You control your simulation and it’s weirder than you think
The other day, I expressed surprise at seeing geese in the summer and my friend turned to me and said glibly, “is that not what you expected in your simulation today?” I laughed, but she wasn’t far off from the truth: we do live in a simulation. Not one made up of ones and zeros (well, maybe, but that remains unproven), but a simulation about the world around us that our brain constructs.
In every moment, your brain constructs a model of the outside world, transforming light waves, pressure changes, and chemicals into what you experience as your senses, like taste or sight. Your brain predicts what will happen next based on past experience and incoming sensory data to create what you experience as your life.
Your brain is also actively monitoring what’s going on inside your body to make sure it’s prepared for the simulation you’re predicting. If you’re predicting a bear is going to jump out of the woods, your brain wants to make sure it’s ready to shoot adrenaline into your system so you can MOVE, and move quickly.
This constant “readiness” for the future requires complex budgeting - the brain calculates how much energy we have (salt, glucose, water), when we will be making more deposits (sleeping, eating, resting), and how much we predict we will expend (by activities, stressful environments, and bears in the woods). Our brains are very sophisticated accountants.
The same brain circuitry produces your mood. There’s a million things going on subconsciously in your body - from the regulation of dozens of organs to hundreds of muscles and trillions of cells. To keep from overwhelming you, your brain neatly summarizes this as your mood: a simple feeling of agitation or calm, pleasure or displeasure. This means that your mood is a barometer of the sensory state of the body. Hundreds of studies have shown your body budget and mood are highly interconnected, though scientists still puzzle over exactly how it works.
What do these findings mean for how we experience stress?
When we’re continuously anticipating stressful events, or living in an environment where we don’t sufficiently replenish our energy (back-to-back meetings every day, all day, for example), your brain is anticipating account overdraws, and this can have a profound effect on your mood.
As Lisa Feldman Barrett, the preeminent researcher on affective science at Northwestern University, describes it: “Your brain’s most important job isn’t thinking; it’s running the systems of your body to keep you alive and well….even when your brain does produce conscious thoughts and feelings, they are more in service to the needs of managing your body than you realize.”
In other words, when you feel agitated or displeased, this could be a signal that your anticipated energy expenditure is more than what you have in your body budget and your brain is telling you to slow the spending down.
So now that you know you live in a simulation full of predictions, what can you do to shape it?
Continual negative thoughts like “this day will suck,” deplete your body budget. Re-characterizing those thoughts like, “I must just be tired,” can help rebalance it because your brain will assign less weight to it (even better if you then go schedule a nap.) Even other people’s words and your inner monologue have a direct effect on your body budget - kind, loving words replenish; harsh words deplete.
The next time you sense your mood heading south, think about what you can do to reframe your thoughts.
The Habit:
Reframing your thoughts can powerfully influence your mood. Here are a few great reframing frameworks for you to try:
From Criticism to Compassion
When you notice yourself criticizing others or yourself, try putting yourself in their shoes or giving yourself a pass
From Scarcity to Gratitude
When you feel you are lacking something or someone, refocus on all that you have already (see our previous post on gratitude)
From Failure to Humor
When you feel like you’ve failed at something, try reframing it as a funny story you’ll be able to tell others in the future
From Discomfort to Growth
When you’re feeling outside of your comfort zone, think about it as a sign of your own personal growth and evolution
From Anxiety to Excitement
When you feel anxious about something, reframe that feeling as anticipatory excitement, ex: “I can’t wait for this presentation to be over and how good I’ll feel afterwards”
How to know if it's working:
Cognitive reappraisal or reframing is a way to change how you think about something in order to change how you feel about it. Studies show that it is highly effective for improving mood. In a number of studies (one particularly interesting one here), research participants were able to influence which emotions they felt, how long or intensely they felt them, and ways in which they expressed them.
Additional Reading/Listening:
People’s words and actions can actually shape your brain (Ideas.Ted.X) by Lisa Feldman Barrett
Your brain is not for thinking (NY Times) by Lisa Feldman Barrett
Interoception: The Secret Ingredient (YouTube) Dana Foundation interview of Lisa Feldman Barrett
Written by Lauren Vriens and Maria Potoroczyn
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Disclaimer:
Information provided in this newsletter is not medical or professional health care advice. If you are struggling right now and looking for help, please dial 988 to talk to a trained counselor at a crisis center closest to you.
