how we process emotions

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor found that it only takes about 90 seconds to process an emotion. When I first read it, I couldn't believe it!

“When a person has a reaction to something in their environment, there’s a 90-second chemical process that happens; any remaining emotional response is just the person choosing to stay in that emotional loop.”

Taylor, in an interview with Psychology Today.

I don't know about you , but when I first read that my response was pure disbelief. There's no way - I've never experienced an emotion for just 90 seconds! But when I recall that our nervous system responds to any stimuli much quicker than the brain can process it, it starts to make sense. Maybe I have experienced an emotion in just 90 seconds but didn't realize or remember it because I have no attachment to it?

And it made me think ... Are we confusing emotions with the chatter in our head? An emotion is pure energy, in motion, inside our bodies. It is only the stories, unresolved trauma, limiting beliefs, etc. that make these emotions last so long. Thoughts can create emotions, and they can make them last longer than necessary. This is not to say we should be "thoughtless" and act on every emotion, but instead to place both thoughts & emotions in closer alignment to how God designed us.

I started to think about some reasons emotions, and unneccessary stress, get caught in our bodies (and our minds):

1) A general lack of movement - emotions (aka) energy need someplace to go. This is a lot of the basis of somatic practices, because when we have unprocessed emotions and fatigue it can be difficult to create a normal movement routine - the very thought of it might seem overwhelming. We are incredibly sedentary as it is, but we also constantly "shush" or tell children to sit still, be quiet - that is the standard we grow up in, with no place for that energy to go except inner turmoil (along with the belief that that energy is "wrong"). This carries over into the common workplace and even into our homes - how many of us turn to screens before we would consider going on a walk?

2) A lack of nourishment - food, water, sun, sleep, creativity, community, a spiritual life - we need all of these things in order for our nervous systems to process. In short, when you starve your cells of nourishment your body is going to believe it is not safe. Our thoughts jump on that bandwagon quickly to ensure that stress hormones continue to pump out, as a way to stoke that mobilizing energy. Even this is a beautiful design - if you are not safe, it makes sense that you would need to have mobilizing energy (to fight or run) until you are safe again. So when you are starving yourself of some form of nourishment, your thoughts begin forming anxious patterns, obsessive behaviors, ruminating over conversations, etc. This is so often where the loud thoughts take over - a sign that your mind is trying to keep you stressed so you are able to fight or run - except you don't fight or run, or if you do it is not followed by the safe resolution of food/sleep/community... the energy loop doesn't complete... and so your thoughts continue to grow louder, creating complex stories around every bodily sensation and emotion.

3) The specific lack of nourishment in community deserves its' own point. When a boundary is continuously violated - specifically, a need for real safety (see the things listed in #2, especially food/water and community which are the most basic survival needs). When this has happened continuously, you cannot "trick" your mind into believing it's safe. It can only be through showing your body & nervous system safety.

Think about if someone was exiled from their community 500 years ago, they would have been without their basic needs (or at least had a much harder time getting food/water/shelter and they would lack human interaction, touch, and understanding). If that community welcomed them back in after a week, their nervous system might pretty quickly accept it. But if that continued to happen repeatedly, or they were exciled for a year, and then the community tried to welcome the exile back... well, as much as the mind might want to believe it, the nervous system would (rightly) stay in stress for a long time, because experience has shown this particular community cannot be trusted.

This is also what happens when the nervous system starts to get 'triggered' by things that are not actually unsafe. In the above example, the exiled person may struggle to believe that any community is safe, even though it was only one particular community that showed themselves unsafe. Sometimes we assign a lack of safety to things that trigger us because of our past, like thinking one person is unsafe because they reminded us of a painful time. This is why, our Spirit-led self has to take responsibility of our own healing - because being 'triggered' is not a reason to pass on this pattern of unsafety in our relationships. Sadly, this is where so many people are, and even when they recognize their triggers and the stories behind them, they still struggle through emotions & continue to project pain into the world. We can unconsciously become both the victimizer and the victims of, and through, our own inner dialogue.

So if you are like me, and your emotions generally last much longer than 90 seconds, it's not a reason to feel ashamed, but rather an invitation. If I want to live as closely in alignment with God's design, how can I begin to nourish myself deeper, how can I evaluate my own triggers, if my community is signaling safety (not just perceived safety or perceived unsafety), how can I recognize emotions as energy and give them a healthy outlet?