Mind-Hacks: Putting Our Feelings Into Words

By Reese Ramos, Director & University Ombuds at Virginia Tech

In this blog post we’ll continue exploring how we can use mind-hacks to better respond to conflict and be better communicators. It used to be that we weren’t quite certain why exactly something did or didn’t seem to work. For example, for decades a good piece of wisdom has been to be open to the idea of just talking about our problems and feelings. For some that have made this a practice they’ll testify to the positive effects they have experienced. But it hasn’t been until about the past decade or so that we’ve begun to appreciate the mechanics of “how” merely putting our feelings into words actually works. This is where neuroscience, in part the study of our nervous system and its impact on behavior, has shed light on why we do what we do. It’s almost as if the user’s manual to our brain is being written as we explore and do research in this field.

Let’s go back to putting feelings into words and its therapeutic effects. Though, as a society, we’ve become much more open and understanding to the idea of talking about our feelings some out there still hesitate to reach out and talk to a therapist, counselor or even a friend. In years past the suggestion of seeking help from a “shrink” (as many disparagingly referred to it) was just something people did not do. In 2007 there was some fascinating research done involving brain imaging that showed that when we put feelings into words we activate a part of our brain, the pre-frontal region, and see a decrease of activation in the amygdala. The pre-fontal region is the part of the brain often associated with complex behaviors such as attention, planning and executive function. The amygdala, in part, is the part of the brain responsible for our “fight or flight” response (see the prior blog post). In other words, what the research indicates is that utilizing “affective labeling”, in short, a fancy word for putting feelings into words, helps us relate to the problem differently because the pre-frontal region is activated while the amygdala is reduced. As the researchers in that work described it was almost like hitting the brakes of a car on our emotional response.

When the research came out many practitioners of mindfulness, such as Tibetan monks, weren’t terribly surprised because for thousands of years they’ve known that mindfulness may promote greater physical and mental health through labeling one’s feelings. It’s just now, we have a better understanding of how this works. And, more importantly, why we should use it.

So next time you want to create a shift in a conflict try simply putting your words into feelings.