Hello dear reader. In order to show the relevance of our conversation today, I want you to stop reading the article for a few moments and answer the question: “What emotions are you currently experiencing?”
Thought? Answered?
Now let's see what problems often arise when answering this question.
- Many people answer such a question as follows: “Yes, I don’t feel any particular emotions now, everything is fine.” Does this mean that there really are no emotions? Or does it just mean that a person is poorly aware of his emotional state? The fact is that a person always experiences emotions, every moment of his life. Sometime they reach a high intensity, and sometime their intensity is low. Many people pay attention only to strong emotional experiences, and do not attach any importance to low-intensity emotions, and even do not notice them at all. However, if emotions are not very strong, this does not mean that they are absent.
- Another possible answer to the question posed is: “Somehow I feel uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable." We see that a person is aware that there are unpleasant emotions inside, but he cannot name which ones. Maybe it's irritation, or maybe disappointment or guilt, or maybe something else.
- Often our question is answered in a similar way: "I feel like it's time for me to get up from the computer and get down to business" or "I feel that this article can be useful to me." Many people confuse their emotions with thoughts and desire to do something. When trying to describe their emotional state, they describe anything but emotions.
Meditation exercise for understanding emotions
In my work with clients, I often use a meditation exercise to help me better understand my own emotions. It is so effective that I decided to make an audio recording so that anyone can use this technique. The mechanism of action of the exercise is based on the connection of emotions and bodily reactions. Any, even the most insignificant, emotion has its reflection in the body (read more about this). By learning to listen to your own bodily reactions, you can become more familiar with your emotions.
You can do the exercise right now. Here is the entry:
Once you have learned what emotions are and how to describe your inner state with ease, you may be interested in a deeper exploration of yourself. For example, you may want to figure out what positive meaning can carry emotions that, at first glance, are absolutely meaningless and even harmful. Read about it in the next
It is assumed that our emotions are rooted in so-called drives - basic physiological innate needs, such as: hunger, thirst, sexual desire, the need to excrete waste products, avoidance of pain and the search for pleasure (comfort). Why such a list, I think, does not need to be explained.
But there was a need for a more effective way of mobilizing energy (strength) for survival, stimulation and direction of physical, and eventually mental activity, for the selection of signals that affect the perception of the world. Emotions and feelings gradually began to perform these functions - at least in highly developed animals this can already be observed.
- As a result, the first emotions arose, and became the basis for all other feelings and experiences - as a response to the need to survive and learn about the world.
There are many theories of the origin of feelings and views on which emotions are considered primary and basic - you can familiarize yourself with them if necessary. I will tell you what seems to me convincing and, most importantly, useful for practical application.
I highlight the following basic emotions that underlie all other human feelings. In my opinion, there are seven of them: interest, joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear and surprise. It is also interesting to note how these basic emotions were connected at the stage of their occurrence with the main processes of the individual's survival and adaptation to the surrounding world.
Interest gives rise to, motivates, nourishes and enhances the desire to explore the world around us, activity and the search for pleasure.
Joy associated with the acceptance and absorption of food and water, with the satisfaction of desires (including sexual ones), it is a reaction to receiving pleasure.
sadness- a reaction to the loss of an object that brings pleasure.
Anger (anger)- that which helped to eliminate and destroy obstacles to obtaining pleasure (satisfaction).
Fear- reaction of protection, running away or warning of possible pain or threat.
Disgust- reaction of rejection.
Astonishment- a momentary reaction to contact with something unfamiliar, unusual.
As a result, surprise leads to a rapid change in previous emotions - reactions, to a change in the previous action or its rapid cessation.
Emotions most often manifest themselves in interaction, reinforcing, suppressing each other, or flowing from one to another. So fear, for sure, was often associated with disgust and anger, and interest turned into joy. With the development of man and his ability to respond to changing conditions of life, more complex feelings and emotional reactions began to arise.
How do emotions turn into feelings?
Naturally, now the causes of these emotions have become more diverse, the situations of their occurrence have become more complicated, and a lot of new things have been added to these seven emotions. Then why is it necessary now to isolate the basic emotions and trace the causes of their initial occurrence?
All this can be used, compared with mathematics or geography, as a coordinate system. And also, using the comparison with food, we can say that these seven emotions are the main basic ingredients of our modern diverse sensory and taste experiences. And understanding their origin helps us to put these or those (and not put badly compatible) components at the right time and in the right proportions in our emotional dishes and sensual cocktails in order to prepare them competently: of good quality and for our own benefit. How is such a cocktail of experiences prepared?
The choice of this coordinate system - seven basic emotions - allows us to pick up the keys to numerous feelings and experiences, the number of which is already difficult to count. Thank God (or nature, or ourselves), we have gone far from animal ancestors. And therefore our emotional life has become much more complicated, and we already experience the above emotions not only in those cases.
A number of psychologists - researchers, as well as writers or philosophers, name shame, fear, hope, contempt, and love among the main human emotions ... No doubt, in our life these feelings (and not only) play a significant role, and the faces and actions of people are read well.
