Blog Post #10

One interesting thing I learned about in chapter 9 was how we think in images. People can talk to themselves out loud, but even thinking is conversing with yourself. We think about things and doing things without even realizing that we are. Inventors, poets, and even musicians think in images. Einstein saw what he was inventing before he acually invented it. Pianist Liu Chi King is a pianist who was imprisoned in 1958 for seven years. After his release he could still play the piano just as well if not better. He pracitced note by note in his mind every day. Some people like athletes can even watch and this will activate the brain's internal simulation of it. I myself as a softball player can watch the game and think about myself doing it or correcting what I see to make it right. This raises the question, "Is mental practice a standard part of training?" What surprised me was the experiment with the Univeristy of Tennessee women's basketball team. Just imagining making free throws under pressure actually helped them during the game when they had to make them for real. I'll be mentally practicing in all my sports to increase my ability. Even the experiment that was done with students studying habits. I think I'll try seeing myself studying reviewing my notes before tests. I like the point to remember that they put in the book: It's better to spend your fantasy time planning how to get somewhere than to swell on the inagined destination. Instead of seeing myself with a good grade or a paycheck, I'll see myself working on my notes and homework and working hard while at work.

Emotional intelligence is broken down into four emotional intelligence components. They are our abilities to: perceive emotions, understand emotions, manage emotions, and use emotions to enable adaptive or creative thinking. A man named Elliot who had a brain tumor removed sat down with a Neuroscientist for many hours. Elliot showed no sadness, no impatience, and no frustration. He was shown pictures of injured people, destroyed communities, and natural disasters, and Elliot showed, and realized, that he felt no emotion. He knew but he could not feel. Because he was unable to intuitively adjust hie behavior in response to others' feelings, he lost his job, went bankrupt, and his marriage collapsed. Elliot remarried and divorced again. Last report was that he was dependent on custodial care from a sibling and a disability check. I would hate to live like Elliot. Not being able to have emotion, would be life altering. I think that I would't mind not feeling sadness because I don't like to be sad, but not even feeling love or happiness would be a life not lived. For me my family is my life, and if I couldn't beel love for them, or even sadness when someone passes away.... I would feel empty and incomplete. I would always wonder how I could change and actually care. I do believe that I am emotionally intelligent. I have the ability to perceive, manage, understand, and use emotions. I can recogize emotions on peoples faces, whether they are feeling sad ,or super happy, or just want to be left alone. I understand how my emotions can effect the people around me, and how my emotions blend with my friends and families emotions. I can express my emotions when need be. Yes, I do have an occasional outburst but I know when the right time is to have that outburst. I do use my emotions to enable adaptive or creative thinking. When I'm feeling sad or a strong emotion, I write it down in poetry. I keep a little black book near my bed, so when I'm trying to fall asleep and I can't. I think about what I'm feeling right then and write about it. I know my families emotions and they know mine. We get along great and we know when someone needs a shoulder or just needs space. My boyfriend even understands my emotions over the phone and I can understand his. My emotional intelligence impacts my life in a lot of ways and I wouldn't be the person I am today without it. I think it is very important to be emotionally intelligent. Without it you can't understand the world around you. Emotions are every where, and we need to have that intelligence in order to live in this world.

The most interesting thing I learned about in chapter 10 was emotional intelligence. It was odd for me to read about someone who doesn't have emotion. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to not care if someone was hurt, to not care that your child just scored the winning goal, or to not even realize how much someone loves you. You could try to understand but you wouldn't be able to feel anything. That would be the hardest thing, to not have the ablity to love. I would die with out the love from my family and friends.