Sometimes we are just going about our day, minding our own business when out of the blue we are “acted upon by an outside force.” A car cuts in front of us, we get bad news at work (or, more likely, vague news that we don’t know what to do with), Our spouse turns up the TV when we ask for help.

And now we are feeling something.

When emotions wake up, they first try to figure out what woke them and then look for fuel to get bigger. Luckily for them, the brain is there to fill them in. Less luckily for us is brains really like to make stuff up.

So our brain tells a story. When we decide it’s a true story we feed the emotion. The emotion gets bigger and wants a more involved story. The brain is happy to provide. And then we are off…