I just read a bit about this, thank you so much for sharing. I’ll be looking into this more. I’ve always thought it went: stimuli - brain - emotional response - physical response. If I’m understanding correctly this seems to take the view that it’s: stimuli - brain - physical response - emotional response. So instead of rewiring the neural pathways you’re rewiring the chemical reaction, a survival response stored in our physical memory?
Discussion
That’s a great way to put it.
Emotions are, at their core, physical sensations felt within the body.
Often we first notice the behavioral reaction of the emotion and create many thoughts surrounding that, but it’s already not the emotion itself any longer; that’s conscious/logical thought about an emotion that is subconscious/non-logical.
It very well might be both the neural pathways & chemical reactions being rewired in this process of attending to physical sensations as the root to the emotional trigger. The body is a self-regulating & regenerating ‘machine’, so this harnesses that natural capacity.
Correct, I too see that these emotional triggers are survival responses (outdated prediction patterns, rooted as physical sensations imprints, experienced as “emotions”) stored within the subconscious mind. Brain, mind, and body therefor become a bit difficult to separate, as they are all working in concert when this is happening.
The key to updating these outdated prediction patterns is to surrender to the feeling when it arises. No controlling, no distracting; only allowing yourself to feel it fully through the physical sensory imprint within you. This process usually lasts 90 seconds maximum. The brain/body can be quick at self-regulating emotions once we learn to surrender to this outdated survival response (while simultaneously being in a physically safe space).