Mike, for some of us (me), it is just as embarassing to watch an actor embarrass themselves inscreen as onstage - and I've had trouble watching embarassing scenes in films since I was a young child. Then again, my most embarassing past moments can come back to haunt me with memories so vivid that I feel as if it just happened again for the first time.
Interoception has its drawbacks, as well as benefits - sometimes you do not want to know what is going on inside. As a lifelong asthmatic who's had multiple bouts of pneumonia, I can feel which lobe of my lungs is congested when I get sick - the last time I was diagnosed with pneumonia, the X-ray showed it was in the lobe that I felt it was in. But I have also felt IV fluid running all the way up the vein in my arm and into the right side of my heart - it was the most unsettling feeling and the only way my body could interpret it was to want to panic that I was drowning from the inside. It took all my will power and knowledge (I'm a nurse) to tell myself that I wouldn't die and panic would only make things much worse, since I was about to go for necessary surgery.
The ability to get lost in my mind is actually a benefit - asthma can be worsened by panicked breathing, so being able to be distracted by an absorbing book, or film, or my own imagination, helps calm my breathing, helping my tightening airways to relax. A hour of sitting still, lost in another world, has saved me many a trip to the hospital.
I often think of that story while I'm hooting at owls (or possibly at other village residents).
I also often think about how exaggerated our emoji reactions are - defaults are heart and rolling with laughter, when in-person reactions might be a small, approving head-nod or raised eyebrow, or a tiny, almost imperceptable curve of the lips, or even just an eye crinkle.
Yes - the exaggeration is such an interesting point, because the body language of displaying emotion can vary hugely between countries & cultures. I read something a while back comparing the social training of Taiwanese schoolchildren vs American kids, with much more of an emphasis on placid calmness in the former and excitement in the latter. And - emojis are originally Japanese, a country that is famously more expressive through tone of voice than facial expressions, at least compared to the US, UK, Canada etc. So I wonder how much emojis work/worked differently within Japan vs elsewhere?
I quit whistling at the alpine marmots when I realized I was giving the danger call and interrupting their harvest of food for winter.
Feel really bad now about my rudeness to them.
So now in the winter time when there’s still several feet of snow on the access road, I do the whistle at home while I look at my maps and guides. And… wait.
I've never liked talking on the phone. Maybe because the body language is not there. But I do like texting, because I can take my time, and compose what I really want to say. And not be interrupted, and so lose my train of thought... 🤔🙄😬
I wonder how much our "gut feeling" is developed during childhood? As a 50 something Aussie I spent a decade whizzing around on a bike in the surrounding suburbia of my home. We travelled in packs mostly, and went to weird places like the giant reservoir up on the hill in the middle of a patch of isolated bush. There were odd adults we came across in our travels and I feel like we instinctively knew which ones to steer clear of. Also, visiting each others houses meant we learnt to read our friends' parents non-verbals pretty quickly and scarper if we knew we weren't welcome. I'm curious whether children who don't experience this kind of social freedom take a bit longer to develop the gut feeling?
I read the article and thought it was a hoot, and actually did break out into a smile, somewhat of a rueful one, as soon as I got to the part about the neighbor. One thing I have noticed, especially in performances, such as opera and films, is that I do react facially, with smiles and grimaces, even tears. But, I have on occasion looked at the people around me, many of whom do not show any type of visible reaction at all. And the majority of those who don't are men. I thought it may be due to early childhood conditioning that males may get that tells them to not show emotion, and perhaps to not have them. Just a thought.
I cannot watch The Office, because I get so anxiety-riddled about the insane situations they put people in. The carb loading 5k bit was fine, but, man, many other episodes I just can’t do.
When I smile at someone they, generally, instinctively smile back and what might have been a non-moment of connection softens. I wonder how the recipients of my emojis react.
Mike, for some of us (me), it is just as embarassing to watch an actor embarrass themselves inscreen as onstage - and I've had trouble watching embarassing scenes in films since I was a young child. Then again, my most embarassing past moments can come back to haunt me with memories so vivid that I feel as if it just happened again for the first time.
Interoception has its drawbacks, as well as benefits - sometimes you do not want to know what is going on inside. As a lifelong asthmatic who's had multiple bouts of pneumonia, I can feel which lobe of my lungs is congested when I get sick - the last time I was diagnosed with pneumonia, the X-ray showed it was in the lobe that I felt it was in. But I have also felt IV fluid running all the way up the vein in my arm and into the right side of my heart - it was the most unsettling feeling and the only way my body could interpret it was to want to panic that I was drowning from the inside. It took all my will power and knowledge (I'm a nurse) to tell myself that I wouldn't die and panic would only make things much worse, since I was about to go for necessary surgery.
