Feeling Really Overwhelmed? Discover the Science of Emotion Regulation

Do you ever feel like you're on the verge of being swallowed up by your emotions? Overwhelm is something we all experience. But here's the key.

Feeling overwhelmed is a signal, not a sentence. It's like your brain telling you it needs better tools to cope. In this video, we're going to explore the science behind emotion regulation, and how it lays the foundation for lasting resilience.

I'm Doctor Tracey Marks, a psychiatrist, and I help you strengthen your mind and fortify your brain to build resilience. In my last video, we talked about neuroplasticity in great detail and how rewiring your brain can make you more mentally strong. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend checking it out as it will give you a solid foundation for what we're discussing today.

But for now, let's focus on emotion regulation, the process that allows you to manage those intense emotions that can sometimes feel overpowering. I'll introduce you to two strategies that you can use right away to help regulate your emotions and build resilience. So first off, what is emotional overwhelm?

Emotional overwhelm occurs when our stress or emotional burden exceeds our ability to cope. It often feels like our thoughts and emotions are spiraling out of control, leaving us feeling paralyzed or in a heightened state of distress. Here's the thing.

This is not just in your head. Feeling overwhelmed has roots in your brain's processes. When you're under intense stress, the emotional centers of your brain, like the amygdala, take over.

Your body enters into a fight or flight mode, making it harder for your prefrontal cortex, which is the part of your brain responsible for rational thinking and decision making to stay in control. And this is why you might find it nearly impossible to think clearly or make rational decisions when you're overwhelmed. It's not a character flaw.

It's your brain doing what it's wired to do. But the key to building emotional resilience is learning how to manage this emotional response. And this is where emotion regulation comes into play.

It's a skill that you can strengthen with practice. So what exactly is emotion regulation? It's your brain's ability to manage and respond to emotional experiences.

At its core, emotion regulation involves two major players in your brain: the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. The amygdala is like an alarm system constant scanning for threats and triggering the fight or flight response. The prefrontal cortex, on the other hand, is your rational thinker.

It's the part that helps you make decisions, control impulses, and plan for the future when your emotions run high, like during moments of overwhelm. The amygdala can hijack your brain's processes, making it difficult for the prefrontal cortex to step in and calm things down. And before I go any further, I keep mentioning the cortex.

But what is that exactly? Indulge me a minute as I drill down on this just a little bit. If you could care less about this level of detail, skip ahead a minute.

The cortex is the outermost layer of the brain, and it's made up of gray matter, which consists mainly of nerve cell bodies and is divided into different regions or lobes. Each of these lobes is responsible for various functions. The frontal lobe is involved in decision making, problem- solving, emotion regulation, and voluntary movement.

The prefrontal cortex that I just talked about is part of the frontal lobe. The parietal lobe processes sensory information like touch, temperature and spatial awareness. The occipital lobe is primarily responsible for visual processing, and then the temporal lobe is involved in memory, language comprehension, and auditory processing.

The cortex helps you think clearly, make decisions, and control your impulses. It's like the command center that helps you manage your emotions and actions. So that's the cerebral cortex, or cortex for short.

Here's where neuroplasticity comes into play. Something we discussed in the previous video. Your brain can adapt and change its neural pathways based on your experiences and practices.

With consistent effort, you can strengthen your pathways in the prefrontal cortex, enhancing the ability to regulate emotions more effectively. In essence, emotion regulation is a trainable skill. Today, I want to introduce you to two strategies that will help you regulate your emotions, even in the most overwhelming situations.

The first strategy is called savoring the senses. This is a grounding technique that helps you anchor yourself in the present moment by focusing deeply on one of your senses. It's more than just noticing things around you.

It involves fully engaging in the sensory experience to bring your mind back to the here and now. Here's how it works: Choose one of your senses that you want to focus on. The options are sight, touch, smell, taste, or sound.

For this example, we'll choose touch. Then find a specific stimulus for that sense. If we're focusing on touch, pick up an object nearby like a textured stone or a piece of fabric, or a cup of tea.

Then spend twenty to thirty seconds fully experiencing that sense. Close your eyes if you can, and slowly run your fingers over the object, noticing every bump, curve, or temperature. Pay attention to every detail, allowing your mind to be fully immersed in the sensation.

