Do We All Dream In The Same Language?

By Author: Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, The EQ Co
Total Articles: 9
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Do we all dream in the same language? Yes, we do, and it's because of our limbic brains--the seat of dreams and also of advanced emotionality.

Just how important are our emotions to our survival? Take a look at what the human infant, what Dr. Richard Lewis refers to "the world's most interesting noncognitive mammal."

Probably you've read about the studies with infants and the human face - there's nothing, NOTHING more captivating to an infant than someone's face (Mom's most of all, of course). We are hard-wired to glom onto the face because that's how we humans express our emotions whether or not we can speak and use words.

It's crucial to an infant's survival to know it's mother's emotional state. Why? The "visual cliff" experiment reveals the probable answer.

They place a baby on a countertop that's half solid and half clear Plexiglas. To the baby, it looks like an abyss when he gets to the Plexiglas part, and triggers our innate (reptilian) fear of falling. The baby's crawling, and knows he's on something solid, but it's clear to his vision and he doesn't know what to do. Babies ...
... are pretty smart!

Typically the baby crawls to the perceived edge and then turns and looks at its mother. What's he looking for? To see whether it's safe to continue. To figure out what to do next. He'll read fear or reassurance on her face, and "know" what to do.

Well, it's for sure we were all infants and babies at one time, learning emotionally from our mothers.

Spend a little time this week thinking about what emotional messages your mother gave you along with her life lessons.

No one in my household was the slightest bit worried about thunder, and I rarely even "hear" it, but I have a friend whose hands start to shake. Innate temperament and a mother who feared lightning.

I have a friend who can't ever really relax on a vacation trip. She always has a vague anxiety about traveling. Nothing phobic, just uneasy. When I asked her to talk about traveling when she was a kid, she flashed immediately to a time when her mother took her and her 3 siblings by train from Chicago to Texas back when things were even more iffy - they got stranded for 6 hours at one switchover, and her mother totally broke down in the station, with her 4 little kids, no food, no help, all the bags, no information. She started crying and screaming hysterically and my friend remembers this as clearly as if it were now. It's part of what her mother "taught" her about traveling.

Her brain got it wired that travel = panic, and then each trip she's taken since then has reinforced that.

Things like NLP and coaching can start to unhook these connections and no, you can't do it by reading a self-help book. Remember, it isn't a thinking thing. Wrong brain.

You can learn something immediately - just memorize that list of phone numbers - but to learn something new into the limbic brain takes practice and repetition, and a coach or someone to interact with who has a new perspective.

To learn more about the limbic brain and emotional intelligence, take The EQ Foundation Course©, http://www.susandunn.cc/courses.htm .
About the Author (c)Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology, The EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc . To take The EQ Foundation Course, go here: http://www.susandunn.cc/courses.htm . Emotional intelligence coaching and EQ coach training, distance learning.