Homeostasis

We human beings — we teachers, students, administrators, parents — are all

bundles of unbelievably amazing systems

devoted to keeping us alive. Devoted to maintaining homeostasis — the conditions that allow for our survival — inside our magnificent bodies.

I’m back to Antonio Damasio, the guy whose book I read a couple weeks ago.

Why am I back? Because Damasio makes a super important point: Namely, that our feelings — our sensations and our emotions — are crucial to our survival. First, they are the signals that alert us to dangerous departures from physical homeostasis. Got a pain in your gut? Better get that looked at before your appendix bursts. And kills you.

I mean, that’s pretty obvious. What might not be so obvious is that our emotions do the same thing. Except that they signal

psychic threats

to our survival.

Feeling angry? Better look for injustice or invasion somewhere. Feeling resentful? Better look for places where you’re doing more than you should. Feeling afraid? Depressed? Anxious? Better pay attention so you can alleviate these emotions by

learning what they’re teaching you.

This is what I call emotion work. The work of psycho-coaching. Work that helps human beings figure out what their feelings mean, what is going on inside themselves, inside others they’re in relationship with, inside their classrooms and schools. It is work that turns burnout and overwhelmedness and tension and conflict into empowerment and wellness.

Pretty good work.

Keeping in mind that one person’s homeostasis is another person’s hell. For instance. I just realized this morning that my homeostasis is pretty much

constant activity.

If I try to relax by, say, lying down and reading a book? I can do it for maybe an hour tops without feeling depressed or restless.

I’m like a shark who will die if it stops moving. (Though I gather that’s a myth about sharks. But not about me.)

So it’s worth getting a sense of what your homeostasis is. And how your feelings feed into it. And whether or not you want to change this norm (as I would like to do because I would like to relax occasionally). And, if you’d like to change the norm, how you will work with your emotions to teach them and yourself a new way.

Kinda cool food for thought. Thank you, Antonio Damasio.