Then take a deep breath and acknowledge how the sensation makes you feel. You might feel more grounded, calm, or just more present by deeply engaging your senses. You divert the brain's focus away from distressing thoughts and calm down the emotional response.

The reason this works is that it activates the brain's sensory processing centers, helping to create a sense of control and calm. The second strategy is labeling the emotion. This technique involves consciously identifying and naming the specific emotions that you're experiencing.

It might sound simple, but it's surprisingly powerful. And why does this work? Because when you're feeling overwhelmed, your brain's emotional center, the amygdala can dominate it, making it harder to think rationally.

By labeling your emotions, you activate the prefrontal cortex, which helps calm down the amygdala and reduces the intensity of the emotion. Remember I said that with overwhelm, the amygdala can dominate the prefrontal cortex activity. This kind of exercise is like saying wake up prefrontal cortex.

You have some work to do. Here's how you can practice it: Pause when you notice that you're feeling overwhelmed. Take a minute and tune in to what's happening inside of you.

Then identify and name the emotions that you're experiencing. Say to yourself, or write down statements like I feel anxious and frustrated, or I feel sadness and stress. Then acknowledge that it's okay to feel this way.

This simple acknowledgment helps you separate yourself from the emotion, creating some mental space to manage it. Labeling emotions does not involve dismissing or minimizing them. Labeling emotions is recognizing what you're experiencing so you can deal with it more effectively.

By naming the emotions, you help your prefrontal cortex create an opportunity for more measured and thoughtful responses. Some people struggle to name their emotions. You can feel bad and say, "that made me feel some type of way".

I hear that phrase a lot, but research shows that the better you can get at identifying and naming how you actually feel, the better you could get at processing those emotions and the less they will overwhelm you. Since I'm about helping people change, I created an Essential Tools card deck. Of course, you can always find an emotion wheel online, but the beauty of the card deck is that you can carry the cards with you.

Because this exercise works best in the moment when the feeling is fresh. Of course, you can always reflect on this later. But the ideal scenario is that as soon as you feel some type of way, you can immediately analyze what that way is and give it a name.

Here's an example: Let's say I'm working on a big project, and I get an e-mail from my boss saying she wants to meet to discuss my progress. Suddenly, I feel a knot in my stomach and my heart starts racing. I notice that I'm feeling uneasy, but I'm not quite sure why.

This is the perfect time to pull out the emotion cards to identify exactly what I'm feeling. There are a lot of tools in the card deck, but the affective labeling cards are cards 19 through 24. The six common top level emotions are happy, fearful, hurt, sad, inadequate, and angry.

As I look at them, I go between fearful and angry. As I think about it more, I conclude that I actually feel resentful. I resent the fact that my boss is micromanaging me.

Why can't she just let me get my work done? I can't get anything done if I have to keep stopping for these check-ins. I'm especially resentful because I notice that my male counterpart, who's working on the same project, doesn't have as many of these meetings.

Does my boss just assume that I need more hand-holding? I don't know why this would be the case, as I've never been told that my work was below expectations. Now, on the surface, the pounding in my chest that I got from the e-mail may seem like I was feeling anxious, but I don't connect with fear or anxiety.

I connect with anger, and I can acknowledge to myself that I feel singled out. But maybe my assumptions are incorrect. So I'll give my boss the benefit of the doubt for now.

This analysis of how I really feel diffuses the intensity of my emotional response, and allows me to keep my anger in check. I can put my cards away and go into the meeting with a more open mind about the purpose of the meeting. So that's labeling your emotions, also termed "affective labeling".

So let's recap. Emotional overwhelm can feel like a wave crashing over you, but with the right tools, you can learn to ride that wave instead of being swept away by it. Today we explored two techniques to help you build emotional regulation: savoring the senses and labeling the emotions.

Both these strategies work to engage your brain in ways that calm the emotional storm and help you gain control. I encourage you to try one of these techniques this week. Practice savoring a sensory experience or labeling the emotions that you're feeling.

Then come back and share your experiences in the comments. I'd love to hear how it went for you. You can get the Essential Tools card deck at MentalWellnessStore.

com, and the product is also tagged in this video. If you haven't seen my previous video on neuroplasticity, I recommend watching that next to deepen your understanding of how you can train your brain to build emotional strength. The Journey to Resilience is about equipping yourself with the right tools and practicing them consistently.

Thank you for watching today. See you next time.