations, people and other living creatures often demonstrate exceptional physical abilities. There is almost no need for complex mental activity in such circumstances - and there is still not enough energy, so it turns out to be depressed. The active activation of the prefrontal cortex means that everything is relatively calm - and the limbic system is inhibited. A simple rule follows from this - if you want to cope with stress, calm excessive emotional arousal, you need to activate higher mental processes, which, by the very fact of their work, will begin to take away the steering wheel from the limbic system. There is almost no need for complex mental activity in such circumstances - and there is still not enough energy, so it turns out to be depressed. The active activation of the prefrontal cortex means that everything is relatively calm - and the limbic system is inhibited. A simple rule follows from this - if you want to cope with stress, calm excessive emotional arousal, you need to activate higher mental processes, which, by the very fact of their work, will begin to take away the steering wheel from the limbic system. There is almost no need for complex mental activity in such circumstances - and there is still not enough energy, so it turns out to be depressed. The active activation of the prefrontal cortex means that everything is relatively calm - and the limbic system is inhibited. A simple rule follows from this - if you want to cope with stress, calm excessive emotional arousal, you need to activate higher mental processes, which, by the very fact of their work, will begin to take away the steering wheel from the limbic system.it is required to use higher mental processes, which, by the very fact of their work, will begin to take away the steering wheel from the limbic system.it is required to use higher mental processes, which, by the very fact of their work, will begin to take away the steering wheel from the limbic system.
I. Definition - considering the problem in a narrow focus
The first and simplest remedy is to cast a directed glance at the problem that is troubling us, placing it in the sight of our judgment. It is necessary as soon as possible, at the stage of the inception of negative experiences, to choose a laconic definition for the emotional state being experienced and what caused it. Then it is required to find an equally capacious formulation of the essence of the situation and the driving forces underlying it. These actions are a cold shower for our limbic system for two reasons. The first is obvious and has just been analyzed - the use of higher mental abilities suppresses it purely neurophysiologically. The second is that the definition dramatically removes the feeling of uncertainty, which is evolutionarily associated with any living creature with a threat to survival. When you don't understand what's going on it meansthat anything can happen - and the situation is not even remotely under your control. Therefore, you need to be on the lookout, wait for a blow that can come stealthily, from any and the most unexpected side. You need to be ready to flee or fight - this is the mode that negative emotions lead us to. By defining a problem, we lower the degree of uncertainty, create a feeling of greater control, and emotional arousal automatically subsides.and emotional excitement automatically subsides.and emotional excitement automatically subsides.
II. Reassessment - taking a broad focus on the problem
Considering a negative stimulus in a narrow focus is purely technical and does not change our perception of its content. After the definition, we often continue to see everything in a false and exaggeratedly dramatic light. This is due to the cognitive distortions usually involved in our attitude to any problem, and their overcoming requires - "to look at it differently." This hackneyed and vulgar appeal is understood here in a completely different way, as if it is recommended to arm yourself with false optimism. No, “otherwise” should not be self-deception and rose-colored glasses, putting on which we save ourselves from the uncomfortable truth. The point of reappraisal is to see what is happening soberly and clearly - getting rid of the mirages and distortions generated by emotions. Usually,this indeed entails a more positive interpretation of it due to the tendency of our brains to exaggerate.
This honest reappraisal is about putting the problem in a broad focus, in a broad context of all three time dimensions and causality. We must assess its scale in the present, weigh the probable (and not just imagined) consequences in the future, and finally turn to informing us about the personal and historical experience of the past. Among other things, this inevitably leads to the discovery of the positive potential of the negative, problematic - it is a challenge to our abilities, feedback that informs about our vulnerabilities, they are an impulse for development.
Having ceased to see the reflection of the situation in the distorting mirrors of emotions, we not only increase our effectiveness in overcoming it, but save ourselves from unnecessary mental wear and tear that undermine our creative resources and poison our lives. Further, we preserve our own physical health, because cortisol, which causes stress and almost all forms of suffering, is an emergency hormone, it depletes resources and significantly weakens the immune system, making us more vulnerable to diseases and ailments of all kinds.
Moreover, taking care of our own emotional stability, we use the most effective at the moment (after restricting calories) means of prolonging youth - and here's why. When the cells of our body are dividing in the process of incessant renewal, the most important task is to copy DNA. At the tips of the chromosomes there are special protective "caps" that protect DNA from damage during copying - "telomeres". During the copying cycles, however, the “caps” are shortened and shortened for technical reasons - this is called “under-replication”. The cell then shows more and more signs of aging, and with it our entire body. When telomeres become dangerously short (after about 50 divisions), the cell stops dividing and dies.as DNA damage becomes inevitable and copying can no longer continue. Inside it, however, there is a special enzyme called telomerase, whose task is to slightly restore telomere length. Cortisol (that is, stress and all forms of negative experiences) is a telomerase inhibitor, because the higher its average level in a person, the faster telomeres shorten and the faster aging of almost all body systems occurs.
Science and philosophy are thus united in their vision of the fundamental necessity and benefits of emotional self-control. Not only our attitude depends on it, but also productivity, health, youth and life expectancy. They are also united in understanding the mind as the only instance capable of helping a person in this, and then we only have to improve the methods of its application at our disposal.
© Oleg Tsendrovsky
