Best of the Archives: How Your Emotions Are Made | Lisa Feldman Barrett
Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a distinguished psychology professor, discusses the science of emotions, distinguishing them from feelings, their evolutionary purpose, and how to skillfully manage them. She explores "deconstructing" emotions and the surprising overlap between her research and Buddhist philosophy.
Deep Dive Analysis
11 Topic Outline
Introduction to Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett and Emotion Science
Dr. Barrett's Journey into Emotion Research
Challenging the Myth of Universal Emotion Signatures
The Evolutionary Story of Feelings and Emotions
The Brain as the Body's Budget Manager
Deconstructing Sensations and Reframing Emotional Experience
Developing Skill and Flexibility in Emotional Construction
Potential Pitfalls: Somatization and Unhealthy Deconstruction
Clarifying the Distinction Between Feelings and Emotions
Overlap Between Emotion Science and Buddhist Philosophy
The Nature and Influence of Social Reality
5 Key Concepts
Feelings (Affect)
These are basic sensations of pleasantness/unpleasantness and arousal/calmness that are always present. They arise from the brain's continuous regulation and modeling of the body's internal systems, acting as a barometer for the body's metabolic budget.
Body Budget
This is the brain's most important job: managing and allocating the body's resources like salt, glucose, water, and oxygen to keep a person alive and well. Every action, thought, and interaction can be seen as a deposit or withdrawal from this budget, influencing one's overall feeling state.
Emotions
Emotions are the brain's way of making sense of internal sensations (affect) in relation to the surrounding world. The brain uses past experiences to predict what sense data means, guiding actions and constructing a narrative that we experience as a specific emotion (e.g., anger, fear, sadness).
Deconstruction of Emotions
This is the practice of breaking down complex emotional experiences into their more basic components, such as simple feelings (affect) or raw sensations, rather than immediately assigning a psychological narrative. It allows for reframing sensations and cultivating different meanings, leading to greater emotional flexibility and resilience.
Social Reality
This refers to meanings, functions, and values that humans collectively impose on things that do not inherently possess them (e.g., money, air rights). While constrained by physical reality, social reality can influence physical reality and individual experiences, including how emotions are constructed and acted upon.
6 Questions Answered
Emotions are not universal, pre-programmed reactions with distinct bodily signatures. Instead, they are concepts constructed by the brain using past experience to make sense of internal sensations (affect) and guide actions in a given context.
Feelings (or affect) are basic sensations of pleasantness/unpleasantness and arousal/calmness that are always present as the brain regulates the body's internal systems. Emotions are more complex narratives or meanings that the brain constructs from these basic feelings and external context, often to prepare for action.
Emotions evolved as a way for the brain to make sense of internal body sensations in relation to the world, using past experience to predict what will happen next and guide actions to keep the body alive and well, ensuring gene transmission.
Yes, by practicing 'deconstruction'—reframing sensations and cultivating different meanings for them—we can train our brains to predict and construct emotional experiences differently. This increases emotional flexibility and resilience, though it requires consistent practice.
Yes, excessive deconstruction can lead to somatization, where one only experiences psychological distress as physical symptoms (e.g., stomach ache instead of anger). This can be unhealthy if it prevents acknowledging the psychological significance of an event and solving the underlying problem.
There is significant overlap, particularly with the Abhidharmic tradition and later revisionist Buddhist philosophy (e.g., Dharmakirti), which suggests that the self and even fundamental experiences (dharmas) are constructed by the human mind, aligning with a constructionist or relational view of meaning.
12 Actionable Insights
1. Acknowledge Emotions to Avoid Being Owned
Recognize that emotions exist whether you confront them or not. Choosing denial or compartmentalization will inevitably lead to these neglected emotions controlling your behavior.
2. Deconstruct Emotional Experiences
Learn to break down your emotions into their most basic forms, such as simple feelings (affect), rather than immediately constructing complex emotional narratives. This practice, similar to mindfulness meditation, allows you to experience sensations in their rawest form.
