By: Frankychan
In each day
of our lives, we experience the turmoil of our emotions. From the peaks of
elations to the depths of sorrow, human emotion is as varied as it is intense.
This fluctuation in our emotions has been defined by Dr. Leon James of the
University of Hawaii as our "Emotional Spin Cycle." In this report, I will
present data collected about my observations and conclusions applying the Bridge
Technique developed by Dr. James.
Our
society today seems more prone to stress and emotional problems than in previous
years. One news article from CNN discusses a study
done that researches stress and how its reduction can reduce a heart attack.
The Emotional
Spin Cycle can help in relieving some of the emotional and stressful events that
we go through in life. Members of society are not aware of the Emotional Spin
Cycle and tend to just "ride out" their emotions, stress, and conflicts. Most of
us seem apathetic in changing our perceptions of the world around us and it is
this apathy that may cause irreparable damage to our society. The implication's
of people NOT becoming aware of their own Emotional Spin Cycle may lead future
generations to not think first and ask 'why?' before making decisions.
If more
people become aware of their own daily Emotional Spin Cycle, the possibilities
seem more positive. For example, if we feel angry at another person and instead
of instinctively "lashing out", we think "Why do I feel this way? Do I have an
alternative?", we have avoided a possibly unnecessary confrontation. To help
individuals stop and think before acting, society should be introduced to the
Emotional Spin Cycle through education. Documentaries, Research Reports, even
television advertisements can help society become aware of their own "Emotional
Spin Cycle".
In Greek
mythology, the Chimera was a monstrous beast with three heads: a lion, goat and
snake. Just like this creature, the Three-Fold self has three "heads": our
thoughts, feelings, and our acting out. The Three-Fold self begins with our
perceived feelings. Sadness, anger, rage...all these feelings are the beginnings
of the Three-fold self, they are the "Lion Head" of the Chimera.
The second
aspect of the Three-Fold self is our thoughts. Depending on how we "feel", our
thoughts can either be impaired or self-defeating. Feelings of anger usually
result in impaired thinking whereas feelings of sadness lead to pessimistic and
self-defeating thoughts. These thoughts make up the "Goat Head" of the Chimera.
The last
component of the Three-Fold self is our Acting Out. The first two "heads", our
feelings and thoughts, lead to the resulting actions we take. Our actions are
dependent on the prior two components, therefore if we feel angry and our
thinking is impaired, our acting out is usually violent towards others. If our
feelings are sadness and our thoughts are pessimistic, the result is
self-destructive behavior.
Personally,
since becoming aware of the Three-Fold self, I have witnessed both of the end
results. I have seen the "Three heads of the Chimera" and have seen how
my actions have been influenced by both my thoughts and feelings. I believe that
becoming aware of the Three-Fold self, I have slightly deeper understanding of
why people, myself included, act the way we do. To help you understand the
"Emotional Spin Cycle" and the Three-Fold self, a diagram is posted below:
The "Spin
Cycle" includes four options: 1)Negative About Others and the World, 2)Negative
About Self, 3)Positive About Others and the World, and 4)Positive About Self.
To help
relate the Four Options of the Emotional Spin Cycle, let me give you two
different examples.
You are driving home from a hard days work. The car in
front of you is driving really slow and you FEEL frustrated. Immediately you
THINK "Why is this car driving so SLOW???" and you ACT OUT by honking your horn.
These three components fall into the 1st option, Negative about Others.
You receive a test you took in your psychology class.
On the front page in bold is your grade: 'D'. You start FEELING sad because of
the grade you received and your THOUGHTS immediately shout "I'm stupid!
Worthless! I'm not good at anything!". You ACT OUT by giving up and stop
attending class. These fall under the 2nd option, Negative about Self.
You can
see from these two examples how the Three-Fold self can greatly impact our
lives. The Emotional Spin Cycle helps to categorize how whole demeanor in life
and with it, can pinpoint where we need to improve.
The Emotional
Spin cycle is the day to day change in our mood from day to day. Our feelings
and thoughts greatly impact the "Spin Cycle" and this constant change in mood is
what creates the "spin" in our emotions. The ups and downs of our mood also
change and this is the "cycle", constantly going from one end to the other. This
constant change creates our personal habits when we become angry or sad, since
they seem to always occur. When I become angry, I tend to grumble. Since I am
not always angry, my grumbling becomes a "natural" habit for me in times
of anger.
The hero who
slayed the Chimera, Bellerophon, had to go on a mythic quest to combat the evil
beast. Like Bellerophon, I had to go on a "quest" of my own, collecting data
about myself to use later on. The design I used to collect data for this
experiment is called the BASELINE-INTERVENTION APPROACH.
The
baseline-intervention approach in this experiment was over a two week timespan.
The first week (or baseline) consisted of me recording my feelings, thoughts,
and actions toward myself and towards others. The baseline period only recorded
data observed. There were NO preventative measures taken during this period!
The second
half of the experiment (or the intervention) consisted of myself observing my
Three-Fold self, but this time there WERE measures taken to modify my
observations.
To help
assess what each day was likeI used a numbered system, or Global Rating
was comprised of seven questions which was answered with a scale of 1 through
10:
What was my overall satisfaction with myself?
What was my overall dissatisfaction with
others?
What was my effectiveness and/or productivity today?
What was my level of coping successfully today?
What was my level of hope for the future for today?
What was the worst level of negativity of others
around me?
These seven
questions were answered at the end of each day every day of the experiment.
Records of observations were done for both Negative
About Self and Negative About Others.
The two
aspects of the Baseline-Intervention approach involved to daily activities I
engage in. The first activity, which involved Negative
About Others, was myself going to work. The second daily activity which
involved Negative About Self was me returning
home at the end of the day. The first week of data collection involved only
observation, however the second week involved intervention.
