Heartfelt, Gut Feeling or Gut Instinct … Is it science?

Did you know that the terms “heartfelt”, “gut feeling” or your “gut instinct” are grounded in science? Our bodies contain vast amounts of information – far more than most of us realize and the brain and body constantly feed information back and forth from the heart, intestines, bones, and muscles.

Personally, I like to think of us as a brain on two feet. If you have ever seen television commercials with the image of the M&M chocolate candies with limbs and sneakers, that’s sort of what I mean.

Let’s talk about how are our brain and bodies function to create feelings ‘coming up’ or ‘coming down’.

There are “top-down,” and “bottom-up” mental processes related to how the brain functions. To simplify this a bit, “top-down” processes use your background knowledge, experiences, prior learning, and expectations to influence what you perceive. It involves thinking about any given memory, life event, or situation and then experiencing the sensations or feelings that go along with it.

“Bottom-up” processes involve sensory perceptions or bodily sensations followed
by conscious awareness and thinking; in other words, you start with no pre-conceived notion of what you are encountering. This means taking in sensory information like sounds, sights, or physical sensations once this information is in your conscious awareness.

Knowing what specific emotions you experience seems to be more of a bottom-up process as neuroscience discoveries suggest bodily sensations travel faster than our thoughts form. What is so fascinating is that we tend to identify what we feel emotionally based on the sensations we feel in our physical body first. Think for a second about how we generally talk about feelings. We never talk about “feelings coming down”; we always describe feelings as “coming up.” It seems a little surprising that something we experience in our body helps us know what we feel emotionally.

When you try to disconnect or distract from the physical sensations in your body, it becomes much more difficult to know what you are feeling on an emotional level. Generally speaking, then, you will tend to know your feelings through these bodily sensations first, before you can describe them with words (e.g., sad, angry, frustrated). As neuroscience continues to explore the brain-body connection, the interplay between the two becomes increasingly apparent.

In my book, 90 Seconds To A Life You Love, I go more in-depth into what we experience in our body helping us know what we feel emotionally. It’s a great part of Chapter 2!

This weeks questions:

Can you recall a memory or life event where you experienced a ‘top-down’ emotion? What was it you felt?

Who hasn’t had an embarrassing moment in front of a group? Do you recall the physical sensation your had when this event occurred? What was it?

I continue this discussion deeper in the second chapter of my book. It’s a must read.

I’d love for you to respond on my facebook group!

Join my group on Facebook LOVE MY LIFE and let me know. I’ll post the question and jump on myself to chat and answer questions you may have, on Wednesday at 3:00 pm Pacific.

The first step of the Rosenberg Reset is intended to help you stay aware of and connected to your experience (“knowing what you know”) as opposed to distracting from and avoiding your experience (“trying not to know what you know”). Knowing what you know necessitates self-awareness and self-attunement, which leads to greater emotional strength and confidence.

Let’s talk about increasing ‘self-attunement’.

Before you say “what?”, hear me out. You’ve heard of ‘Sixth Sense’? It’s a keen intuitive power, like another one of your five senses. Interoception or interoceptive awareness describes your capacity to be aware of, perceive, or know the internal state of your body. Think of interoception as knowing your internal world or “inside self.” Interoceptive awareness helps you know when you feel hungry or thirsty, have a temperature, are nauseous, or have a pain in your body.

This type of awareness, your sixth sense, also connects you to the emotions linked with your body sensations. It helps you notice, for example, sadness when you feel heaviness in your chest, embarrassment when you feel heat in your face, or anxiety when you feel butterflies in your stomach. All of these are “inside self” experiences.

This ability to be aware of and sensitive to your inside experience is also known as self-attunement and integrates with a mindfulness practice. In my book, 90 Seconds To A Life You Love, I cover ‘self-attunement’ or your ‘sixth sense’ comprehensively. It’s a great part of Chapter 2!

This weeks questions:

Have you always thought you have a keen sixth sense?

If not, why do you think that is?

Do you think you ignore your moment-to-moment shifts you may experience inside your own body?

Join my group on Facebook LOVE MY LIFE and let me know.  I’ll post the question and jump on myself to chat and answer questions you may have, on Wednesday at 3:00 pm Pacific.

To A Life You Love,

Dr. Joan Rosenberg
DrJoanRosenberg.com
90SecondsBook.com

Let’s talk about the ‘ROSENBERG RESET’ and the first of the 3 steps – One Choice.

The Rosenberg Reset is a strategy that enables people to more fully lean into those unpleasant emotions. It is one simple formula.

You make the decision to allow yourself to fully feel your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. It is about choosing awareness, not avoidance, as the way you approach your life.

Based on my clinical observations, many people believe that it’s the big choices that make us happy over the course of our life – the partner or spouse we have, the job we accepted or turned down, the party we did or didn’t attend, the college we went to, or any number of other big decisions.

From my perspective, these major decisions influence opportunities but not overall happiness, inner peace, or well-being. Instead, it’s the attitudes we choose to hold and how we approach everyday experiences, events, and situations that have much greater sway over both our day-to-day and lifelong happiness than these small number of big choices we make. It’s the moment-to-moment decisions you make that impact you more.

It turns out that all those little reactions and the decisions that follow – whether to pay attention, or not – count a lot. The key, then, is to make the one choice to stay in the present moment by remaining aware and in touch with as much of your moment-to-moment experience as possible. This includes paying special attention to your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. When you are able to notice and respond to those feelings with ease, you’ll experience a greater sense of inner peace and emotional freedom.

This weeks questions:

How well do you handle your day-to-day emotions?

Are you reactive to what others think and say?

Are you an emotion ‘avoider’?

Join my group on Facebook LOVE MY LIFE and let me know.  I’ll post the question and jump on myself to chat and answer questions you may have, on Wednesday at 3:00 pm Pacific.

To A Life You Love,

Dr. Joan Rosenberg
DrJoanRosenberg.com
90SecondsBook.com