You know how it is. You’re in a situation that is upsetting and you can feel the anger rising, but you can’t lose control. So, what do you do? Ball your fists and grit your teeth and hold it in like a teapot with a locked lid? Walk away? Count to ten?
Research shows that just pausing for a moment and becoming aware of the emotion will start to diminish its power. This is a particularly remarkable finding, although one that most meditators have been claiming for decades: that the simple act of pure awareness can attenuate emotions especially negative ones. What makes this remarkable is that one doesn’t need to be an advanced meditator or yogin to quietly and effectively self-regulate one’s emotional state because inner self-focus reflexively changes brain activity.
This warrants our further attention regarding the nature of emotional regulation.
Emotional regulation is defined as the actions a person takes to increase, decrease, or maintain different aspects of an emotional response (Guendelman, Medeiros, & Rampes, 2017). Emotions are modified by several different and very complex brain systems. Emotional control comes from a number of brain regions including the amygdala, periaqueductal gray area, ventral striatum, anterior insula, and the dorso-lateral cingulate cortex. The dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex, ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex, pre-supplementary and supplementary motor areas, and parietal cortex are also integral to the conscious control of emotions. Implicit or unconscious emotional regulation is governed by the ventro-anterior cingulate cortex and ventro-medial prefrontal cortex. The emotional control system is a top-down process in which emotions can labeled and viewed from an angle of detachment. Conversely, emotions are modulated in a bottom-up process of implicit emotional system meaning that emotions are realized at the lower brain levels and then identified and observed at the higher levels. The ultimate goal is to attain a state of meta-awareness or awareness of awareness, and re-appraising the meaning of the emotions. Further, the emotional system not only controls its own experience, but also unconsciously generates emotional states (Guendelman, Medeiros, & Rampes, 2017).
Regardless of which way an emotion is forming, the key to its control is what is called introspection or, more technically, self-referential awareness, which is the turning of awareness inward to contemplate one’s immediate experience. This was demonstrated in a study of 30 test subjects between the ages of 23 to 41 (17 female) using fMRI scanning while they performed three randomly assigned tasks: contemplating a thought (cognitive self-reflection); contemplating a feeling (emotional-introspection), and just assuming a state of indifference (Herwig et al, 2010). The focusing on the emotion evoked neurological responses in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex in the superior frontal gyrus and mid-cingulate cortex with a noticeable deactivation of the amygdala. Just the simple act of focusing attention on an emotion being experienced was enough to attenuate amygdala activity and the strength and intensity of that emotion. This is quite odd seeing how the amygdala is a multi-purpose emotional center.
Next, one of the best methods of focusing on emotional experience is by meditation. Meditating is a directed mental activity that focuses attention, concentration, intention, etc. It is an intense cognitive process which over time affects both the micro and macrostructures of the brain (Luders & Kurth, 2019). Meditation has been taken by Western clinical psychology and folk psychology as a means to increase awareness regarding thinking patterns which cause emotional upset and unhealthy behaviors. The key state of awareness is mindfulness. The first scientific definition of mindfulness that I am able to find was originally offered by Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994) who summarized it as “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose; in the present moment and nonjudgmentally” (p. 4). No consensus has been reached as to a specific definition although there is general agreement regarding the importance of sustained attention in the present moment (Chiesa & Malinowski, 2011). Eastern spiritual leaders such as Nyanaponika Thera (1901-1994) describe mindfulness as “the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us at the successive moments of perception” (Thera, 1972, p. 5). Likewise, Thich Nhất Hanh calls mindfulness the “keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality” (Hanh, 1976, p. 11). Western researchers define it as the intentional focus of awareness and perception of internal and external experiences in the immediate here-and-now without judgement or response (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Stein et al., 2008).
Several models have been put forward explaining how mindfulness works. One theory emphasizes two parts: self-regulation of attention and an attitude of openness and curiosity about one’s here-and-now experience. This model states that mindfulness is a process of controlling attention and viewing the passing objects of awareness with neutral acceptance (Bishop et al., 2004). Another theoretical model suggests a three-part process of personal awareness which first directs attention to the objects in awareness and then changes the personal attitude the meditator has toward his or her self and intrapsychic and interpersonal worlds. The key is the experience of reperceiving or decentering which allows a meditator to detach from his or her stream of consciousness. Mindfulness shifts a meditator’s perceptions of the contents and movements of his or her own mind from one of entangled involvement to one of detachment (Lang et al., 2012). This detachment shifts a person’s self-perspective which then strengthens self-regulation, helps a person discover the values they find meaningful in life, and leads to an expanded flexibility in thinking and behaving. All of this results in increased intrapsychic order which supports good mental and physical health. This process is illustrated by this formula:
Intention > attention > connection > regulation > order > health (Shapiro et al., 2004).
The whole thing is akin to that of a pot boiling on the stove in an empty kitchen which stops boiling whenever the cook looks in on it. This is, of course, the essential method of mindfulness meditation (Herwig et al., 2010) and, if just taking a simple moment of self-reflection can affect one’s emotional state, then think of the potential effects of sustained meditation practice.
