Where do emotions come from?

I was skimming through the latest issue of "Science News" at work today, and I saw an article stating that people with Botox have a slightly harder time "evaluating descriptions of negative emotions." If your facial muscles are paralyzed, it takes just a smidgeon longer for you to read sentences about sad or angry things. It doesn't sound like that big of a difference, but we are hard-wired to pick up on the smallest and briefest cues from facial expressions. Even a slight hesitation in being able to read and respond to such a cue will be noticed - if only subconsciously. So Botox people may be at a social disadvantage. Maybe even more chilling, they may feel certain emotions less intensely, or are at least slower to feel those emotions.

This is crazy to me. I guess, deep down, I've always thought of emotion as coming from my mind or my soul, and my body simply expresses the emotion. But the article says, "...scientists have posited that facial expressions trigger and intensify relevant feelings, rather than simply advertise what an individual already feels." I listened to a Radio Lab episode (sorry, I can't remember which one) about this subject, too, and it really blows me away. The folks at Radio Lab were saying that, in effect, the body "chooses" an applicable emotion before the mind does. The mind actually picks up on the body's signals and says, "oh...let's see...I'm sweating, my heart is beating rapidly, my stomach feels like I'm falling. I must be scared. What am I scared about? Holy crap, a bear!!" (Or whatever.)

But this article is talking about something more subtle than the mind noticing the body's flight-or-fight response before the mind is aware such a response is needed. This is more like, "huh, my eyebrows are drawn together and the corners of my lips are being pulls down. Hmm...I must be sad about something. Ok, release all the feeling-sad hormones!" If your face is stuck in an angry position, your mind will find reasons for you to be angry. If you always look sad, you will find reasons to be sad.

If you keep smiling, you will find reasons to be happy.

This reminds me of a wonderful Real Live Preacher blog entry. He said, in effect, faith (and love) isn't something you feel or think. It's something you DO. You make a decision to be faithful, and you act in a faithful way. The feelings come after. Maybe happiness is something you do, too.