3. Reframe Arousal as Determination
When experiencing high arousal or jitters, especially before a challenging task, consciously reframe these sensations as determination instead of anxiety. This shift in meaning can improve performance and change the trajectory of your life.
4. Practice Flexible Meaning-Making
Actively practice interpreting your body’s sensations in multiple ways to build resilience. This skill, like driving, becomes more automatic and less metabolically costly with consistent practice outside of high-stress moments.
5. Reframe Feelings as Body Budget Deficit
When feeling generally unpleasant or ’like crap,’ reframe this as your ‘body budget running a deficit’ rather than immediately attributing it to psychological issues like anger or sadness. This prevents escalating simple feelings into unhelpful emotional narratives.
6. Address Body Budget Deficits Directly
If you identify a ‘body budget deficit,’ take practical steps to replenish resources, such as getting more sleep, hydrating, or using a small amount of caffeine if needed. This focuses on physical well-being rather than emotional overthinking.
7. Cultivate Curiosity for Infuriating Situations
Instead of reacting with immediate anger or frustration to events or people, try to cultivate curiosity about the situation. This allows for a different, potentially more productive, response.
8. Practice Awe for 5 Minutes Daily
Dedicate five minutes each day to intentionally practice feeling awe, even if you are skeptical. Viewing yourself as a ‘speck’ in the vastness of existence can reduce the perceived burden of your personal problems by lowering the metabolic cost on your body budget.
9. Find Awe in Mundane Objects
Train yourself to find moments of awe in everyday things, such as a weed growing through a crack in the sidewalk. This practice helps expand your capacity for awe and shifts your perspective.
10. Consider Alternative Explanations for Others
When someone’s actions provoke anger or frustration (e.g., being cut off in traffic), consciously consider alternative, more charitable explanations for their behavior. This can prevent automatic negative emotional responses and influence your own body budget.
11. Avoid Somatization (Over-Deconstruction)
Be mindful not to excessively deconstruct emotions to the point of only experiencing them as physical symptoms, as this can be unhealthy and prevent you from addressing underlying psychological problems.
12. Cultivate Your Past for Future Self
Understand that you are continuously cultivating your past experiences, which in turn predict who you will become in the future. This implies intentionality in how you process and learn from experiences to build a more flexible and resilient brain.
6 Key Quotes
Emotions are there whether you want to look at them or not. And if you choose the path of denial or compartmentalization, you will inevitably be owned by those neglected and overlooked emotions.
Dan Harris
Variability is the norm.
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Your brain is running a budget for your body.
Lisa Feldman Barrett
You feel that as affect, as feeling. When your internal systems is disrupted, you feel that. You feel it as feeling pleasant, feeling unpleasant, feeling worked up, feeling calm.
Lisa Feldman Barrett
If you're a speck, then your problems are a speck. And then the burden on your body budget just goes right down.
Lisa Feldman Barrett
It's not that you're not real, you're just not really real.
Buddhist master (quoted by Dan Harris)
2 Protocols
Practicing Emotional Deconstruction and Flexibility
Lisa Feldman Barrett- Identify moments of increased arousal or discomfort (e.g., feeling 'worked up' or stressed).
- Instead of immediately assigning a specific emotion (e.g., anxiety, anger), pause and cultivate curiosity about the raw physical sensations.
- Practice reframing these sensations by consciously conjuring a different meaning or response (e.g., determination instead of anxiety, curiosity instead of fury, or simply acknowledging a 'body budget deficit').
- Engage in this practice consistently, even in non-stressful moments, to make the process more automatic and less metabolically costly over time.
Daily Awe Practice
Lisa Feldman Barrett- Dedicate five minutes each day to intentionally practice feeling awe.
- Look for moments of grandeur or beauty in everyday life, even in seemingly mundane things (e.g., an adorable animal, a resilient weed growing through a crack in the sidewalk).
- Cultivate the feeling of being a 'speck' to reduce the perceived burden of personal problems on your body budget.
- Practice simulating or visualizing these awe-inspiring images in advance to expand the experience and make it more automatic.