Harness Sensitivity for Emotion Management: Guiding Emotions through Physical Awareness
On September 8th, at 5 pm, psychological psychotherapist Karolina Friese will deliver a 60-minute lecture on the connection between body perception, mindfulness, and feelings at the library in the Town Hall Passage. The event is open to everyone, regardless of prior knowledge, and registration is required via the website.
The lecture aims to provide insights into how these areas interrelate and influence each other. It will include solid theory, mindfulness-based techniques, and practical body exercises, with the objective of showing ways to effectively reduce stress.
Mindfulness practices enhance body awareness by fostering present-moment attention to physical sensations and internal states. This heightened body perception improves emotion regulation by enabling individuals to detect emotional triggers early and respond adaptively rather than habitually or reactively.
Specifically, mindfulness training cultivates four key mechanisms that drive cognitive-affective improvements:
- Attention regulation: sustaining awareness of the present moment without distraction.
- Body awareness: noticing subtle internal bodily sensations linked to emotional states.
- Emotion regulation: identifying and modulating emotional responses deliberately.
- Change in perspective on the self: adopting an observer stance that recognises the transient nature of thoughts and feelings rather than being fused with them.
This integrated process creates a positive feedback loop where improved emotion regulation enhances mindfulness traits, and increased mindfulness further refines emotional responses via meta-awareness.
Effective stress reduction through mindfulness-based techniques involves:
- Focused attention meditation or mindful breathing: These techniques improve attention and body awareness, which reduces emotional reactivity and promotes calmness.
- Adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERS): Mindfulness fosters these strategies allowing individuals to consciously reappraise or shift their responses to stressors instead of reacting automatically.
- Enhancement of autonomic regulation: Greater body awareness enhances autonomic nervous system flexibility, improving physiological stress responses.
- Neuroplastic changes: Mindfulness influences brain circuits such as the amyggdala and prefrontal cortex, supporting long-term emotional stability and better stress coping.
After the lecture, there will be a Q&A session. Questions can be directed via the contact form on the website or via Instagram (@stabigram). The lecture offers everyday practical methods for understanding, participating, and trying out. Participation is free, but prior registration via the website is required.
[1] Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., & Ott, U. (2010). How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on psychological science, 5(6), 676-686. [2] Santorelli, S. F., & Goldberg, J. M. (2012). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and the neurobiology of fear, anxiety, and depression: an integrative review. Journal of psychiatric research, 46(1), 13-21. [3] Jha, A. P., Krompinger, J., & Baine, M. (2007). Mindfulness training alters the brain mechanisms associated with emotional regulation in a sample of healthy subjects. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2(4), 253-263. [4] Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F., ... & Sheridan, J. F. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic medicine, 65(4), 564-570.
- The lecture delivered by Karolina Friese on September 8th aims to illustrate how science, health-and-wellness, mental-health, education-and-self-development, and personal-growth intertwine, with a particular focus on the link between body perception, mindfulness, and feelings.
- Mindfulness, as discussed in the lecture, plays a significant role in personal growth by fostering change in perspective on the self, attention regulation, body awareness, and emotion regulation, which are all key mechanisms driving cognitive-affective improvements.
- The event offers a comprehensive understanding of mindfulness-based techniques, including focused attention meditation, adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, enhancement of autonomic regulation, and neuroplastic changes, which collectively contribute to effective stress management.
