Learn how to regulate your emotions by understanding how your brain creates them in the first place.

In this episode, I explore the neuroscience of emotion regulation, including the insular cortex, amygdala, default mode network, and prefrontal cortex, and examine how emotions emerge from a continuous loop between the brain and the body.

You’ll learn a practical, evidence-informed three-step framework for interrupting negative emotional cycles:

1. Change your physiology
2. Reframe your interpretation through cognitive reappraisal
3. Take meaningful action

We also discuss interoception, exercise, breathing, sleep, motivation, learned helplessness, dopamine, and why even small actions can help restore a sense of agency.

If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, disappointment, stress, rumination, or overwhelming negative emotions, this episode will help you understand what is happening inside your brain—and what you can do about it.

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Chapters00:00 How to Exit a Negative Emotion00:39 How the Brain Creates Emotion02:50 Step 1: Change Your Physiology05:49 Step 2: Change Your Interpretation08:23 Support Sense of Mind08:52 Step 3: Take Action10:16 Why This Strategy Works for Your Brain11:02 From Neutral to Motivated

Sources

• Zhang, J. X., Bo, K., Wager, T. D., & Gross, J. J. (2025). The brain bases of emotion generation and emotion regulation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
• Scherer, K. R., & Moors, A. (2019). The emotion process: Event appraisal and component differentiation. Annual Review of Psychology, 70(1), 719–745.
• Greenwood, B. M., & Garfinkel, S. N. (2025). Interoceptive mechanisms and emotional processing. Annual Review of Psychology, 76(1), 59–86.
• Feldman, M. J., Bliss-Moreau, E., & Lindquist, K. A. (2024). The neurobiology of interoception and affect. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(7), 643–661.