"I'm fine."

you're not. and your brain and body knows it.
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The Science · Lieberman, UCLA, 2007

Name it.
Brake it.

Affect labelling for emotional regulation — how naming feelings reduces amygdala activity and brakes perimenopause rage

That sudden rage. The anxiety that boils from nowhere. The shame that hits mid-conversation. Not "I'm stressed." Not "I'm fine." A precise word.

Uncontrollable rage. Anxious. Lonely.

The moment you name it, your prefrontal cortex activates and your amygdala quiets — measurably, within seconds. For women in perimenopause, fluctuating estrogen keeps the amygdala hyperreactive. Naming the feeling is the fastest way to put the brakes on. That's not a wellness claim. That's Dr. Matthew Lieberman's fMRI data from UCLA, 2007.

Your nervous system treats unnamed emotions as unknown threats. Give the feeling a word and it stops treating it like one. The spiral breaks at the moment of naming.

Lieberman MD et al. (2007). Putting feelings into words — affect labelling and amygdala regulation. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17576282  ·  UCLA Health
The Reset · Huberman, Stanford, 2023

Even after naming it,
your body is still in it.

Physiological sigh — fastest known breathing technique to calm perimenopause rage and anxiety — Stanford Balban 2023

Heart rate up. Chest tight. Jaw clenched. That's your sympathetic nervous system — fight or flight — still running the show even after you've named the feeling. In perimenopause, hormones keep it dialled up longer.

The physiological sigh is the fastest known method to hand control back to your parasympathetic system. Not in five minutes. Not after a 10-minute meditation. In one breath. Stanford research showed it outperforms all other breathing techniques for reducing physiological arousal.

1
Inhale through your nose
Full breath in
2
Inhale again — no exhale between
Short second inhale. Re-inflates collapsed alveoli. This is the key.
3
Full slow exhale through your mouth
Until lungs are empty. Repeat 1–3×.
Balban MY et al. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal — physiological sigh research. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1).
doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895  ·  Huberman Lab, Stanford School of Medicine
breathe
inhale · inhale · exhale
In the App

Name it. Brake it.
Move forward.

How niia emotional regulation app works — name the feeling, physiological sigh reset, log emotions, get matched action — under 90 seconds iOS

Two steps. A reset. Two things back. Every time.

01
I am feeling ___
Tap a chip from the emotion list — anxious, frustrated, ashamed, lonely, overwhelmed. The label is the first intervention. The amygdala starts quieting the moment the word is chosen.
Affect labelling · Lieberman 2007
02
The sigh
Double inhale → full exhale. The app guides you through one to three physiological sighs. System reset. Sympathetic to parasympathetic. The fastest known route back to calm.
Physiological sigh · Balban 2023
03
Your entry is logged
The emotion, the time, the context. Stored privately on your device. Building your personal emotional map — daily, weekly, monthly. Yours alone. Your data is safe.
Private · Offline-first
04
Still feeling it? Here's what to try.
One matched recommendation for the exact emotions you named. Evidence-indexed, precise. Over time your weekly log shows you the patterns. You see yourself getting calmer.
Matched action · Daily & weekly log
Built For

if you've ever said
"I'm fine."

Emotional regulation app for perimenopause rage, sudden anxiety, overwhelm and mood swings — women 28–55 — free beta iOS

Around 70% of women in perimenopause report sudden anger as a primary symptom. Most have no tools for it. niia is the neuroscience tool — not another breathing reminder, not a journal prompt, not a vibe or another pointless wellness app.

01
Women navigating perimenopause
Hormone-driven amygdala reactivity peaks from the mid-30s. niia gives you the language before the spiral.
02
High-functioning overthinkers
You can articulate everyone else's feelings with precision. Your own? That's the gap niia closes.
03
People who spiral
The 2+2 method interrupts the spiral at step one. Name it before it names you.
04
Tired of "just breathe"
The physiological sigh works — here's the mechanism, the citation, the exact technique. Not a vibe.
05
"I don't know what I feel"
Affect labelling is a trainable skill. niia builds the vocabulary one entry at a time.
06
People who know the science
And want the tool that puts it in their hands when it counts — not a 40-minute podcast.

Beta test
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iOS first. Android coming. Free during beta.
No spam. Launch updates only.

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Science Sources — Research Behind niia
Lieberman MD et al. (2007). Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17576282
Balban MY et al. (2023). Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1).
doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895
Pennebaker JW (1997). Psychological Science, 8(3), 162–166.
Ochsner KN & Gross JJ (2005). Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(5).