Meditation focuses attention, but the way in which it does so distinguishes one meditative technique from another. Not all meditation modalities are the same. The difference between the two main traditions of meditation—Hindu and Buddhist—are that the Hindu forms strive for an altered state of consciousness called samadhi while the Buddhists seek an ineffable state of empty consciousness which transcends the experience of self. Another distinction is between concentrating the focus and contemplating an object such as a mantra or a religious image.
Therefore, it is possible that different forms of meditation may activate differing areas of the brain. One meta-analysis of 24 experiments sought to answer this question and found that Hindu meditation forms were marked by activation of the left hippocampus, left superior temporal gyrus, right middle cingulate gyrus, and left superior parietal lobule. Buddhist types of meditation activates the fronto-parietal network responsible for attention and self-experiencing while suppressing the Default Mode Network (DMN) (Luders & Kurth, 2019). The DMN is a collection of brain areas including the posterior cingulate cortex, lateral parietal lobe, lateral temporal lobe, parahippcampal gyrus, and thalamus. These brain areas activate to induce relaxation and sleep and deactivate when the brain is faced with executing goal-directed tasks (Wang et al., 2014). A second neural cluster—the supplementary motor area—was also activated. It is responsible for focusing attention on various parts of the body (Tomasino, Chiesa, & Fabbro, 2014). (I have detailed the role of the Default Mode Network in another blog-lecture entitled “Massaging the Brain” for your reference.)
Mindfulness meditation uses the process of experiencing the rising, duration, and fading of mental experiences. Meditation based on mantra repetition, such as Transcendental Meditation or the Relaxation Response, focuses mental attention on a single object of awareness. This form of meditation is aimed mainly attaining relaxation and peace. Compassion Meditation, which originated in southern Buddhist and the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, is the acceptance and compassion for self and others including those who are disliked by the meditator. Its practice elicits positive emotions and enhances one’s sense of social connectedness (Lang et al., 2012). Another form of meditation proven to have positive emotional effect is Twin Hearts Meditation. One study comparing mindfulness meditation with Twin Hearts Meditation used 90 healthy subjects without any prior experience in meditation. Thirty practiced mindfulness, 30 did Twin Hearts Mediation, and 30 formed the control group. The subjects completed an emotional regulation task after one session. Psychophysiological measures were taken by electrocardiography (ECG). Test results showed that meditation boosted positive emotions while suppressing negative ones. No ECG differences were found between the groups. These findings indicate that contemplation of positive emotions can improve emotion regulation ability even when performed by non-meditators and only once. Interestingly, this same effect was not found in the mindfulness meditation group (Valim, 2019). Another emotion-focused meditation is Loving-Kindness Meditation. A systematic review of 24 empirical studies (N=1,759) on loving-kindness meditation show substantial effects on positive emotions with stronger effects associated with longer practice. Further analysis showed that loving-kindness had a medium effect size while other meditation types based on compassion had smaller effect sizes. Another significant finding is that the length of meditation session and the total time spent practicing meditation did not influence the effect sizes (Zeng et al. 2015).
Prolonged meditation enhances the autonomic nervous functions by increasing parasympathetic activity while reducing sympathetic activity. Different meditation methods seem to have differing effects on the autonomic nervous system especially cardiac activity. Meditation such as Loving-Kindness Meditation and self-observation types activate sympathetic response and enhance alertness. Focused-Attention Meditation activates the peripheral nervous system to induce relaxation. One study explored the effects of traditional Tibetan Buddhist meditation on brain–heart interaction. The results demonstrated that meditation affected heart action while activating the default mode network. The latter is situated within the massive space-time processing network of the brain and all of this then affects autonomic functions (Jiang et al., 2019; Shen, Chen, & Cui, 2020).
Closing Thoughts
So what we have of value here are three techniques for emotional self-regulation. The first is the basic focusing on one’s emotional state to acknowledge its presence. Then there are the more sophisticated methods of meditation that specifically focus on positive emotions to alter and control mood. Then there is practicing a deep state mindfulness which encompasses the experience of emotions and re-frames meanings and behaviors.
It is hard to summarize succinctly, but, in general, meditation is beneficial for emotional regulation, decreasing egocentrism, improving memory, enhancing body awareness, slowing biological aging, improving cognition, and for reducing migraine, ADHD, depression, disordered eating, anxiety, neuroticism, psychosis, borderline personality disorder, nicotine addiction, substance abuse, and self-injurious/suicidal behaviors. It has also helped reduce recidivism in the incarcerated and substance abusers (Malhi, 2007; Simpson et al., 2007). It also affects brain development.
At the heart of most psychological disorders is the inability to manage and resolve emotional distress. The cultivation non-judgmental awareness helps people to engage with the negative emotions in a way that helps them to understand the integrate them. Studies have shown than mindfulness fosters the skill to manage disturbing emotional content (Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009). And, lastly, even a little smidgen of awareness seems to go a long way.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
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Zeng, X., Chiu, C., Wang, R., Oei, T., & Leung, F. (2015). The effect of loving-kindness meditation on positive emotions: A meta-analytic review. Frontiers of Psychology 6, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01693
Revised on 05-01-24.