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Blog Entry 93 of 149 Bad Mom
I call myself Bad Mom because at the time I came up with it, I was learning about the assumptions we put behind our words. I was following the pattern of not believing that my kids are okay, and speaking to them from that basis. I changed that, and it made a big difference. I am from Utah and my people are still living there. My husband was in the Air Force and we rattled around until we saw Colorado, and we stuck.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~Huh

Biology and Beingness, soda pop and chips.
Contributed by: Lisa Arata   on 6/28/2008

Biology and Human Behavior is the name of the series of lectures I bought from The Teaching Company catalog. The lecturer is Robert Sapolsky from Stanford University. Maybe this is my little way of going back to graduate school.

So far I've learned some concepts still in the top-of-my-mind awareness.

One is a general idea I hadn't thought of before; that when we categorize things, we tend to miss out on the whole picture. Sapolsky gives an example of the color spectrum. Between pink and purple, which are two different colors, there's pinkish-purple and purplish-pink, which fall into separate categories but are really not very different from each other.

In real-life, I might look at someone who registers Democrat, but doesn't think abortion should be a trifle and believes people should be responsible for their own wellbeing. And I might look at a Republican, who isn't so sure that abortion must be banned and thinks a good social support program might be helpful for poor people if they could work their way out of it. I think the categories Democrat and Republican are overly rigid if we go around condemning those who have had to put themselves in one category or another.

Second, Istarted to learnwhat a neuron has to do with behavior.

A neuron is like a relay for an impulse. The little ears and hairs on its head receive impulses from the fingers of other neurons. Enough of these impulses and the head of the neuron gets the idea that something's going on. Then that impulse gets shot down the axon to its own fingers, which start poking fingers at the next neuron.

The differences in people's behavor have to do with how sensitive their neurons are, and how quickly they switch on and off.

For example in real life, I'm a type-b personality. I don't get frightened by physical pain. It takes a lot to get me to jump. But I think my neurons take a long time to become calm again. I hang onto feelings and can't let go. That's howI get even though time and time again people have said, "just let go of it." I can pretend to, but things don't process through until they've taken their sweet time. I suppose that tendency isn't cool. It's much cooler to laugh things off when they're supposed to be over.

One of the things that happens when nerve cells are activated is that the sodium and potassium ions trade places. In stress, sodium fills the cell and in calm times, potassium is in there instead. (Now, I know this has something to do with drinking soda pop and eating potato chips. One has salt and the other potassium. You should always have the two together to keep yourself in balance. Yep, that's it.)

What I'd like to see happen is a greater understanding of how the life-force flows through us, including in our neurons and how they handle stress and stimulus. I'd certainly enjoy it if my neurons could release stress signals faster.

What are the good sources of life energy? How can all of us improve our experience of the good and the bad in life? What can we choose that will help us experience ourselves in a more accepting, loving way, including how we choose to feed ourselves and exercise? How can we understand energy pinches and our errors in thinking?

That's what I'd like to know. Some people do this through church. Others do this through physical exercise. Or, I don't know.

**

I've just discovered Van Morrison music. It's pretty in the cross-section without reallytrying too hard.


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Showing 1 of 1 comments
Submitted By: Bing Van Gorden
posted on 6/30/2008 @ 10:55:50 AM
Rated Blog Entry
Another great post.
[Report as objectionable]
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Lisa Arata

Greeley , CO

Lisa Arata has posted 149 blog entries and 232 comments since joining on 4/18/2007. Lisa Arata 's average blog rating is 4.78.
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