Emotional Bytes

How scientists model the different mental processes and language concepts that contribute to our mind’s understanding of what is happening in our body and environment to apply meaning out of that information with concepts that we call appraisals.

We look at the different conscious and unconscious levels that emotions are processed, how we build our understanding of what is happening in our body and the world around us to produce emotional experiences and the functions they serve.

We investigate Invisible Structures: those mental, emotional and social structures, largely invisible, mostly unconscious that influence our interactions with other people, ourselves and our environment. How can they be revealed? How can they be changed?

Exploring Kazimierz Dąbrowski's theory of personality development. Dąbrowski's theory of positive disintegration challenges traditional psychological views by recontextualizing negative emotional experiences as opportunities for growth and development, highlighting the importance of internal conflict in self-discovery, and emphasizing the role of personal agency in shaping one's personality.

Today we look at the work of Murray Bowen and his theory of the family as an emotional system that are characterized by the amount of differentiation vs enmeshment between the family members, which reflects the level of emotional turbulence in the family.

The euphoria, the intrusive thoughts, the idealisation, the longings , the questions, Is it love? Or Limerence.

We run on from our look at the Meta model with a look at one of it’s master practitioners: Raymond Reddington from the iconic show: The Blacklist

Having learned about Mentalizing, it is important to learn about non-mentalizing modes. Since non-mentalizing modes of communication can leave us feeling mystified, we’re going to look at Scooby and the gang to help us unravel this mystery.

Today we deep dive into the link between communication, behavior and identity by the foundational theory of mind known as of Mentalization.

Today we learn about “The Meta Model” - a central tenet of Neural Linguistic Programming (NLP) in order to understand deletions, generalisations and distortions, facets of language that stand in the way of clear and efficient communication. Get ready to level up your language in this life changing linguistic lesson. You’ll never see conversations the same way again.

Drawn from the work of Lisa Feldman Barrett and her team, this theory explores the possibility that emotions are not switches that can flipped on or off, neither can they be located exclusively in brain centres or read from our faces but that emotion is a by product of the brain running an energy budget for the body using a combination of prediction, interoception and meaning making and it is buil...

In part two of our look into Emotional Granularity we run through a list of emotions on “the emotion wheel” and the associated needs underlying these emotions in order to give you consideration to all the different nuances needed to develop your emotional vocabulary and understanding.

A bit more of a practical episode and an overview of some of the concepts we have been discussing and we tie them all together under the headings of schemas. How do schemas play out in the context of emotions and relationships..

Emotional Granularity is the ability to identify and respond to emotions in all their nuances instead of reacting to the overall wave of the emotional current as washes over a situation. That ability to pause, identify and dig down into that emotional information is essential for good communication and well being. We have a look at where the idea of emotional granularity came from and how it’s lin...

You’ve seen the videos: “Are we living in a simulation”. Well, the answer is yes, but it’s not the matrix. Mirror Neurons are the ultimate simulation, repurposing bodily and neural pathways that enable us to understand the emotional and social world around us. They may even be the foundation of language, the source of empathy and the key to energy efficiency in the brain. Strap in, you’re in for a...

Learn about attachment - that “operating system” that runs in the background of our mind and how this plays out in our close relationships. Think intimate partners, parents and children, even close friendships. Awareness of these patterns is the crucial beginning to rewriting those old neural pathways by generating new experiences.

Find out how the satisfaction of three psychological needs helps us feel more alive by firing up intrinsic motivation and how lack of choice and satisfying our ego will suck away our motivation faster than a vampire bat on Halloween. We also cover communication styles and link to the quest for meaning covered in the last episode.