Most people believe that emotions are felt by the heart, or the mind, or by both. However, recent research indicates that emotions are felt by the whole body. Sensations felt in the head, limbs, and chest vary by emotion, so different levels of sensations correspond to an individual's emotional state.
In a recent Finnish study, 5 experiments were run in which participants from Finland, Sweden, and Taiwan were given outlines of a body and asked to color in the regions where they felt warmer or cooler in certain body parts in response to 13 emotions. After comparing the responses, researchers found that all 13 emotions, including anger, fear, surprise, happiness, and depression, were all very different. However, the patterns of color were consistent across participants from different cultures.
The diagram above depicts the results of the study, where blue indicates diminished sensation and yellow indicates elevated sensation. Most individuals found that anger increased sensation in the limbs, while sadness decreased it. Happiness was unique in its ability to increase sensation in all parts of the body. So the cliche happy feeling "all over" or the butterflies in your stomach from love are actually accurate descriptions of a person's emotional state.
The results of this study, gathered from healthy individuals, allows researchers to better grasp the mind-body link. It also encourages further study to understand the mind-body link's role in mood disorders, possibly providing another means of diagnosing psychological conditions. The meaningful findings in this study demonstrate how both scientists and individuals themselves can better understand the human body and it's emotions.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2013/12/31/emotions-body-mapping-finnish-study/4260281/
No comments:
Post a Comment