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We’re going to delve into some science today. I want to share with you Dr. Antonio Damasio’s Somatic Markers Hypothesis which explains how emotions guide our behaviour. And, why would I do such a thing? Because there’s a punchline to this story and I’ll give it to you right now: Mindfulness provides a mechanism for untangling the link between emotion and behavior. It can help us make healthy changes to the way we react to the world.

Somatic markers are body sensations that become associated with emotions. The rapid heartbeat that arises with anxiety is a somatic marker as is the feeling of hot, flushed cheeks that pops up when you’re embarrassed. Dr. Damasio has shown that such somatic markers have a strong influence on our decision making.

Most of us believe we’re logical decision makers, but science shows us that our decisions are often driven by emotions, sometimes consciously, but often unconsciously. When fast, rationale decisions are required, we must quickly assess the incentive value of the various choices. We use both our cognitive and emotional processes to make this assessment, but when situations are complex or choices conflict, cognition can get overloaded, leaving emotions to guide the decisions.

Where do the somatic markers come in? They can directly drive decisions. Imagine that you once gave a presentation that made you very anxious. Your heart began to race and your palms got sweaty. Without even thinking about it, your body learned to associate a fast heart rate and sweaty palms with anxiety. These body sensations and emotions are somatic markers. In the future, whenever any of these somatic markers pop up, that is whenever your heart begins to beat faster or your palms get sweaty, you will evoke a sense of anxiety and your decisions will quickly slant heavily toward the avoidance of anxiety – whether you’re conscious of this or not.

What makes this process even more powerful is that the somatic markers don’t even need to be present for us to act on them. Dr. Damasio has shown that just imagining the somatic markers can cause us to unconsciously act.

This is an adaptive process. It helps us avoid dangerous or hurtful things quickly, without having to take the time for conscious cognitive deliberation. Unfortunately, though, these quick decisions are not always appropriate or helpful. If your somatic markers strongly drive you to avoid anything that makes you slightly anxious, you may end up avoiding situations that are not particularly dangerous and you’ll have a difficult time overcoming that anxiety, because you’ll always be driven to avoid it. The fear of public speaking is a great example of this.

Clearly, we don’t want to completely subvert the influence of somatic markers on our decision making, but there are situations where it would be incredibly helpful to do so. Here, mindfulness can help. Mindfulness of the body is the practice of becoming aware of body sensations. When you’re aware of body sensations, you can begin to consciously notice somatic markers as they arise. You can see that they’re the markers that lead to behaviours you want to change, behaviours like avoiding public speaking, for example. When you can see the markers, you get a chance to respond to them in a different way.

First, however, you need to uncouple the body sensation from the emotion. If you can notice your heart beat getting faster, you can tell yourself, “It’s just my heart beating faster. I don’t have to do anything about it.” This can take a little courage, but if you can allow yourself to be fully present with the somatic marker without trying to act on it, you will see that it’s not a permanent, implacable thing.