Days Without Pirate Attack:

I wasn’t patient enough to deal with a confluence of after-work traffic, over-indulgent parents heading to the “Little Gym,” and my own fatigue to not lose my temper yesterday.  Fortunately, I was on my way to a massage, which helped significantly.  Next day, I read an interesting article in Discover magazine.  The entire article is here, Where do Thoughts Occur? By Christie Aschwanden

The interesting premise is that some research indicates our body is necessary for complex thought.   This is a fascinating concept:

“In one study, Lee and a colleague exposed volunteers to different odors. When they did, they found that getting a whiff of a fishy odor evoked feelings of suspicion; likewise, when research participants were exposed to another person behaving suspiciously, they were better able to detect a fishy scent.

The range of findings demonstrating embodied cognition is impressive. A small sampling: Looking upward nudges people to call to mind others who are more powerful, while looking down prompts thoughts of people we outrank.

People judge a petition to be more consequential if it is handed to them on a heavy clipboard rather than a lightweight one. Baseball players with high batting averages perceive the ball as bigger than poorer hitters. And Botox injections that prevent frowning also slow people’s comprehension of sentences describing angry and sad events.”   (I have to let my sister know about that last one.)

Perhaps a tool I can use is to “Smile until you feel happy.”  Or look for body gestures and positions that I associate with kind a patient people.  Some food for thought today.