The soul of emotion and metabolism

The root nature of emotions is hotly debated. The difficulty is that emotions are at the base of our human experience and like consciousness, the characterization is difficult because we are studying emotion using the brains that emotions manifest through. Like looking into a mirror we often confuse what we see with what we think we see and what we hope to see. The most recent breakthrough I have had was after reading "Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health--and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More." I have spent the last year thinking and testing several aspects of it and agree with the central tenant that metabolic functionality is central to mental health (1). There are two things that are not explicit in this hypothesis, the root factors at play and the unifying reason why emotion, mental health, and metabolism are so entangled.

The root factors for poor mental health include a systemic imbalance of relative nutritional input and a sensitized system that is vulnerable to particular types of nutrient deprivation. This explains why risk genes associated with mental health disorders are difficult to identify because they manifest in an organ-specific manner only when a vulnerable organ system is starved enough for dysregulation to occur. This book suggests they manifest as metabolic syndromes where organ interactions can lead to failed or detrimental adaptations to a particular type of nutrient deprivation. The other key element that is less discussed is that nutrient consistency and projected availability into the future are also essential angles to consider. As living things, we co-relate indicators of favorable and unfavorable future conditions relative to the current condition. Thus what is not mentioned this book is that percieved nutrient deprivation and forecasted nutrient deprivation also have the ability to compromise vulnerable organ systems triggering whole-body responses to perceived environmental deficits. This is where mental health and emotion intersect, around the relative nutrient deprivation to the brain.

This may seem like a gross oversimplification: emotions are linked to mental health in that they are indicators of your metabolic state. In this way, emotions are representations of the fundamental functionalities of life -metabolism. Because metabolism is the basis of all life, a person is not truly dead until their metabolic systems cannot be resuscitated. This is why a person who has drowned in cold water can be successfully revived after longer periods, why organ transplants work, and how a person can survive being shot multiple times so long as no critical metabolic system is damaged.

Thus in some sense, we do feel with our hearts, and think with our stomachs. What this means is that fundamentals of life, like maintaining enough oxygen for cells to live (heart and lungs) and having a steady supply of proteins, fats, and sugars for cells to live (digestive tract) are the fundamental inputs for our emotions. Don't believe me? Remember how the terror of suffocating is one of the most gut-wrenching emotions that is among the worst and most rapid emotions you can have. This is your whole body telling your brain that you don't have enough oxygen and that if you don't get more oxygen your metabolism will fail and you will die. This is the basic biology of cells, they need oxygen, water, and food, and when your emotions are working right they will ensure you do not run out of these. We often forget that being alive and feeling alive are deeply entangled because feeling alive is a reflection of being alive.

The impending metabolic end, death, is a major trigger of emotions whether it be fear, confusion, or relief. However, in life, death is not fully the end of your metabolism. Using the metaphors of fire & souls, your metabolism is like the fire life that keep every one of your cells alive like a soul. If you've ever had or considered having children they are the continuation of your metabolism, through the recombination of two sets of metabolism, governed by the mother. If there is a soul, this is when a new soul first flickers into existence, when the embers of one metabolism intertwine with the embers of another metabolism. Thus one major goal of life is to pass on this ember of metabolism so that the fire of life continues to exist. In this context, the most important elements are to maintain metabolism, grow metabolism and transfer metabolism to the next iteration of life. You may be wondering if I have forgotten DNA, but I haven't. The genome is all the DNA instructions that guide the maintenance, building, and transfer of metabolism. Without the guidance of DNA tending the fire of metabolism, there is no biological life on earth.

Emotions are the representations of how well the maintenance, building, and transfer of metabolism is going within you as an individual.  DNA guides how the metabolism persists through time. But DNA is slow to respond to environmental threats that may destroy metabolism. Thus cells developed the capacity to sense their environment and enact behavioral changes to reduce the likelihood of metabolic destruction. This process was modified in many different ways and manifests in the sensation and processing capabilities of our nervous system. To further use the soul as a metaphor, emotions are watchers and caretakers of the soul (metabolism) that guide the likelihood of particular responses and behaviors. Sometimes the situation is so dire that emotions (caretakers) override all other functions to prevent the imminent destruction of the maintenance, growth, and transfer of metabolism (soul). This is the case when explanations like "I don't know why or how I just did it" can occur. Poegnant examples include how a mother can lift a car that is crushing their child to death. This is an imminent threat to the transfer (and maintenance/growth) of her soul and her emotions overrode conscious thought and boosted metabolism to do something at the limit of human physical ability. In this example, it should be clear that emotions and the subconscious are just different aspects of the physical processes in place to safeguard metabolism. Thus conscious and subconscious behaviors differ in how and whether emotions are handing off behavioral decisions to the brain or if the orchestra of metabolism is being directly managed in the forefront as actively experienced emotion or in the background as subconscious metabolic activity.

By this conceptual framework, we can view consciously felt emotions as the conscious workings of the caretakers of our metabolism. Emotions are in a sense the reflection or consensus of our metabolic state. This creates an idea that emotions are both intangible as representations of metabolic states while being tangible as biologically rooted processes that direct metabolism and behavior in concert with our nervous system. This groundwork must be understood to appreciate a reframing of how we view our emotions and how this impacts us as humans and members of society. Let us consider our emotions in terms of a conscious consensus of our metabolism and how this directs our conscious behaviors. When I am a hangry person, my metabolism starts to "stutter",  and I can only think about how I want to finish what I am doing so I can eat and rest. This emotion of hunger and irritation at the current inaccessibility to rebalance my brain's metabolism makes me rude and socially inconsiderate. When the maintenance of your metabolism is starting to weaken emotion directs you to solve this metabolic need first, when your brain fights against your immediate metabolic needs for food you get mad and irritated until you can get food. Like the commercials say "You're not you when you're hungry". This is to say that emotions as your metabolic consensus will increasingly direct your behavior through your nervous system until this metabolic need is met. If you consciously ignore it, the more your emotions will move to override your behaviors until you are compelled to meet your metabolic needs.

In this way we can reframe how we think about emotions are the core representations of the maintenance, growth, and transfer of our metabolism. As humans, we can now understand why intense emotions like loneliness or love are best explained. Once basic metabolic needs of breathing, drinking water, and eating are met, extremely intense emotions can develop to maintain our metabolism over time. In this way, we do not treat emotions as less intense rather to feel certain intense emotions like loneliness or love we must first meet the emotional need of short-term metabolic survival. Social interactions are essential to the growth and transfer of our metabolism and the specifically reproductive social interactions that facilitate the transfer of our metabolism. Thus loneliness and love can develop based on our need for metabolic growth and transfer. When these are met they can transform into different versions, for example, the love of a newlywed couple is different from the love of a couple married for decades. Newlyweds focus on the formation, growth, and transfer of their metabolisms, while more mature couples focus on the maintenance of their metabolisms. They are not necessarily weaker or stronger emotions, rather they have different priorities, and the emotions don't override behaviors as often because a lifetime of metabolic experience supports the maintenance of their metabolism.

(1) Palmer, C. M. (2022). Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health--and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More. BenBella Books.