Friend and fellow blogger Liz Strauss showcased gracious people – and showed what they look like in ways that pop up in shapes and colors. Images of people who step into our lives - leave us laughing and living new hopes because they came. Anybody there for you today?
Or do your moods make life a bit too miserable for gracious people to hang around?
New research reports that people who suffer clinical depression often fail to suppress negative emotional states in the same way that people without depression do.
Most would agree that conflicts from negative emotions at work, can break your back, your business and your bank with breakneck speed. It’s subtle how it happens, and we tend to observe it more in others than in ourselves.
Let’s say two well respected people - a manager and associate manager - fall into serious conflicts at work – so that productivity and people seem to suffer as a result.
You communicate a few ideas to help both leaders to see the conflict for what it is, and to look for a resolution that can both live with.
Brain imaging reveals breakdown of normal emotional processing which impairs the ability of depressed people to suppress negative emotional states.
The report in the yesterday’s issue of the Journal of Neuroscience put it this way.
“Identifying areas in the nervous system that correlate to pathological mood states is one of the pressing questions in mental illness today,” says Carol Tamminga, MD, of the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center.
Luckily the research not only points to the difficulty of suppressing negatives for depressed people – but also challenges us to use more effective strategies to help ourselves and others avoid the negatives that lock us into limitations.
It’s a bit like training your brain to look beyond the immediate hard times or stressors to see a brighter possibility for tomorrow. Even that brief glance past the stress that shrinks your brain – to see possibilities can raise serotonin levels for well-being. Oh by the way, there is one small hitch, though. The brain rewires itself whenever we act on what we know.
What one step could you take today in the direction of a super day tomorrow? I’m heading out to the golf course in a few minutes…. You?
That settles it. I'm going to act on my positive thoughts as often as I can . . . Wow! This was an especially great one. Thanks. :)
Posted by: Liz Strauss | August 17, 2007 9:50 AM | Permalink to Comment