In the
myth of the Chimera, it was the Greek hero Bellerophon that fought against the
monstrous Chimera. To help us combat our negative Three-Fold self (our personal
Chimera), Dr. James proposes that we use the Bridge Technique.
The Bridge
Technique involves us disputing our negative thoughts. By questioning and
combating our negative thoughts, people can hopefully change their feelings and
behaviors as well.
For the
second half of the experiment, I used the Bridge Technique for intervention.
The battle
between Bellerophon and Chimera was a hard-fought one. Eventually Bellerophon
triumphed over the abomination. Let's see how my "Chimera" or Three-Fold self
faired against the Bridge Technique (a.k.a. Bellerophon).
Negative About
Others
Date:
4/7/02 Feeling:
Angry, frustrated, pissed-off, aggravated,
overwhelmed. Thinking:
I'm taken advantage off, the Patrons are stupid, the task assigned is
impossible. Acting
Out:
Hostile toward patrons, cynical comments, discourteous service performed
on my behalf. Summary: Supervisor
asked me to look for something missing in a large pile of items. Looking for hour and a half and
not finding a thing, I began swearing and contemplating the “unfairness”
of the task at hand. After
searching, I returned to the front desk to help a patron. The patron was asking for help and
I kept thinking she was ‘slow’ because she couldn’t figure out things and
kept on bringing to my attention every little complaint she
had. |
Negative About
Self
Date:
4/7/02 Feeling:
Sadness, Self-pity Thinking:
Something is wrong with me, I'm not worthy of my parents approval, I'm the
reason that my family is having problems right
now. Acting
Out:
Kept quiet, headed straight for my room and did not leave it until next
day. Summary: Came home from school and
work. My parents haven’t
spoken to me in three months.
Reflecting on this, I begin thinking “We don’t talk to each other
anymore….maybe I’m expletive deleted*. Even though I’ve done some pretty
nasty things, my parents were usually behind me. Now it seems like they don’t care
about me. |
Week
Two:
Intervention
|
Negative
About Others Date:
4/15/02 Feeling: Angry,
Upset Thinking: Annoyed. Why can’t people leave me
alone? Acting
Out: Not helping at first. Summary People were asking me for (what I
thought) “unnecessary” help.
One person asked for too many items to carry. Another person seemed rude and
“pushy”. Applying the Bridge
Technique began with me thinking of alternate explanations for my
thinking. My attitude changed
and I felt less stress and anger toward the patrons. Finding my job a little more
enjoyable and I show less “attitude” toward the patrons. It took my a while to change my
thinking (+/- 20 min) but eventually it worked. I experienced less anger,
annoyance and I helped more patrons out after applying the Bridge
Technique. |
|
Negative
About Self Date: 4/15/02 Feeling: Depressed,
Sad Thinking: Why don’t my parents talk to
me? What the heck am I doing
wrong? Acting
Out: Headed straight for my
room. Summary: After coming home, I went straight
to my room. After ‘stewing’
in my room for a while, I applied Dr. James Bridge Technique. It took a while, but after
disputing my negative thoughts, I began feeling better about myself. I left my room and
‘Lo-and-behold!’, my parents were in the living room. Feeling better, I started a
conversation with them.
Engaged in conversation, my parents brought up the point that I was
acting “strange” and wanted to know if I was alright. This really brightened my day,
knowing that they did indeed care about how I was doing. By applying the Bridge Technique
not only did I feel better about myself, I also had the opportunity to
talk with my parents about what I was thinking! |
From
the baseline data, you can see that my Three-Fold self was in a definite
negative slump that did not change.
In comparison, even though the same stress-inducing situations occurred,
my mood did change after the application of the Bridge Technique.
What
I noticed was that the Bridge Technique was effective in changing my Three-Fold
self, but it took a while for it to work.
I found that using “Bellerophon” against the “Chimera” was a gradual
process but was indeed effective.
The Bridge Technique did change my whole outlook on things after its
use.
III.
Interpretation and Discussion
Or The Aftermath of the Battle
I
discovered from this experiment that I thought things and acted certain ways
that I never knew before. I
discovered that at my work, I was a very angry individual and was rude to many
patrons that just needed help with their work. After the intervention week, I felt
upset that I was rude to many people who did not have the same knowledge as I
did about my work. I also noticed
that my mood was more “upbeat” during the intervention week than it was for the
baseline week.
I
feel very fortunate to have learned the Bridge Technique…it helped in situations
that I otherwise would have done nothing.
I have a tendency to distort what is happening around me and I feel the
Bridge Technique (Bellerophon) will help to keep me grounded and think more
clear in the future. I believe that
this technique would help anyone who is willing to give it a chance, whether it
be a co-worker, student, boss, friend, or member of the family. Even though this may seem “weird” at
first, explaining it to those unfamiliar with the Bridge Technique will
hopefully get them to see the benefits of its application and
use.
Lastly,
I believe that this technique should be taught in schools as well as the
workplace. I believe that teaching
the Bridge technique in the workplace would help curb workplace violence and
misunderstandings. Teaching this
technique in schools would hopefully prevent school violence, but I believe it
would have to be taught in a way that children and adolescent adults could
understand.
|
On
a personal note: I
am thankful for learning this technique because it has shown me a side of
myself that I was not aware of before. I would recommend taking this
class to anyone who wants to learn more about themselves and seeking a way
to lower their stress level. |
References:
James, Leon Dr.,
“General Instructions for Emotional Spin Cycle Project-Dr. Leon James,”
[online]: General
Instructions--Dr. Leon James
James, Leon Dr.,
Seeing Red, Feeling Blue.: Seeing Red, Feeling
Blue--DrDriving's New Book
Frankychan’s Report
1: Annotated
Bibliography
Links: