Many of us have felt the sensations of anger, swelling up in our chest and making us “hot-headed,” but now researchers are taking it one step further. Check out the graphic below from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America (PNAS) to see how emotions affect the body through sensation.

Red to yellow shows a warming sensation and purple to blue shows a cooling sensation.

Copyright PNAS

PNAS found the following significance:

“Emotions coordinate our behavior and physiological states during survival-salient events and pleasurable interactions. Even though we are often consciously aware of our current emotional state, such as anger or happiness, the mechanisms giving rise to these subjective sensations have remained unresolved. Here we used a topographical self-report tool to reveal that different emotional states are associated with topographically distinct and culturally universal bodily sensations; these sensations could underlie our conscious emotional experiences. Monitoring the topography of emotion-triggered bodily sensations brings forth a unique tool for emotion research and could even provide a biomarker for emotional disorders.”

Read the full report here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/12/26/1321664111.full.pdf+html?with-ds=yes

how this can help you

Using breath control and focusing on your breath are easy ways to control the emotional stimuli.

A common prescription for anger is to “take a couple deep breaths” to clear the head. Focusing on the exhales is key to cooling the system in a typical yoga practice and can easily be used during anger-causing events.

Simply draw in a long inhale and focus purely on the breath as you exhale. Repeat five times, or however long it takes to regain your composure. Be sure to have your feet firmly planted on the floor and avoid other movements.

The body produces cold feelings with depression and one could easily engage in the Breath of Fire, a Kundalini pranayam exercise, to stoke the fire within.

For beginners: place one hand on your heart and one hand on your stomach. You will try to feel the stomach rise with the inhales and contract with the exhales, creating a balanced ratio in and out. Once this is mastered, you will inhale and exhale rapidly and rhythmically through your nostrils for a period of 1 minute. (Please do not try if you are pregnant.)

As for happiness, where the body seems to tingle all over with emphasis on anahata and ajna chakras, RELISH in the moment.

Wondering what chakras are? Check out this link to learn a little more. I invite those familiar to share their thoughts on the overlap of emotional sensations illustration above and the chakras.

Copyright Energy-Healing-Info.com