As humans, let’s just acknowledge: we have so many feelings. Sometimes, those emotions give us really important information about a situation. Other times, they are so overwhelming, they become paralyzing.
But the problem, Ethan Kross told Stateside, is not the emotion itself—it's what we do with it. Kross is a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, and he recently released the book Shift: Managing Your Emotions — So They Don't Manage You.
It’s all about simple steps for redirecting the brain so that emotion serves its important role in biology without getting in the way of the things we need to do everyday.
At first glance, it might seem that thinking and feeling are two entirely different systems in our brain. But according to Kross, it's a mistake to think that thinking and feeling are on opposite ends of a seesaw.
"The truth is, our thoughts play a powerful role in modulating the emotions we're feeling," Kross said.
Understanding the influence of thoughts on emotions, and vice versa, he explained, can help people harness their thoughts to impact their emotions. Take, for example, a bug bite. While you can't control the itchiness a bite causes, you can control whether or not you choose to scratch it.
Read the full article and listen to the podcast on Michigan Public NPR.
