Healing and the Brain: Basic Tools for Emotional Regulation
This started as a side-note in my guide to approaching holistic medicine biblically but decided it could be it’s own post. Is it just me or is the pace of life and the expectation for engagement and “connection” getting out of hand? In this season I’m craving simplicity…
I’d written on how the limbic system links emotions, memory, and behavior. It processes feelings and senses, helping your brain and body respond to important experiences. This turned into a cascade of thoughts about what I’ve learned from processing trauma as a birth worker and just being a human. (Love the way my brain likes to connect all the threads of what I’m learning—lately at 3am, what the heck.)
So I’m going to share the “Liv notes” version on neuroplasticity to give you some understanding and a couple simple, valuable, and free tools at the end to help you feel more emotionally grounded.
Let’s kick it off with an overview of EMDR
You might’ve heard of or tried EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro).
What you need to know:
The right hemisphere is more connected to emotion, body sensations, intuition, and nonverbal memory—it stores the emotional and sensory fragments of trauma.
The left hemisphere of the brain is more associated with logic, language, analysis, and sequencing—it wants to make sense of things and organize events logically.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, meaning it activates both the left and right hemispheres of the brain in a rhythmic, alternating pattern—typically through eye movements, auditory tones, or physical taps. By engaging both sides of the brain, EMDR supports the healthy processing of trauma, helping emotional responses become more steady, integrated, and less overwhelming.
Not-so-wise-man
One of my favorite books I read every winter—because let’s face it, winter can feel like a survival situation—is called “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why” by Laurence Gonzales. Humans are classified as homo sapiens. Latin translation: homo means man, sapiens means wise. Wise man.
In his chapter How Accidents Happen, Gonzales says, “If you distill all of the psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience of the last hundred years or so, you’ll find we’re always Homo but not so sapiens. Joseph LeDoux [neuroscientist] concluded that, ‘people normally do all sorts of things for reasons that they are not consciously aware of…and that one of the main jobs of consciousness is to keep our life tied together into a coherent story, a self-concept’” (p. 90-91).
When we experience a traumatic event the emotional brain takes over and stores it as traumatic memory. EMDR is effective because of the brain’s ability to change, adapt, and rewire itself. This is referred to as neuroplasticity. This means the brain is not fixed/static—new neural pathways can be formed, and existing ones can be strengthened or weakened based on how often they're used. When both side of the brain are engaged, you’re then able to begin processing the event and move out of the stress response.
Mental models
I could nerd out forever, but this is relevant in the conversation of why we believe what we believe—discussed in my post on biblical decision-making when it comes to health—because we pride ourselves on our capacity to think about what we think about. To self-reflect. But we don’t do this all of the time.
Gonzales said, “Researchers point out that people tend to take any information as confirmation of their mental models” (p. 87). I think algorithms are a great example of of this. We assume everyone thinks the way we do and sees the same information we do. But it’s called a “social feed” for a reason—algorithms are feeding you information based on tons of data collected on you. (In my post on biblical perspective for holistic healing I get into how we are socialized.)
Gonzales describes how we make a mental map of the world—
“As Joseph LeDoux put it, ‘People don’t come preassembled, but are glued together by life.’ Like the immune system, the emotional system evolves continuously, taking experiences and situations and attaching emotional value to them in subtle gradations of risk and reward.
Children begin learning even before birth, and near the end of pregnancy, their brains may be forming as many as 250,000 new nerve cells a minute…Once infants begin moving about in the world, they engage in a process of trial and error by which they find out how much risk they can take to reap a given amount of reward. Every experience adds to the body of knowledge and shapes future behavior” (p. 61).
It’s pretty remarkable we start learning in the womb. When you repeatedly practice a skill, speak truth over yourself, or change how you respond to stress, you are actively shaping your brain’s structure and function. This is good news for healing—because it means that past patterns don’t have to define your future.
Tools to self-regulate
Here’s a simple tool you can use right now to manage and move through whatever stressful situation you’re in today:
Walk.
Yep. That’s it. You can just walk out your front door or step away from your desk to enjoy the benefits of this natural form of bilateral stimulation. Not to mention the natural benefits of sunlight and being outside!
Walking activates both sides of the brain through rhythmic, alternating movement.
As you walk, your arms and legs move in a left-right-left pattern. This cross-body motion engages both hemispheres of the brain, encouraging coordination, emotional processing, and nervous system regulation.
