one of the most amazing discoveries it
completely surprised me and that's what
I like most in research is when you
learn something you didn't know you're
going to learn that's very different
from research where you prove something
you think you already know you have to
do that too because maybe you were wrong
but when you discover something you
didn't expect that's really exciting and
what we discovered published this in I
was 20 more than 20 years ago made the
front page of the New York Times we
didn't kill anybody
what did was show that if you put on
your face one of the universal
expressions you will turn on the
physiology of emotion you will begin to
experience that emotion so the face is
not simply a display system that tells
you what's happening inside me I can
self generate any emotion by making the
movements on my face now some of them
are harder to make than others and
wouldn't you know it the one that's
hardest to make is the one that turns on
enjoyment because a smile alone will do
it you have to be able to activate one
of the muscles around the eyes and only
about 10% of the people we've tested can
do it we are just beginning to use this
discovery of how you can self generate
emotion to teach people how to become
more aware of what they're feeling at
the moment they feel it because it is my
belief and I want to underline the word
belief because I can't prove this it's
my belief that the way in which emotions
evolved it was to deal with things like
saber-toothed Tigers the current
incarnation of which is the car that's
suddenly lurching at your car at a high
speed you don't have time to think you
have to do and make very complex
decisions think of what you do to avoid
that
are you make in split seconds estimates
of speed and angle and what you need to
do are with your feet in your hands and
if you had to think about what you were
doing you'd be dead so it's a system
that evolved to deal with really
important things without your thinking
about it so that means that sometimes
you're going to be very unconsidered
very thoughtless sometimes your emotions
aren't going to fit the situation and
you're not even going to know until
someone says to you what are you getting
so upset about that you think oh my god
that's right I'm really afraid I don't
know why maybe I shouldn't hey I
misunderstood the situation well these
exercises that we're giving people
moving their facial muscles
concentrating on the sensations they
then experience to make them more aware
of an emotion when it arises so that
they will feel it at the moment and then
can say did you really mean to ignore me
when she put the toast on the table now
I was just an accident or maybe I
shouldn't jump to the conclusion that
she doesn't care about me at all
why doesn't you care about me that whole
business it takes the way in which we
can improve our emotional life is to
introduce conscious awareness into the
process and that will take practice and
nature did not want you to do that so
you have to do it yourself
you