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This article explains the science behind your emotions and their physiological effects on your body. You will learn about the various neuropathways of your five senses and how the amygdala takes control of your executive functioning. You will learn how to take back this control through a method that empowers you to remain calm and regulate stress, anxiety, and depression as you deal with the day-to-day variables of life.
Raise your hand if someone has ‘tailgated’ you while driving or ‘cut’ you off. I’m sure everyone has experienced road rage at some point in their life. Statistically, 82% of you reading this have even committed road rage. [i] Social media is full of videos of road rage incidents plaguing our travel ways.
From road rage to arguments with a family member, domestic violence, or suicide, these events result in thoughts and behaviors you may later regret. These life experiences have one thing in common: our emotional and irrational thoughts take control of behavior before rational thinking occurs. The simple everyday interactions that elevate an anger response, such as dropping a glass on the floor or a child writing on your recently painted walls, can activate this emotionally fueled irrational thought.
Sometimes these everyday experiences result in poor decision-making, and other times they only create a physiological change within the body, negatively impacting mood and increasing stress, depression, or anxiety. Learning how to regulate negative emotions will reduce negative behavior, improving your sense of mental and physical well-being.
These rapid impulses act irrationally when the emotional areas of your brain take control of the wheel before the rational areas have time to make sense of the information and deduce more reasonable behavior. You must first understand how the brain processes information from your five senses to regulate emotionally irrational thoughts.
Understanding the Neuropathways of Your Five Senses
All five senses, minus smell, follow a similar pathway when processed in the brain. Sight, sound, taste, and touch all travel to the thalamus (see Figure 1). The thalamus is the reception center that determines where to send the information. Data received from the senses travel to different areas of the cerebral cortex (The outermost portion of the brain) responsible for making sense of the information received.
The amygdala is responsible for your emotions and is the key actor in the fight, flight or freeze response. For this reason, a smell can quickly trigger positive or negative emotions and rapidly influence thoughts and behavior. [ii] Have you ever smelled something that rapidly caused you to relive an experience? The sense of smell’s rapid path toward the amygdala is why.
The other four senses traveling to the thalamus for vetting can influence negative emotions before the cerebral cortex has time to make meaning. In the book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman explains that the amygdala has dominion over emotions and can operate on its own. He describes a secondary pathway within the thalamus sending information directly to the amygdala, allowing this information to forego the rational thinking of the cerebral cortex. [iii] The red arrow in Figure 1 depicts this back door from the thalamus to the amygdala.
When the brain perceives a high emotional threat, the amygdala takes charge, preventing the rational thought process of the cortex; this is known as amygdala hijack, explains Oliva Guy-Evans, a writer with SimplyPsychology.org. [iv] The amygdala justifies its hijack based on past learned emotional experiences. Sometimes this hijack is justified and may save your life. For example, if a car is about to hit you as you cross the street and you are not consciously aware of the situation, and your amygdala is, it takes control of your body, causing it to jump out of the way on its own. However, in most cases throughout your day, your amygdala hijacks your rational thinking toward non-threatening stimuli.
When the amygdala makes its own executive decision and triggers the fight, flight, or freeze, this triggers the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, releasing stress hormones into the bloodstream. The release of stress hormones causes changes to various body systems (see HPA in Figure 1). A physiological change occurs, causing dry mouth, increased heart rate, shallow breathing, digestion going offline, muscle tension, and bladder relaxation. The purpose of the fight, flight, or freeze is to protect you from valid threats. This results in increased anxiety, stress, and depression.
These physiological changes can decrease your well-being. However, just as the HPA rapidly turns on, you can choose to turn it off. All you have to do is decide to regulate your emotions. Choose not to get upset or overreact to the everyday situations influencing negative emotions.
Regulating Emotions and Taking Control of Your Amygdala
In these everyday non-threat situations, you can take control of the amygdala regulating these negative emotions. You will do this by focusing on two things. Firstly, choose to change your negative thoughts into positive thoughts. Secondly, turning down the HPA through diaphragmatic breathing.
Focusing on positive thoughts can decrease stress hormones and influence the release of the feel-good hormone dopamine. When you reflect on past positive experiences or listen to your favorite song, the good feelings that run through your body are caused by dopamine. You can influence the release of dopamine anytime you want to.
What is that one song that, no matter how bad of a day you may be having when listening to this song, you get goosebumps and feel happy and relaxed? Use this song as an outlet to release dopamine and turn off the flow of stress hormones. Make a list of the memories, songs, or activities that make you feel good, and have them readily available to implement when the amygdala takes control when you least expect it.
Diaphragmatic breathing is another tool you can implement to regulate negative emotions. Multiple studies, including a 2017 study published in the Frontiers in Psychology Journal, demonstrate that diaphragmatic breathing can deactivate the HPA stopping the release of stress hormones and returning you to a calm, relaxed state. [v] Diaphragmatic breathing is a technique where deep breaths cause your stomach to expand rather than your chest. Dr. Andrew Weil, a Harvard-educated doctor, developed the 4-7-8 technique. [vi] To do this, you take a deep breath counting to four. Hold your breath for seven seconds, then exhale for the count of eight. This technique can reverse the effects of the amygdala’s takeover, improving your mental and physical well-being.
When someone upsets you, it’s hard to find the desire to regulate your emotions. For some reason, you may feel justified in voicing your anger. However, your choice to allow these negative emotions to fester throughout your body decreases your mental and physical well-being. It would be healthier to swallow your pride, forget about the one that offended you, and focus on improving your mental and physical well-being. In the long run, you will feel better and can avoid a potential negative behavior that could result in a drastic mistake.
[i] Covington, Taylor. “Road Rage Statistics in 2021.” The Zebra. Last Modified August 9, 2021. https://www.thezebra.com/resources/research/road-rage-statistics/.
[ii] Sincero, Sarah Mae. “Neural pathways of Smell, Taste, and Touch.” Explorable: Think Outside the Box. February 19, 2022. https://explorable.com/neural-pathways-of-smell-taste-and-touch.
[iii] Goleman, Daniel. “Emotional Intelligence.” New York: Bantam Books (1995)
[iv] Guy-Evans, Olivia. “Amygdala Hijack and the Fight or Flight Response.” SimplyPscychology. November 5, 2021. https://www.simplypsychology.org/what-happens-during-an-amygdala-hijack.html.
[v] Ma, Xia Et al. “The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect, and Stress in Healthy Adults.” Frontiers in Psychology 8, no. 8 (2017): 1-12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5455070/pdf/fpsyg-08-00874.pdf.
[vi] Cunic, Arlin. “What is 4-7-8 Breathing?” verywell mind. October 26, 2021. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-4-7-8-breathing-5204438.
