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Some people feel butterflies in their stomach when nervous, others may have a chill down their spine in response to feeling scared, while others are weak in the knees when in love. All of these experiences have led people to ask "where do you feel emotions in your body?"
Over the years, research has begun looking for the answer to this question and we want to summarize and pass this information on to you. The next few sections of this blog post will give you a pretty good idea of where different emotions are usually felt in the body. So if you’d like to learn more about emotions and the body, keep reading.
What Are Emotions?
Emotions are mental and physiological responses to stimuli that help us to survive and thrive. They motivate us to take action, and they help us to remember and interpret experiences. Emotions are also important in social interactions, as they help us to communicate with others.
There are 12 basic human emotions: anger, fear, sadness, joy, love, disgust, shame, anticipation, pride, surprise, happiness, and interest.
Each of these emotions can be felt in different parts of the body and understanding them can make a huge difference in the emotional aspect of your life.
Emotions And The Body
There’s an extremely close relationship between emotions and the body. The body is the vehicle through which emotions are expressed. Each emotion has a unique physical response.
For example, fear may cause a person to feel their heart rate increase, while anger may cause them to feel their muscles tense up. The body is not just a vehicle for emotions, however. Emotions also have a direct impact on the body. For example, stress can lead to physical illness, and happiness can boost the immune system.
When you feel an emotion, it triggers a series of impulses in your brain and body that result in specific physiological effects. So, whether you're happy, sad, or angry, you notice immediate changes in your body movements and autonomic nervous system (breathing, heartbeat).
While research is still being conducted on this, one thing is very clear, and that’s the fact that our emotions and our body are deeply interconnected. The body is not just a passive vessel for emotions but is also deeply affected by them. So let’s take a closer look at this connection.
What emotions are felt in the body?
There are a variety of emotions that can be felt in the body. These can include happiness, sadness, anger, fear, love, and much more. Each of these emotions can cause different physical reactions. For example, happiness may cause a person to smile or laugh, while sadness may cause a person to cry. Anger may cause a person to clench their fists or grit their teeth, while fear may cause a person to tremble or feel their heart racing. Love may cause a person to feel warm and fuzzy inside, or may even cause a feeling of butterflies in their stomach. All of these are well-known feelings that many of us have experienced in our lives.
Which emotions affect which body parts?
Owing to the fact that people experience emotions differently, there is a lot of debate surrounding which emotions affect which body parts. However, thanks to a study done by computational and statistics expert, Enrico Glerean et al. in 2013, we now have a pretty good idea.
Using what is now know at body mapping in five different experiments. They mapped bodily reactions to emotions in about 700 individuals by asking them to color in regions where they felt reactions increasing or decreasing due to different stimuli. The stimuli they were exposed to were similar to what we see in real life: movie clips, conversations, and unexpected facial expressions. The findings revealed that different emotions consistently impacted similar areas of the body in the participant pool.
These results were consistent in different parts of the world.
Here is a list of different emotions along with the body parts it usually affects:
Envy is felt in the chest and head with decreased activation in the legs.
Shame is felt in the torso and head with decreased activation in the arms, legs, and feet.
Pride is felt in the torso, head, and arms.
Contempt is felt in the head and hands with decreased activation in the pelvic and leg areas.
Depression leads to decreased activation in the lower body.
Love is felt throughout the body but not as much in the legs compared to other areas.
Anxiety leads to increased activation above the pelvis excluding the arms and decreased activation in the arms legs, and feet.
Surprise is felt in the chest and head with decreased activation in the legs.
Sadness is felt in the chest and head with decreased activation in the arms, legs, and feet.
Disgust is felt in the upper half of the body and arms.
Fear is felt in the upper half of the body excluding the arms, there is also some activation in the feet.
Anger is felt in the upper half of the body including the arms, there is also some activation in the legs and feet.
Happiness is felt throughout your entire body.
Why understand the connection between emotions and the body?
