What do I feel? Morning Mental Fitness (3)
In a very real sense, psychiatrists treat the limbic system. Broadly speaking, the Limbic System is the seat of your emotions, so being a psychiatrist, I’m something of a doctor of the emotions. Antonio Demasio’s revolutionary insight in his book Descartes’ Error is that we are thinking AND feeling beings, and that the Frontal Lobe thinking and Limbic System emotions work together as a unity in any decision we make.
Anatomy: The Limbic System
The Limbic System is deep inside your brain, near the center. We can’t say “this part of your brain does this, and that does that” and you need all your brain to be working all of the time, but it helps to understand that the Limbic System takes care of emotions, even though that’s a simplification of a very complex process.
There are many parts to your emotional Limbic System; your amygdala “almonds” to mediate your experience of pain, your ventral tegmentum area “front covering” to manufacture dopamine for you to experience pleasure in your nucleus accumbens, and your hippocampus “sea-horse” to helps you learn and lay down memories. Emotions are very important to learning and memory. There’s also your anterior cingulate gyrus for empathy with other people, and your hypothalamus to initiate body responses to emotions.
Your Frontal Lobe and your Limbic System are connected. Frontal Lobe focus on thoughts can lead to the release of brain chemicals in your Limbic System. This leads to the experience of emotions. Pleasurable thoughts can release Dopamine to produce pleasurable feelings. Focus on the warmth of sunshine and you can soon experience the warmth the sun. Focus on the taste of chocolate and you start to experience the pleasure. Strong emotions are accompanied by body sensations: changes in heart rate, breathing, energy changes, blood pressures and more. Anger, fear, love and sexual emotions illicit the most changes in your body.
Frontal Lobe focus – on wholesome pleasures, love and trust, calm, and togetherness with other people – releases Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and beta Endorphins in the Limbic System so that you experience these pleasant and healthy emotions.
What do I feel?
It’s a strange question. How do I feel? seems more natural, but this evokes judgment: “good” or “bad” are usual responses. What do I feel? makes you more aware of and curious about your emotions. Usual answers may include I feel calm, peaceful, intensely angry, frustrated, joyful, mildly sad.
Be aware of some characteristics of your emotions:
They are felt as forces
They move inside you and out of you
They are accompanied by bodily changes
These characteristics will lead you to more questions:
How strong are my emotions?
How do I express my emotions?
What body changes accompany my emotions?
As you breathe, think about these questions. There is no need to judge your emotions, just use these questions to become more aware of and curious about your emotions. Become aware of the process of feeling and observing your emotions from afar. This way, it will become easier for you to separate yourself from emotions that which bring you stress, dis-comfort or dis-ease.
The practice
This is the second minute in your 5-minute morning meditation; the second question and the second brain area of your Morning Mental Fitness Program. In the morning, begin your quiet time of mindful meditation as described in the first post.
The First minute: As you keep your awareness on the tip of your nose and on your breath, simple ask yourself what do I think? on each in-breath. On each outbreath, become aware of the process of thinking.
The Second minute: Now ask yourself what do I feel? on each in-breathe.
On each outbreath, become aware of your emotions and body sensations.
See your emotions as waves on the surface of your life experience.
Don’t judge them. Don’t engage with them. Don’t fight them or resist them. Simply accept your emotions and feel them.
Keep in this state for a minute or as long as you comfortably enjoy it.
During the day, pause at times to ask yourself what do I feel? Your brain will recall the experience of feeling from your morning minutes. You will find it easier to separate from emotions which cause you dis-ease.
2: What do I feel? (thanks to my Limbic System)