Today’s lesson: Emotions and its connection with Psychology

Today we will see what is the meaning behind the most popular emotions, and how to understand the effect they have in our body.

Emotions are with us all day and throughout our lives. They are not something we can "not have" although sometimes we do everything possible to avoid them.

Emotions, like ideas, come and go. They are constantly changing as long as we let them follow their natural flow. We can see our emotions as a guest in our house. It comes, it stays the necessary time and it goes away.

The problem is that if we do not allow them to follow their path and instead we cling on to them, they stay longer than otherwise needed, which might end up disrupting the balance in our lives.

The perception of pain involves far more than mere sensation. The affective and evaluative components of pain are often as important as the production and transmission of the pain signal. | Source

Pain is inherent to the human being, and it is necessary because its the only way to know there is something wrong, and it makes us act in order to fix whatever is wrong. Pain is always present in our lives. It is not an emotion that causes suffering, but what we do with said emotion. Many times, to avoid feeling pain, we "desensitize" ourselves without actually knowing what to do about it. But this is normal, we all do it sometimes because not everyone understand how to handle these type of things.

How you think and feel impacts pain processing at the neural level, and this establishes one of the foundations for the mind-body connection. Learning techniques to better regulate sensory experience begins with learning how to best regulate your thoughts and emotions. | Source

A fundamental step to realize what to do with them is to understand what we are feeling, understand what that emotion wants to tell us

There are 4 basic emotion , lets discuss them one by one.

Sadness

Sadness is a transient emotional state that is generally associated with negative moods and unhappy feelings. | Source

We feel this emotion when we have lost something that we value or someone we care and love. It can be something like the breaking of a vase of great sentimental value, a job, the breakup of a relationship or the loss of a loved one.

The more important the lost, the deeper our sadness will be.

Sadness is a live emotion that can serve to remind us of what matters to us, what gives our life meaning. | Source

We can recognize this emotion very easily because we will feel a strong urge to cry, we will feel a void in the heart, we will have little desire to do things because of lack of energy.

Sadness, invites to be protected by others so they can take care of us while we are down and, as a group with proper support we can get out of emotional down faster.

Fear

One of the most important emotions is this one, fear, because it is basic for our survival, especially in less intelligent beings.

Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger — if we didn't feel it, we couldn't protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often we fear situations that are far from life-or-death. | Source

It is an emotion that prevents us from possible dangers. It also activates our body to flee, stay still or attack according to the circumstance, in other words, fear is the origin of the common “fly or fight” dilemma.

The goal of this emotion is to keep us safe and has done it very well for thousands of years, even animals also developed this emotion.

It is very simply to understand why this is such an important emotion for any race to thrive. Imagine a small animal that was literally fearless, nothing was able to scare this little animal. Can you imagine what would happen with this little animal ended up having an encounter to a much bigger and stronger predator? It would obviously be eaten. This is why, only animals capable of feeling fear are the ones alive today, they were the only ones able to mate and perpetuate the species.

Fear is hardwired in your brain, and for good reason: Neuroscientists have identified distinct networks that run from the depths of the limbic system all the way to the prefrontal cortex and back. When these networks are electrically or chemically stimulated, they produce fear, even in the absence of a fearful stimulus. | Source

The problem is that our brain does not distinguish between situations that are life or death from situations that have not deadly risk whatsoever. Simply, if we feel threatened, the brain activate the already mentioned fly or fight response. Fear can make us feel things like heat in the body, a desire to run, tremors, sweating, among others. People with stage fright for example, experience an intense panic when trying to speak to a bunch of people, even thought there is no deadly risk in doing so.

We must realize whether we are really in danger or is it just a faulty perception of our brain, and take into account that our brain is constantly looking for threats to protect ourselves from them, but clearly sometimes it can make mistakes.

Anger

Anger is a natural and mostly automatic response to pain of one form or another (physical or emotional). | Source

Anger has a fundamental mission and has to do with limits. When we feel limited in some way and perceive an obstacle that is blocking us, we get angry (sometimes frustrated). Being anger sometimes allow us to take action with more energy than before, so we can achieve our goals faster, or in the case ob an obstacle so we can get over it and leave it behind.

Being angry can be seen as a defense mechanism, which goal is to eliminate everything that is bothering us.

This tells us that we have to self improve. On the other hand, if we feel that someone is trespassing our limits without taking us into account we also get angry. This indicates that we must set limits to the other person. Anger drives us to act.

Why is anger good sometimes? Without feelings of anger, we wouldn’t take a stand against unfairness or injustice. Anger is an internal alarm that tells us something is not quite right. | Source

Happiness

More than simply positive mood, happiness is a state of well-being that encompasses living a good life—that is, with a sense of meaning and deep satisfaction. | Source

Happiness is an emotion that tells us there is something we are enjoying. It tells us that we feel safe and that our basic needs are met in some way. Happiness is a sign that we are on the right path. It tells us that we want more of whatever is causing us to feel this.

Since everyone enjoy feeling happy, after we understand what it is that is causing our happiness, we will automatically start taking action in order to preserve it. This could be anything from having a good family (in which case we will protect it), to achieve an important goal (in which case we would do anything to not lose it and to strive for the next one).

Psychologists often refer to happiness as positive affect - a mood or emotional state which is brought about by generally positive thoughts and feelings. | Source

Happiness can be seen as a sort of subconscious compass, that decides what our next actions are going to be. It determines how we design our plans, and in a way, can also make us more disciplined. So its easier for us to achieve our next major goal, and feel that level of happiness all over again.

Conclusion

As you may have noticed, the words "good" or "bad" weren't used to describe any of the emotions. This is because, despite what we can think, there are no emotions, good or bad.

There are some that make us feel better than others, but they are all equally important. All of them have something important to tell us. Therefore, it is essential to learn how to listen to them. We must stop avoiding them and give us the opportunity to feel them, as often as possible.

The only role these emotions have is to inform us about everything that is affecting us, whether it is positive or negative. Knowing this, is important when interacting with the world in a proper way, especially when it comes to socialization and bonding with people.

References