Lisa Feldman Barrett

Do you need to breathe differently?

It's basically anticipating the needs of the body and attempting to meet those needs before they arise.

That supports your physical movements, right?

So if you're going to...

If you're walking over somewhere to pick up some flowers and cut the stems and whatever, those are all physical movements that require glucose and oxygen and shit like.

So all of that has to get prepared in advance, milliseconds before the actions start to be prepared.

So it's not what you think determines what you feel.

It's what you prepare to do.

determines your thoughts and your feelings and the sights and sounds and smells and sensations.

That's how it really works under the hood.

So meaning is in terms of what you do.

And then as a consequence of that, meaning becomes what you feel and what you think and so on.

So one of the ways that you change to change predictions, you can't just will yourself to change a prediction.

I am really afraid of bees.

I had a traumatic experience when I was five.

I'm afraid of bees.

I know a lot about bees.

I'm actually a gardener.

And I know a lot about the evolutionary biology of bees.

But when I am outside, if a bee comes around, my first reaction is to either run or to freeze, right?