Emotions are part of us.When you laugh with a friend or fear a dog, you might feel better.There is more to emotion than just the experience.You can learn how to deal with your emotions.Scientists have increased their knowledge about the nature of emotions in the last few years.Learning to understand your emotions can help enhance your control over your feelings and actions.
Step 1: Understand how emotions are created.
Emotions are determined by evolution.They allow you to navigate your environment in ways that were adaptive in the past and are still adaptive today.Fear evolved over time.When our ancestors saw a steep cliff, they behaved more cautiously as they neared the precipice.People who experienced fear were more likely to survive.The fearful individuals were able to reproduce and give birth to children with the same capacity for fear.Positive and negative emotions are selected for evolution.People are deterred from actions that are harmful or costly because of negative emotions.Positive emotions help people towards potentially beneficial actions.
Step 2: The basic emotions are known.
Most psychologists agree that humans are endowed with a set of basic emotions.Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise are the basic emotions.The list of emotions has been expanded to include contempt, pride, shame, love, and anxiety.The extent to which basic emotions are universally experienced or culture-specific remains up for debate.
Step 3: Understand the role emotions play.
Our ability to thrive and make good decisions are dependent on our emotions.Emotions help us navigate our world.Imagine waking up one day and not having a sense of shame or social anxiety.You didn't pay much attention to how you acted in front of other people.If you didn't care how you acted around your friends, you would lose them.Emotions help us get along with others.
Step 4: Understand how emotions can affect decision-making.
Our ability to make decisions is dependent on our emotions.Emotions can bias our decision-making in one direction or another.Several studies have shown that people with brain damage that is related to emotion have impaired decision-making.Phineas Gage is the most famous of these cases.A part of his brain was damaged when he was impaled in the head with an iron rod.He was never the same person after the accident.His personality changed a lot.He made horrible decisions and was miserable to be around.The rod damaged a part of his brain involved in emotion, one of the main reasons for the shift in behavior.Psychopaths have trouble in society.A lack of emotion is one of the key diagnostic criteria for psychopathy.The importance of emotion to our sense of morality can lead to criminal behavior.
Step 5: Understand that emotions can become messed up.
Emotions can also become disorganized like your kidneys or eyes.Talk to a mental health professional if you think your emotions are not normal.Depression, which involves persistent and long- lasting feelings of sadness and a loss of interest, is one of the more common disorders of emotion.There are anxiety disorders.General anxiety disorder is concerned with day-to-day occurrences.Schizophrenia can be linked to a lack of emotions or a depressed mood.The term mania refers to an extended period of elevated moods.Manic individuals can also be very angry.
Step 6: When emotions occur, record them.
You can take notes on your emotions if you have a sense of when and how they feel.When you feel an emotion, keep a log of it and write down what you think triggered it.You remember that you hated waiting in lines when you realized you had to wait in line for 15 minutes for lunch.This information can be used to increase or decrease the emotions in your life.If you know what makes you angry, you can take steps to avoid it.You can only buy a small amount of groceries at a time if you hate waiting in lines.
Step 7: What emotions do you like to experience?
People say that different emotions feel different to them.Negative emotions feel very different than positive emotions, but they also feel different from each other.Embarrassment feels different from sadness.
Step 8: You can learn what anger feels like.
When someone has hurt you, anger is experienced.It makes them think twice about doing it again.People might take advantage of you if you don't have an emotion like anger.The experience of anger begins in the back between the shoulder blades and travels upward along the neck and around the sides of the jaws and head.You may feel hot and flustered when angry.If you notice tension in your back, neck, and jaws, you may be internalizing your anger.
Step 9: Understand what it feels like to disgust.
Things that make us sick are often repulsive stimuli.It protects us from things that could make us sick.When we find things gross, it can be experienced.Disgust can be felt in the stomach, chest, and head.If you feel sick, you may be forced to close off your nose and move away from the stimuli.
Step 10: Understand what makes you afraid.
Fear is experienced when threats like bears, heights, or guns are present.We can learn to avoid these things in the future by avoiding them now.Many of the things we are afraid of are learned.Most fear is felt in the top half of the body.Fear of heights often involves sensation in the legs.When your nervous system kicks into high gear, your heart may beat faster, you may breathe quicker, and your palms may feel sweaty.The fight or flight response is what it is.
Step 11: Know what it feels like to be happy.
There are things that can have implications for surviving, thriving, and passing on one's genes.Having sex, having children, succeeding in a valued goal, and being praised by others are some of the things that make us happy.One of the most difficult to define emotions is happiness.It can involve feelings of warmth throughout the whole body, or it can be a sense of feeling content, safe or living the good life.
Step 12: What sadness does you feel like?
In response to a loss, we experience sadness.It is a very painful emotion that can help us to avoid losses in the future or to appreciate what we have when we get something back.We see tears in the eyes when sadness moves upward through the throat and up to the chest."She's all choked up" is the expression you've probably heard.Allowing yourself to cry is a cleansing experience.Paying attention to the physical sensations in these areas and allowing the energy to move helps us to grieve after a loss.
Step 13: Know what a surprise feels like.
Something is unexpected but not considered a threat.It is relatively neutral in its feelings compared to the other emotions, which are often felt as positive or negative.It may be possible to re-orient attention to novel unexpected things.Surprise is felt in the head and chest.It can feel like a bit of a shock when it's unexpected.