You want to translate these bodily responses into a language your mind can assimilate. For this, let’s use a technique psychologists call affective labeling, which helps you better manage your physiological responses by naming your emotional states. Research has found that labeling our emotions results in higher brain activity in our prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain in charge of executive functioning, which, as we discussed in chapter 4, includes managing tasks, making decisions, and focusing attention. It also reduces activity in the amygdala, a region that plays an important role in
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