06/10/2024
Somatic Emotions and Clear Thinking
Small, immediate factors, like a stressful situation or excessive noise, can create barriers to clear thinking at the moment. However, the biggest obstacles to good thinking often come from somatic emotions—deep-seated emotional responses stored in the body.
These emotions, particularly when unresolved or triggered, can cloud judgment and inhibit rational thought.
We are seeing this happen all around us. The lack of emotional self-awareness and control over emotions in different situations is creating communal and social tension. As a collective, we must learn to understand the role of emotions and how they impact our well-being.
Somatic emotions are feelings that manifest physically, such as tension, a racing heart, or tightness in the chest during stress or anxiety. They do not have to be extreme; they may be subtle, even unnoticeable. It could be something as small as nervousness before entering a room full of people, the body subconsciously recalling how uncomfortable this has been in the past. However, the more you face it, the less threatening they become.
When engaging in conversation or interacting with others, these physical reactions often surface when we feel nervous, anxious, or worried about what is being discussed.
These emotions affect good decision-making, good leadership, good parenting—the list goes on. For example, a topic might trigger a somatic reaction due to past experiences. If you grew up in a home with violence and have not dealt with those emotions later in life, you may be triggered during what might seem like an unintentionally offensive conversation. Yet, you feel upset, angry, or offended because the emotion is tied to unresolved memories.
The way to deal with these emotions is to face them. Just as a good therapist is able to do, you must get the emotions into words and practice controlling the hold they have on you. While they are alone in your head, they will negatively impact you. The more you draw them out and make sense of the effect they have had on you, the less of a devil they become.
As a sociologist, I advocate that we use these social cues not as triggers for problematic and anti-social emotional reactions but as indicators that we must address the historical discomfort we hold inside our bodies related to those issues. This may mean you need to talk with a professional, or simply someone you trust.
Healthy critical thinking can only happen when we clear our minds of baggage.
Dr. Esha Lovrić
