Chris's World

Back to My Writing Page

Go to Main Page

I saw something on the Discovery Channel last night that I thought was rather interesting. The host was talking to a Criminologist about a region of the brain called the Hypothalamus that controls both your emotions and your body temperature.

The interesting part of what the Criminologist was saying is that because the same chemical is sent out by the Hypothalmus to control both our emotions and to regulate internal temperature, we often confuse the influence of one for that of the other.

This means that when it is hot in our external environment we tend to act like we are being confronted with a emotional strain, thus we often act angry or frustrated when we are overheated. If we recognize the temperature as being the main cause of our irritation, or at least as being a mitigating factor in our state of irritation, we may regain control over our emotional state in a much better manner.

Ie: Our mere cognitive awareness of the situation occurring around us enables us to deal with or grasp what is influencing our behaviour, and so factor out the external temperature part of the situation. This factoring out of the external heat enables us to deal with a situation in a more even-handed fashion, rather than continually over-reacting. (This is a good thing!!!)

Reducing the external temperature around us tends to turn our emotional state into a more tranquil one. So the old saying "go cool off" actual makes sense! If you cool off your body, you tend to cool off your emotions.

Way cool!!!!

Written and © by Chris on May 24, 2000

Site © by Chris, 2000