Take the kids. I’ve found this is the best way to calm a screaming child, even babies. You can wear your baby (see my post on the history of midwifery for natural benefits of baby-wearing) and everyone will start to feel calmer.
If walking isn’t an option:
If you’re unable to walk or have a child who is unable to walk, you can use a therapy ball.
I’ve worked with children who lost the ability to walk and control their body due to illness. In this case I would help the child balance on a therapy ball (in the birth world this is a labor ball), sitting on the edge of a bed or chair with the ball between my knees for more control. Once the ball was stabilized I’d help the child onto the ball so they were sitting with their legs in front of them and slightly apart. With my hands on their waist I could move the ball gently side-to-side and back-and-forth, providing sensory input and mimicking natural rhythmic movement patterns. (This is also a valuable tool for strengthening a weak core.)
If you’re an adult and you’re able, you can sit on the ball with your feet flat on the floor. If balance is an issue, position yourself near a wall you can reach with flat palms. Engage your core to help you move side-to-side and back-and-forth.
Music
I’ve also worked with a toddler with cancer. He often had little to no energy to be up and about. I wish I would’ve thought of it at the time, but you can listen to bilateral music to simulate the effect of physical bilateral stimulation if movement isn’t an option.
Try binaural beats for a reset. Binaural essentially means both ears, and it uses different frequencies, which are associated with different brain states. Binaural beats are a form of soundwave therapy that work by playing two slightly different frequencies into each ear, so you really need to be wearing headphones to experience the effects.
Your brain detects the difference between the two frequencies and interprets it as a third “beat” frequency. The third beat isn’t actually a frequency—it's created by your brain as it tries to make sense of the difference. This can help synchronize brainwave activity to that frequency, which may promote different mental states.
Remember you’ll need headphones. Check out Brain.FM, they have some interesting info on binaural beats for ADHD too.
Bonus: binaural beats can also help with nausea—I’ve used it when I had the flu. I wish I would’ve thought to try it in the hospital for chemo-induced nausea (whether the headphones would’ve stayed on a baby is debatable). I’m curious to have a pregnant mama try it for infamous the morning sickness.
Why music can change our mood
Obviously I’m not a neuroscientist or psychologist but I’ve found these tools to be super handy and I hope you will too! Music is such a powerful tool to alter our mood and emotions because you don’t have to understand it.
Years ago I read “This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” by Daniel Levitin, who actually is a neuroscientist, as well as a cognitive psychologist, writer, and a former music producer. Levitin explains that music activates the same reward systems in the brain as food, sex, and drugs. Dopamine is released in response to pleasurable musical experiences, especially during moments of anticipation and resolution. This ties into our emotional responses to music, like chills and the unexpected tears.
I get the feels every time I listen to Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major. It’s an experience, there’s a whole scene in my mind. You can probably think of a song that has that kind of indescribable effect on you.
Levitin breaks down music into its components: pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, and dynamics. Our brains are wired to detect patterns and deviations, which is why repetition, variation, and surprise in music are so impactful.
Levitin explains that music perception involves nearly every part of the brain. From recognizing rhythm and pitch to evoking memories and emotions, music is a full-brain activity. The auditory cortex processes sound, while the cerebellum tracks rhythm and movement. The limbic system, especially the amygdala, helps process emotional responses to music.
So, let’s be mindful of the music we listen to. Because the limbic system is deeply involved in both trauma and healing, music can become a tool that can:
Regulate emotions
Evoke safe/positive memories
Offer release without requiring words
Shift the nervous system into a calmer state
To Summarize:
Our brains are wired for healing—and the Lord invites us to participate in that healing daily. Whether it’s through movement, music, or renewing our minds in truth, we don’t have to stay stuck in survival mode. The tools I shared here are just starting points. Healing is layered and deeply personal. But it’s also possible. Keep leaning into curiosity, your body’s design, and most of all, the One who holds every thread together. Because health is holistic, one small step—physically or spiritually—can begin the rewiring process that Paul refers to as the renewing or transformation of our minds in Romans 12.
The Transforming Power of the Gospel
Romans 12:1-2 is such an appropriate charge for us to close out with, especially in light of the inundation of information and all the platforms we have to compare ourselves to other women on. We always have a reason to praise God. Worship is our weapon. Gratitude brings breakthrough because it changes our heart posture and opens our eyes to the incredible grace gift of God’s love that surrounds us at all times. So,
“Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.
Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.”