According to another study conducted by Enrico Glerean in 2018, the intensity of emotions is directly linked with the intensity of mental and physical sensations. In other words, the stronger the feeling is in your body, the stronger the feeling is in your mind.
These findings led to the belief that feelings can generally be categorized into one of five groups: negative emotions like anger, fear, anxiety, and shame; positive emotions like happiness, love, and pride; illnesses; homeostasis; or cognition.
Understanding the mind-body connection along with feelings we experience both physically and mentally can help us to better manage our emotions and our overall health. If we can learn to recognize the physical symptoms of our emotions, we can take steps to counter or control them.
Can Emotions Get Trapped in the Body?
After learning that emotions are located in different part of the body, people often ask can emotions get trapped in the body? In order to answer this question, you have to understand the three different things that happen when you experience an emotion:
We develop an emotional vibration.
We feel the emotion and any thoughts or physical sensations associated with it. This is where the mind and body’s interconnectedness comes into play.
We move on from the emotion by processing it.
We know from research that emotional processing occurs in the limbic structures of the brain.
When we process information, our autonomic nervous system response on a pre-conscious level. This sends a signal to the body, causing the corresponding emotion to be activated.
When the second or third step mentioned above is interrupted, the energy of the emotion does become trapped in the body. As a result, you may feel muscle tension, pain, or other symptoms.
What Happens When We Try to Suppress Our emotions
Research has also helped used understand what happens when we try to suppress emotions. We know that suppressed emotions is one cause of panic attacks, depression, substance abuse (i.e., self-medicating) and other mental illness. However, suppressing your emotions can cause problems in your day-to-day life by impacting your ability to communicate. Remember God, gave use all our emotions for purpose. While it may not surprise you to learn that if you suppress emotions during a conversation, you will have a physiological reaction consistent with threat. Most people are surprised to learn the person that the person they are talking to will also exhibited physiological reactions consistent with threat.
Other research revealed that suppressing emotions makes people more aggressive, more hopeless, and 30% more likely to die of premature death from all causes. Finally, suppressing emotions leads to a 70% increased risk of being diagnosed with cancer.
How To Use This Info For Your Good - Regulating Your Emotions
When it comes to regulating and releasing emotions in your body, there are a few things you can do to help. First, it can be helpful to identify and label the emotions you are feeling as well as the sensations you are feeling in your body. You can do this by using our feelings chart along with our body sensations chart. This can help you to better understand and process what you are feeling. If you’re in no state to start with identifying and labeling, start with deep breathing.
Deep breathing can help you calm and relax your body, regulate the autonomic nervous system (ANS), so you are better able to identify and process your feelings. If deep breathing is making you feel worse, stop and try something else like praying, meditating, or doing a grounding exercise.
Remember, understanding where you feel emotions in your body and how to handle them is great and it can work for you but it does not replace therapy. If you’re still struggling or would like to dive deeper into managing your emotional health, seeing a therapist will be the best thing you could do. Search our database to find a professional Christian therapist near you.
Also, remember that God is with you through it all. He will help you understand and manage your emotions, all you have to do is trust Him and know that all things work for your good.
About the Author:
Corine Williams, Ph.D. is Clinical Psychologist that is currently seeing clients in the States of Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. You can find out more about her practice by visiting www.therapyforchristians.com/corinewilliams. In addition to providing individual therapy, Dr. Williams is also passionate about writing books and designing merchandise that educate, uplift, and normalize mental health subject in the Christian community. You can find out more about her at www.booksbycorine.com or by visiting her amazon profile here: https://www.amazon.com/Corine-Hyman/e/B00AWZ5FL2
Help us increase mental health awareness in the Christian community by donating through our paypal link here: www.paypal.com/therapyforchristians, joining our mailing list by clicking below, or join our provider list here: Provider listing
Disclaimer: the information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images, and other material contained on this article are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you are looking for a Christian counselor near you, please check out our directory located here: Christians Therapist Near Me
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