Understanding Neuroscience Helps Manage Emotional Triggers

In my work, I am often asked, - How do I communicate with someone who is irrational?”

The question inspired me to think about how to use neuroscience and emotional intelligence to coach people and address this question. I find that people asking the question are often emotionally triggered just thinking about problems they are trying to manage.

So, first, let’s take a brief look at emotions through the lens of neuroscience. While it’s common to categorize emotions as positive or negative, it isn’t as useful as understanding why they are occurring. Learning from our emotions can be a source (I think of it as a resource) to gain greater insights and expand choices.

Since we cannot separate our sense of self from our emotional life, every emotion we experience is a representation of a part of ourselves – while not being “us.” There is, however, a tendency to avoid emotions that we have identified as negative denying ourselves the opportunity to enrich the quality of our experience.

Using the language of neuroscience we can create a new frame of reference to connect brain activity with behavioral change - and unlike the “baggage” that some may feel is too therapeutic or inappropriate, sharing the language of neuroscience explains the dynamic process that is taking place in the brain from a fact-based perspective.

According to neuroscientist Louis Cozolino, “Emotions are our conscious experiences and interpretations of our bodily states, involving many of the brain’s neural networks. Because our thoughts and emotions are so interconnected, it is difficult to know if they are distinct from one another or really different aspects of the same neural processes.”

For example, I find clients are often surprised that the annoyance and frustration they experience is related to activation of their limbic system. When activated the limbic system diverts “resources” from the part of the brain (prefrontal cortex) involved in logical, rational, evaluative and decision-making activities – resulting in less clarity and the increased possibility of impulsive behavior.

It’s valuable to understand that when we are emotionally triggered, we’re far less likely to do our best problem-solving. Looking for external solutions shouldn’t be the starting point, understanding the source of the emotional trigger should be. Understanding this process gives us a new framework and language for managing emotions.

3 Ways to Help Make the Switch

Without oversimplifying what is after all a dynamic and sometimes complex process, there are three key ways to support someone to move from “limbic arousal” to using cognitive strategies.

1. Regulate Breathing. Because there are always physiological responses associated with emotional states, activated by the insula – which senses our bodily states and informs us about how we’re feeling – the first step in switching should involve our paying close attention to our bodies. When the limbic system is activated the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, are released. Before we can evaluate our emotional states cognitively and engage our “thinking” brain (prefrontal cortex), we need to reduce these bodily responses. Focusing attention on the breath is the portal to begin the switching action.
2. Activate Self-Awareness. Achieving emotional equilibrium by shifting from the limbic region to the prefrontal cortex requires self-awareness and the realization of what’s going on emotionally. We need to know that we’re in the “grips” of a limbic response. Unless we are able to recognize when we are emotionally triggered and take steps to deactivate our reactive state, we can’t effectively address our problems. Understanding our current emotional reaction is often contingent on identifying past patterns.
3. Expand Emotional Literacy. Last, we need to expand our vocabulary for our emotional experience beyond the basics (fear, joy, disgust, anger, love, etc.) An expanded emotional literacy will enable us to have greater flexibility to shift emotional states.

UCLA researcher, Dr. Matthew Lieberman, found that learning to “label” our emotions maximizes cognitive ability. His research showed that using simple language to “name” anticipated and experienced emotions, actually lowers the arousal of the limbic system producing a quieter brain state. This in turn, allows the PFC (pre-frontal cortex) to act more effectively.

According to Dr. Lieberman, “When you attach the word ‘angry,’ you see a decreased response in the amygdala, when you attach the name ‘Harry,’ you don’t see the reduction in the amygdala response. In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words; you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses. As a result, an individual may feel less angry or less sad.”

Learning to unravel our emotional triggers is a key competency in increasing our emotional intelligence. When we add the knowledge from neuroscience we expand our abilities to not only decrease emotional reactivity, but deepen our understanding of the messages feelings are always communicating about our experience.

This article adapted from original at Mindful Matters

George Altman is an Executive coach, Organizational Development Consultant and founding Partner at Intentional Communication Consultants. George is also a senior leader and course developer for the American Management Association. Connect with George Altman