Very interesting article.

One of the things that helped me control my emotions is the use of TM or Transcendental Meditation. And while technically, I cannot use that term as it is copyrighted, there are loads of classes and videos to teach mantra meditation aka mindfullness.

Of course if you are a skeptic about all this, all I ask is that you try it our for 2 weeks, 20 minutes a day, and see if you are not able to better control your emotions.

A lot of very high profile people use this technique to help them in their careers. Of note are Jerry Seinfeld, Clint Eastwood, and director David Lynch. In fact it was through a David Lynch Foundation event teamed with Operation Warrior Wellness that offered me the avenues to learn the technique. And today, you can find a swath of people teaching the basics online for free.

How this relates to memory is that, I am able remember things more clearly these days. And interestingly, the memories are not devoid of emotions. In fact, I can recall some things in such clarity, I will tear up. But, with that information stored in my head, using the mantra meditation allows me to make more logical decisions based on those feelings, than to simply react spontaneously. Seems a bit counter-intuitive.

And I also realize I am opening myself up here to a lot of criticism. But, again, all I have to say is try it. (granted, there are some major jackasses out there. So if it's a Corey Goode type telling you meditation will let you talk to big blue bird people from outer space, then you know you found the wrong instructor. Not kidding! There really is a guy out there with wildly unverifiable stories like that. More than one person actually.).

Also, I used to have an emotional block with math. As a 3 year old child, I witnessed violence on someone over math. It was my sister, and she was being yelled at by my father over a math problem she got wrong. And it got physical.

And, I was never good at math in high school or later in college. But, after I started meditating, (coming up on 9 years this September), I went back to college under the VA's Vocational Rehab program.

At one point, I was studying to get into a masters program. And that meant taking a GRE test. It was intimidating as the math portion included Algebra, Trig, and geometry. I was always good with geometry. But the other 2 subjects forced me to the Math Lab.

After about 2 weeks, I began to get every problem in front of me correct. The instructor who ran the lab told me never saw anyone pick it up so quickly. And while I never ended up taking the GRE or going for a masters, I am very happy that I found out the only thing holding me back from math mastery was an emotion, not my capacity for number crunching.

Hope that helps!

Also, I think it is interesting to note that Vulcans from Star Trek lore, all practice meditation. And as their primary characteristic is that they refrain from expressing emotion, I feel its more than a coincidence that Gene Roddenberry included them in his series.