Mapping Emotions in the Body

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One such study from 2013 led by a team of biomedical engineers in Finland sought to explain where emotions are felt in the body.

They mapped bodily reactions to emotions in about 700 individuals by asking them to color in regions where they felt reactions increasing or decreasing due to various stimuli.

The team showed the volunteers two blank silhouettes of person on a screen and then told the subjects to think about one of 14 emotions: love, disgust, anger, pride, etc. The volunteers then painted areas of the body that felt stimulated by that emotion. On the second silhouette, they painted areas of the body that get deactivated during that emotion.

Not everybody painted each emotion in the same way. But when the team averaged the maps together, signature patterns emerged for each emotion. The team published these sensation maps Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Additionally, the same researchers conducted a follow-up study that found the intensity of a feeling directly correlated with the intensity of physical and mental sensations.

They categorized feelings into five groups:

• negative, such as stress, anger, and shame
• positive, such as happiness, love, and pride
• cognition, such as attention and perception
• homeostatic states, or a balanced, regulated internal state
• illnesses and somatic states

Feelings are ever-changing, and this research may be helpful for those who have trouble understanding their emotions.

Ever feel like you need to cry, scream, laugh, punch a pillow, or dance it out?

We’re often taught to bury our pain and soldier on. Over time, this can lead to repressed emotions, also known as unconscious avoidance.

Research from 2019 linked emotional repression with decreased immune system function.

Here are a few ways to release repressed emotions:

• acknowledging your feelings
• working through trauma
• trying shadow work
• making intentional movement
• practicing stillness