Limbic Regulation and Revision: Shaping Your Future

Limbic regulation is how our brains manage emotions within relationships. In healthy environments, we regulate by speaking our needs honestly and receiving comfort from others. However, in families marked by anxiety or avoidance, the brain learns to regulate through those same emotional patterns, often at the expense of security and honesty. As children, we adapted to these dynamics—maybe by withdrawing or over-functioning—just to maintain some emotional stability.

Thankfully, the limbic brain has the ability to revise itself through new experiences. This concept, known as limbic revision, allows us to reshape our emotional landscape. To do so, we need to acknowledge how our past shaped us and communicate those realizations to safe people. Who can you share your story with? How might talking about your childhood help you break the cycles that still affect your relationships today?

Thought questions: 

1. How did your family’s emotional patterns, such as anxiety or avoidance, shape the way you manage your emotions today?

2. What are some ways you can begin sharing your past experiences with trusted people, and how could this help you change old emotional habits?

3. How might talking about your childhood help you break unhealthy relationship cycles that still affect you as an adult?

Written by Colton Shannon, PhD and Alex Courington