Lisa Feldman Barrett

Emotions are not built into your brain at birth. They are just not there.

Your brain constructs the world you experience.

We are the architects of our own experience.

You are not at the mercy of mythical emotion circuits buried deep inside your brain.

Emotions are not reactions to the world; they are your constructions of the world.

Your brain is a prediction machine, not a reaction machine.

You experience the world with your whole brain, not just some special part for emotions.

Concepts are the glue that holds your mental life together.

Words are a powerful tool for shaping emotion.

Your culture wires your brain for emotion.

Every waking moment, your brain uses past experience, organized as concepts, to guide your actions and give your sensations meaning.

You are an active constructor of your emotional life.