Emotions & Physiology

When it comes to emotions there are two main components: 1.Narrative, and 2. Physiological reaction. By the time we enter adulthood many of us have learned to abstract our emotional state so much that we lose sight of what it really means and often succumb to unnecessary negative emotional associations.

A very familiar emotion that many people struggle with is shame, or anxiety. Just in time for summer try remembering a day you stood on a hot bus. There's almost an overlaying sense that the entire bus is feeling shame in unison. Yet many people ride and feel uncomfortable waiting for their bus stop to come as if they're the only one experiencing the emotion. We all feel it, and the reason to put it simply is heat.

The emotion of shame has a long journey from child hood to adult hood because human beings are a complex social species that care about what our superego has to say. Shaped by society, its purpose is still as important as ever but at this point in history its fair to say for far too many people it's overactive. But the superego is merely an abstraction to describe something that functions on the simple mechanism of convergence.

The white matter in our brain acts as a hub for action potentials coming from all over the body and puts a variety of stimulus along side each other using the property of momentum to allow the stimulus to elicit specific responses and associations. Changes in pressure push proteins into the walls of cell membranes causing changes in permeability which allows those neural pathways to light up with activity in response to repetitions of the stimulus in question. This creates the emotional maps in the brain.

When we're young we begin to develop a rudimentary form of shame in response to hygiene. The facial expression for disgust is often paired with smell, even if it's subtle and quickly becomes associated with strenuous activity and hot temperatures. So one basic response which is found to be unpleasant is flushing of the skin. It also acts as a feedback for those around us that elicit our shame response to see us as forgivable as they in turn mirror our emotions and become aware of what it's like to be us at that moment. Then as we get older we develop even more associations as we watch the reactions of other people to a wide spectrum of behaviors. Everything from the man on television up against a murder charge to the person who cut in line being scolded by his peers, or even the embarrassment experienced by someone making a bad joke at a party that received no laughter. Overtime we take what once served as a powerful tool for getting us to behave cooperatively and turn it into a pile of useless associations by worrying about what it means to be cool, as well as subjecting others to the same inconsequential regulations.

So how do we deal with all these unnecessary emotional responses? Well something I've found helpful personally is to do away with narrative. If you're hot find some shade, drink something cold, or do both. If you're hungry get some food. If you're tired get some sleep. If your heart rate is racing then practice slow deliberate breathing. If you feel uncomfortable in a social situation step away from it. Don't stop yourself from moving around, but take a second shot at coming back to the social setting to see if the problem has resolved itself where it's possible. Your emotions and your physiological state are one in the same. Troubleshoot the physiology not the narrative, but if your narrative is particularly strong then make comparisons to put things in perspective. You're probably not that bad and not that bad off.