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Emotion only lasts in our bodies for about 90 seconds. After that, the physical reaction dissipates, UNLESS our cognitive brain kicks in and starts connecting our anger with past events.
Jill Bolte Taylor
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Emotions are temporary physical responses that can be prolonged by our thoughts and associations.

This quote by Jill Bolte Taylor highlights the transient nature of emotions, suggesting that they typically only last for approximately 90 seconds in our bodies unless we allow our minds to dwell on them by linking them to past experiences. This understanding emphasizes the importance of emotional awareness and the power of our cognitive processes in shaping how we feel over longer periods.

Themes

EmotionMindAngerCognitionReactivityAwareness

In practice

Example use cases

During a workshop on emotional intelligence, one could use this quote to illustrate how to effectively manage emotions.

More from Jill Bolte Taylor

Unfortunately, as a society, we do not teach our children that they need to tend carefully the garden of their minds. Without structure, censorship, or discipline, our thoughts run rampant on automatic. Because we have not learned how to more carefully manage what goes on inside our brains, we remain vulnerable to not only what other people think about us, but also to advertising and/or political manipulation.
Jill Bolte TaylorRead
We have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.
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The better we understand the choices we have been making, either consciously or unconsciously, the more say we will have in the world we create. Neurocircuitry may be neurocircuitry, but we don't have to run on automatic.
Jill Bolte TaylorRead
Just like children, emotions heal when they are heard and validated.
Jill Bolte TaylorRead

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