The ability to get lost in my mind is actually a benefit - asthma can be worsened by panicked breathing, so being able to be distracted by an absorbing book, or film, or my own imagination, helps calm my breathing, helping my tightening airways to relax. A hour of sitting still, lost in another world, has saved me many a trip to the hospital.
I often think of that story while I'm hooting at owls (or possibly at other village residents).
I also often think about how exaggerated our emoji reactions are - defaults are heart and rolling with laughter, when in-person reactions might be a small, approving head-nod or raised eyebrow, or a tiny, almost imperceptable curve of the lips, or even just an eye crinkle.
Yes - the exaggeration is such an interesting point, because the body language of displaying emotion can vary hugely between countries & cultures. I read something a while back comparing the social training of Taiwanese schoolchildren vs American kids, with much more of an emphasis on placid calmness in the former and excitement in the latter. And - emojis are originally Japanese, a country that is famously more expressive through tone of voice than facial expressions, at least compared to the US, UK, Canada etc. So I wonder how much emojis work/worked differently within Japan vs elsewhere?
(https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/perception-of-emotion-is-culture-specific.html)
Interoception is hard when you’re neurodivergent, great read thanks.
Thank you, Ellie!
Oooh - I wasn't aware. Could you explain that a bit?
My neighbor and I had the same "hooting" episode several years ago. 🤣🤣🤣
This is fascinating! Thank you all for your comments
🤜🏻🤛🏻😨😏🥹🫤👑😇😆
I quit whistling at the alpine marmots when I realized I was giving the danger call and interrupting their harvest of food for winter.
Feel really bad now about my rudeness to them.
So now in the winter time when there’s still several feet of snow on the access road, I do the whistle at home while I look at my maps and guides. And… wait.
I've never liked talking on the phone. Maybe because the body language is not there. But I do like texting, because I can take my time, and compose what I really want to say. And not be interrupted, and so lose my train of thought... 🤔🙄😬
I wonder how much our "gut feeling" is developed during childhood? As a 50 something Aussie I spent a decade whizzing around on a bike in the surrounding suburbia of my home. We travelled in packs mostly, and went to weird places like the giant reservoir up on the hill in the middle of a patch of isolated bush. There were odd adults we came across in our travels and I feel like we instinctively knew which ones to steer clear of. Also, visiting each others houses meant we learnt to read our friends' parents non-verbals pretty quickly and scarper if we knew we weren't welcome. I'm curious whether children who don't experience this kind of social freedom take a bit longer to develop the gut feeling?
1. 🤣 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 “𝒄𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝑺𝒊𝒓! 𝑰𝒕❜𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔: 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒌𝒂 𝑹𝑶𝑭𝑳.
2. 𝑫𝒐 𝒚❜𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒖𝒔𝒆 ❝𝒖𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒔𝒕❞ 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒐𝒓, 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏❜𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓❜𝒔 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒖𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕 (𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒉) - 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 《 😉 》— 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒄𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝐲 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒇𝒖𝒍❢ 𝑨 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆…𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒊𝒕.
3. 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒅𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝑰❜𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒘𝒍 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚…
I read the article and thought it was a hoot, and actually did break out into a smile, somewhat of a rueful one, as soon as I got to the part about the neighbor. One thing I have noticed, especially in performances, such as opera and films, is that I do react facially, with smiles and grimaces, even tears. But, I have on occasion looked at the people around me, many of whom do not show any type of visible reaction at all. And the majority of those who don't are men. I thought it may be due to early childhood conditioning that males may get that tells them to not show emotion, and perhaps to not have them. Just a thought.
I took acting lessons to learn how NOT to show all my emotions on my face. It didn't work.
I'm not sure why you wanted to not do that, but I hope you were able to get a refund. when it didn't work
Why did I first read this on my phone without the audio? Now I feel like I missed the whole experience and I can’t get it back 😭
I cannot watch The Office, because I get so anxiety-riddled about the insane situations they put people in. The carb loading 5k bit was fine, but, man, many other episodes I just can’t do.
When I smile at someone they, generally, instinctively smile back and what might have been a non-moment of connection softens. I wonder how the recipients of my emojis react.