Thursday, July 20, 2006

The brain in the gut?

With the date of the exams approaching, I am trying to learn to find ways to deal with the feeling of having butteflies in the stomach that comes every now and then. It is a psychological thing?

While trying to understand more about this phenomenon, I searched using Google for the key words: butterflies in the stomach. If you are interested, you might wish to read Sandra BLAKESLEE's article titled Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Bellyaches and Butterflies.

Inferring from the article, it appears that the exams is making me worried, and my central brain is prompted to release stress hormones that prepare the body to fight or flee. This in turn eventually lead to the feeling of having butterflies in the stomach?

Maybe the question for the day is: How to just take things easy, and not be too overwhelmed by the impending exams?

Come to think of it, playing music seems to expose one to face one's psychological barriers, and to learn to overcome them. Yesterday, I was playing a fairly challenging passage. I have played it before and have done it accurately. But yesterday, when faced with it again, somehow my mind perceived it as too difficult, and I ended up not being able to play it as good as I have used to. With some practice, I hope that the psychological barriers could be overcomed.

1 comment:

oceanskies79 said...

*I am amused* by the part about leave the fretting to the neck of my double bass.