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We’ve had a run-down of how the brain takes charge of our emotions over the last couple of blog posts - thanks for hanging in there with me. Interesting though, isn’t it? We are now in a position to know that emotions just don’t kinda happen. We also now know that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to emotion regulation.

Today, we’ll find out if you’re more of a Top-Down or Bottom-Up type of person. And no, we’re not talking about your sunbathing techniques or drinking habits. HA! Humor...it helps us get back into that thinking, rational brain. You’re welcome!

What is the Top-Down Approach?

We came across the Top-Down Approach when we discussed the topmost part of the brain, the Prefrontal Cortex. This part is associated with thinking and logic, higher order emotion awareness, and speaking. Top-down emotions are conscious responses to how we think about our circumstances. For instance, kiddos can get anxious after deciding they haven’t studied hard enough for an exam. That’s a very cerebral response, not so much a biological one.

In short, it’s the higher brain or home of logic.

Additionally, top-down emotions occur in three steps:

Stimuli occur.
Our thinking patterns make us aware of what is happening, so we give ourselves a quick pep-talk of what’s going down.
We feel something based on the thoughts ABOUT the stimuli.

Ever heard the notion that our thoughts control our emotions? Or changing how we think changes how we feel? At some point, we’ve all heard “If you think ‘right’, you’re in a better position to make healthier choices.”

Well, I hate to break it to you. It’s not just some psychological “snake oil”, but the truth. Truth that is backed by neuroscience.

Ways to Teach Top-Down Approach to Regulation

Better known as “Ways to Strengthen the Thinking Brain”.

Mindfulness

It is the state of being aware or conscious of what’s happening in the present moment. This mental state helps you calmly acknowledge and accept your thoughts, feelings, and body sensations.

I know, I know. Mindfulness isn't a new concept, but my hope here is that the science behind it all will give you a reason to actually do it. Plus, there are LOTS of fun ways you can practice mindfulness.

Blindfold taste test for example! Blindfold someone, and let them try a food. They’ll have to feel it, smell it, maybe lick it, bite it, and then eat it. All those small, intentional steps to eating slow down the thinking brain and help it to grow. It’s like brainercise (brain exercise).

Caution: Be mindful of allergies!

Meditation and Yoga are other exercises that can help you achieve mindfulness. They help enhance your holistic well-being by:

helping you calm down
reducing stress levels
increasing concentration
radiating positive energy and hyper-awareness
giving you greater emotion regulation capabilities

It’s true, with intention and habit, these things will help grow your thinking brain! #brainercise

If that doesn’t motivate you, then think about what will happen if you DON’T exercise your thinking brain. Your emotional brain will take the lead, which doesn’t sound so bad until you learn that the emotional brain acts out of impulse and often makes irrational decisions.

CBT or CPT

These Top-Down Approaches focus on how the brain interprets information. It questions your thoughts when change is needed invoking the use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). According to Mayo Clinic,

“CBT helps you become aware of inaccurate or negative thinking, so you can view challenging situations more clearly and respond to them in a more effective way.”

In layman’s English, it’s a fancy term for readjusting how you think about something, AKA your beliefs and meaning systems.

This approach believes the more robust your thinking capability, the less likely you’ll collapse in the presence of an emotion. It’s more of a logic first approach, which might not be effective especially if the lower brain is super-charged and won’t calm down. It is extremely difficult to override lower brain responses and turn on the logical brain switch. The good news is …… you can do so through consistent brainercise. Check out the wise owl and barking dog posts for a detailed explanation.

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What is the Bottom-Up Approach?

This approach deals with the lower parts of the brain i.e. the brain stem and limbic system.

These are the parts responsible for the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn memories, learning, and body reflexes. They have mental processes that occur unconsciously. Two steps are involved in generating bottom-up feelings:

Stimuli occur.
An emotion is sparked.

The Bottom-Up approach admits that body sensations or feelings are the first to occur. It believes that one needs to feel safe first before they learn how to regulate their responses.

The major benefit of a Bottom-Up Approach is that it integrates the entire brain. It doesn’t just focus on a primal part of the brain but the top, bottom, left, and right. This is the key to healthy emotion regulation. It allows one to analyze their feelings after stabilization and safety have been built.

At this point, one foot is in the emotions (right/bottom brain) and one foot is in the logic (top/left brain). Both sensations can now be used to process the here and now, helping a person to reach more heightened awareness.

In my point of view, a Bottom-Up Approach is more like asking:

“What’s the root cause of the issue, so we can address it?”

It’s a very productive way of emotion regulation for kiddos as it affirms “Your behavior makes sense given what just happened. But we can resolve it this way instead of that way.” They won’t feel like aliens or experience a shame storm for letting their emotions get the better of them.

Plus, their brains are FAR less developed than ours, so it’s much more challenging for them to not let emotions rule. But, work on these things now, and they’ll be set on the path of emotional resilience - a trait that most don’t yet have.

Ways to Teach Bottom-Up Approach to Regulation

It’s so difficult to reassure someone of their safety when the alarm (amygdala) is blaring. The body is too busy reacting for the brain to think. This fight, flight, freeze, or fawn part of the brain is the first to develop, and it can hijack higher parts of the brain. To prevent this from happening, the lower parts responsible for sensory-motor and survival need to function well before the higher parts can take over.

For bottom-up emotional regulation, you can practice:

What’s More Effective?

Emotions are controlled and processed more at an unconscious level (bottom-up). We only become more aware of this after we strengthen and grow the thinking brain. A dual approach (top-down and bottom-up) deals with the underlying issues and has more lasting results. You’re not just playing a game of Whack-A-Mole.

In reality, we are all bottom-up and top-down people. We can ALL benefit from using strategies in both approaches to emotional regulation.

We presented a whole lot of information here. If you have questions, please get in touch. I am here to help!

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Emotion Regulation with the Top-Down or Bottom-Up Approach