Did you know that scientists can make you feel things?
Researchers who study emotions have a slate of scenarios they use to reliably evoke feelings so they can be studied under experimental conditions.
For example, researchers in one study used a film clip to make participants feel angry and a another one to inspire happiness. To make participants feel sad, researchers in a different study asked participants to imagine the loss of a loved one. Social scientists use these techniques because they work.
These might seem like the kind of boring details that should stay relegated to the methods section of a research paper. But I think they’re smuggling a quietly revelatory message. A message that points to a new way to think about feelings — and how to change them.
Explaining Emotions Contextually vs. Individually
Today in the United States, so much of how we think about emotional distress and mental illness uses an individual frame. The dysfunction is inside someone, buried in there.
This lens is baked into our mental healthcare system. While the DSM-5-TR (the gold-standard diagnostic manual used in the U.S.) and the ICD-10 (used internationally) may include situational factors (like “ill family member”) using V Codes or Z Codes, diagnoses largely fail to take into account many contextual factors that influence well-being. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other diagnoses end up in a personal electronic medical record, not a family’s, community’s, or company’s.
Solutions, too, take an individualistic slant. Ask your doctor if an antidepressant is right for you. If feelings of sadness persist for more than two weeks, schedule an intake with a licensed therapist.
But what the study protocols used by emotion researchers imply is that how we feel is very much influenced, sometimes even directed, by the contexts in which we find ourselves. In other words, the conditions they’re in can lead an individual — any individual — to think, feel, and act in certain ways.
There Is Nothing Wrong With You
I know what you might be thinking: “Are you really saying we have absolutely no personal agency or responsibility?”
Let me be clear. I’m not saying there’s always a perfectly straight line between our conditions and our response to them. We are not automatons. Also, no, I don’t think this means we should throw up our hands and resign ourselves to being perpetually whipped about by the winds of fate.
What I do think is that we should be real about how much control we have and – if we do want to change how we feel – where we might have the most leverage.
If we know that, to some degree, our emotions are products of the conditions in which we find ourselves, it follows that:
- Emotions aren’t as personal as we tend to think. There is nothing wrong with you for feeling the way you do. Don’t expect yourself to be okay no matter what’s happening – it’s reasonable and normal to be impacted by what’s going on. Let go of all that shame and blame.
- Changing how you feel may be more about changing your conditions than changing yourself. While none of us can control everything (or even most things), if we zoom out, there often are some conditions and habits we can influence which will make it easier or harder to feel like our best selves. A curious mindset helps here. Ask yourself: What contexts help me feel more like the person I want to be? What makes it harder to feel like that person?
Create A Clearing
During a talk at Common Ground Meditation Center, teacher Jean Haley, LICSW, shared a poem that offers one answer to these questions.
Do not try to save
Martha Postlethwaite, author of Addiction and Recovery: A Spiritual Pilgrimage
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself to this world
so worthy of rescue.
For me, creating a clearing means not over-scheduling. It means leaving enough slack to allow for contemplation, relationships, and restoration. By cultivating these conditions — plus any others we know support emotional regulation for us — we may just find the breathing room to be more of who we want to be during the difficult situations we can’t help.
My Latest Work
Did you know that a whopping 80% of people experience the phenomenon of flow at some point in their lives?
You may be aware that, in psychology, flow is known as an “optimal experience” characterized by intense engagement and absorption. But you might be surprised to learn that this state goes beyond mere feel-good vibes— research suggests flow is genuinely beneficial for your well-being.
Yet, finding and maintaining flow amidst the daily grind isn’t easy. The good news? Experts say specific strategies can significantly enhance your likelihood of experiencing flow.
Curious to know more? Read the guide I wrote for Everyday Health: All About the State of Flow: Definition, Health Effects, and How to Get Into the Zone
Did you know that your belief in your ability to do what’s needed to achieve a goal is associated with all sorts of positive outcomes? It’s true. Research links the psychological phenomenon – called self-efficacy – with improved emotional and physical well-being, not to mention job satisfaction and protection from burnout.
For Everyday Health, I wrote a self-efficacy guide covering all this and more.
Read All About Self-Efficacy: Definition, Health Effects, and How to Get Better at It.
People who know me know that I was Talk/News Director at my college radio station and hosted a show all four years. That radio nerd is still deep inside me and she loves being a podcast guest. That’s part of why I loved being asked to interview the host of a writing podcast about her new book.
Listen to the season premier of the Courageous Wordsmith podcast to hear what Tiny Altars author Amy Hallberg had to say about the role of recurring patterns in writing and life: Courageous Wordsmith Podcast Patterns Revealed in a Memoir
I’m thrilled to share that I’m now a professional member of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW).
A perfect complement to my professional memberships with the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Association of Health Care Journalists, I’m overjoyed to be more formally connected with colleagues who share NASW’s mission of connecting science and society.
Book Recommendations
I love learning about nutrition and mental health, so I had to read This Is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods That Fight Depression, Anxiety, Ptsd, OCD, ADHD, and More by Uma Naidoo, MD. More and more, scientists are uncovering the deep connection between food and emotional wellbeing. Some mental health professionals are even beginning to prescribe nutritional interventions to address symptoms of mental illness. This field, called nutritional psychiatry, is new, and Naidoo is arguably among the best qualified in the world to speak on it. She’s a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and professional chef who founded and directs the first hospital-based clinical services in nutritional psychiatry in the U.S.
Sirens & Muses: A Novel by Antonia Angress features a tangle of relationships nestled in the passion and politics of a competitive art school. The characters wound there way into my brain, and I’m still thinking about them weeks later. Plus, when I read the acknowledgements, I learned that Angress is a Minnesota author, which is always a thrill since I’m MN-based myself. I recommend this novel for people who liked to read about flawed characters, creativity, the art industry, relationships, love, sexuality, queerness, and class. H/t to the booksellers Next Chapter Booksellers, who, once again, didn’t steer me wrong.
How Art Is Made: The Craft Behind the Masterpieces by Debra N. Mancoff is the kind of book you’ll want to keep out in your living room, which is where you’ll find my copy. I liked this book well enough on my own (the design is gorgeous, for one), but it has a permeant place in my heart thanks to my middle son. When he saw the cover, he declared, “That’s Yayoi Kusama.” And darned if he wasn’t right. Sparked by his enthusiasm, we flipped to the the pages all about the Japanese artist, whom he’d heard about at preschool. My son liked the photos and, when I read the text aloud, we found it was just the right length and level to keep his attention and make us all feel like we were learning something.
Thank you to Frances Lincoln and The Quarto Group for the advance copy. See my disclosure statement for my policy on accepting books for review.
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