Psychotherapist: "If we understand what emotions we have, we manage them"

      This could be seen at a lecture by Natalia Bekhtereva, a psychotherapist, specialist in the field of neuroscience and mental well-being programs, in the educational project Lectures at the Polytechnic. The meeting was organized with the personal participation and support of Vyatka University's long-time partner Mikhail Zykin, head of the LIGHT Group.

      Natalia Svyatoslavovna is a descendant of the famous dynasty of brain researchers Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev and Natalia Petrovna Bekhtereva. The very involvement in the family of outstanding scientists naturally set the listeners up for the fact that the guest's lecture from St. Petersburg would focus on the complex nature of human psychoemotional manifestations, and these expectations were fulfilled.— What do you think emotions are for? — started a conversation on the topic of "Emotions: how do you learn how to manage them?" Natalia Bekhtereva immediately invited the audience to an interactive conversation. There were a lot of answers, which the lecturer summarized with the idea that we need emotions, because emotions are the fastest way to understand what is happening in specific circumstances around us.

      — Let's remember that there are many emotions, and do not limit yourself to five or six basic emotions. This is important to know because when I send a signal to my brain: "Something is happening to me, and something needs to be done about it," the brain connects. I must remember that the more emotions we have, the more options (patterns) of behavior (actions) that I can implement in order to get out of a state of anxiety and discomfort into a comfortable mode.In our turbulent times, we are all under stress. Stress is a natural reaction of the body's adaptation to changes in the environment. Natalia Bekhtereva gave a brief insight into the theory of stress, presenting the audience with Hans Selye's aphorism: "One should not be afraid of stress. Only the dead don't have it. Stress must be managed. Controlled stress brings the flavor and taste of life.

      " — "I don't feel anything" — this doesn't happen. It's just that the intensity of emotions varies, but we always have emotions. Paradoxically, stress is what gives our thoughts excitement and inspiration, and makes us do great things in life. It's easier for us to say "I feel bad" than to develop this idea. Why? Because we are what we say.

      In the logic of reasoning about stress as a negative state for a person, we are talking about the suppression of emotions.

      — Suppressing emotions means pretending that they don't exist. Psychotherapy has not made anyone happy yet. When we get to know ourselves, we see the part of ourselves that we don't like. But when we understand our emotions (sadness, anxiety, etc.), we will withstand these emotions.

      The connection of emotions and logic at the point of the category of understanding is a necessary thing.

      — If we don't understand our emotional state, then our emotions control us. If we understand what emotions we have, then we manage them.

      It turns out that it's so easy to understand how we feel at the moment. It is also important not to get to the point where our emotions begin to manifest through the body.The listeners' interest was aroused by the term "alexithymia", which refers to people with mental disorders who have been traumatized at an early stage of their lives. Through a comment on this state, N. Bekhtereva led to a conversation about the importance of feeling "in the moment", meditative practice, the features of the error detector mechanism and mirror neurons.

      The lecturer emphasized the need to separate her emotions from others, believing that "emotions are very contagious." It is known that any motivation must be related to an emotional state, because emotions are movement.

      We also talked about intuition.

      — What is intuition? This is knowledge or experience multiplied by emotions. And again, if we don't know what our emotion is called, our intuition can fail, because our brain is always complementing the unknown. Uncertainty greatly increases emotional instability, and our system strives to reduce this uncertainty by any means (thinking it through, imagining it). And it turns out that when we cannot name our emotion that has captured us, we cannot reduce this uncertainty.

      At the end of the lecture, the psychotherapist made a recommendation:

      — If you make it a habit to track what you feel (in particular, to name emotions), then the brain will do (without always informing you) its work, imperceptibly debugging and clarifying your intuition.According to tradition, in the second part of the meeting, many questions were asked from the student youth, the answers to which Natalia Bekhtereva gave with her usual emotional coloring and impeccable professionalism.

      You can view the recording of Natalia Bekhtereva's full lecture at the link (12+).