Even young children begin to express some of these feelings at a very early stage in their development. But to me, these feelings already seem to be derivatives of those seven basic ones, and therefore in this book, for ease of analysis and understanding, I will call the seven basic emotions exactly emotions, and the rest - a derivative of them, whether by mixing, changing intensity, direction, or imposing on action (more on that later) - feelings and experiences.
For example, such a feeling as contempt is formed from two fundamental emotions, like anger and joy: I am angry at the object of contempt and at the same time I am glad that I am better than him. Excitement consists of the same emotions, but in different proportions and with a focus on the future: anger at an obstacle and joy at the idea of the pleasure that will be obtained as a result of overcoming this obstacle.
There are elements of anger and surprise in hatred, as well as interest. And love (one of its varieties) consists of interest and joy: interest is an attraction to an object and the joy of connecting with it (accepting it). If desired, people add fear, sadness, anger, and surprise to this feeling, and other types of love are obtained, although these two fundamental emotions are the basis of this feeling. Whatever one may say: if there is no interest or joy, then there is no love, but something completely different turns out, although it may be generated by this feeling. But more on that in a separate chapter.
Thus, by analogy with music, where seven notes become the basis for creating an infinite number of combinations of sounds and melodies, the seven basic emotions become the basis for creating endless and diverse experiences, feelings and moods.
It is quite reasonable to ask whether this logical analysis and this classification will deprive our emotions of their originality, brightness and strength, will not make our life boring and sensually poor?
But the understanding of what and how music is created from does not deprive people listening to it of the ability to enjoy melodies and sound combinations, and at the same time helps to better understand music and even compose it, improving in this.
In the same way, understanding the laws of birth and changing our feelings does not deprive us of the ability to experience them. In addition, it adds the ability to experience exactly the feelings that we choose (that is, listen to the music we need), and help others feel next to us what we think is necessary or optimal for communication (music that is better to listen to together).
It's hard for me to sort out my feelings - a phrase that each of us has come across: in books, in movies, in life (someone's or our own). But it is very important to be able to understand your feelings.
Wheel of Emotions by Robert Plutchik
Some believe - and perhaps they are right - that the meaning of life is in feelings. Indeed, at the end of life, only our feelings, real or in memories, remain with us. Yes, and the measure of what is happening can also be our experiences: the richer, more diverse, brighter they are, the more fully we feel life.
What are feelings? The simplest definition: feelings are what we feel. This is our attitude to certain things (objects). There is also a more scientific definition: feelings (higher emotions) are special mental states that are manifested by socially conditioned experiences that express a person’s long-term and stable emotional relationship to things.
How are feelings different from emotions?
Sensations are our experiences that we experience through the senses, and we have five of them. Sensations are visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and odor sensations (our sense of smell). With sensations, everything is simple: stimulus - receptor - sensation.
Our consciousness interferes with emotions and feelings - our thoughts, attitudes, our thinking. Emotions are influenced by our thoughts. And vice versa - emotions affect our thoughts. We will discuss these relationships in more detail a little later. But now let's recall once again one of the criteria for psychological health, namely point 10: we are responsible for our feelings, it depends on us what they will be. It is important.
Fundamental emotions
All human emotions can be distinguished by the quality of experience. This aspect of a person's emotional life is most clearly presented in the theory of differential emotions by the American psychologist K. Izard. He identified ten qualitatively different "fundamental" emotions: interest-excitement, joy, surprise, grief-suffering, anger-rage, disgust-disgust, contempt-neglect, fear-horror, shame-shyness, guilt-repentance. K. Izard classifies the first three emotions as positive, the remaining seven as negative. Each of the fundamental emotions underlies a whole range of states that differ in severity. For example, within the framework of such a single-modal emotion as joy, one can single out joy-satisfaction, joy-delight, joy-jubilation, joy-ecstasy, and others. From the combination of fundamental emotions, all other, more complex, complex emotional states arise. For example, anxiety can combine fear, anger, guilt, and interest.
1. Interest - a positive emotional state that contributes to the development of skills and abilities, the acquisition of knowledge. Interest-excitation is a feeling of capture, curiosity.
2. Joy - a positive emotion associated with the ability to sufficiently fully satisfy an urgent need, the probability of which before that was small or uncertain. Joy is accompanied by self-satisfaction and satisfaction with the surrounding world. Obstacles to self-realization are also obstacles to the emergence of joy.
3. Surprise - an emotional reaction that does not have a clearly expressed positive or negative sign to sudden circumstances. Surprise inhibits all previous emotions, directing attention to a new object and can turn into interest.
4. Suffering (grief) - the most common negative emotional state associated with the receipt of reliable (or seeming such) information about the impossibility of satisfying the most important needs, the achievement of which before that seemed more or less likely. Suffering has the character of asthenic emotion and more often occurs in the form of emotional stress. The most severe form of suffering is grief associated with irretrievable loss.
5. Anger - a strong negative emotional state, occurring more often in the form of affect; arises in response to an obstacle in achieving passionately desired goals. Anger has the character of a sthenic emotion.
6. Disgust - a negative emotional state caused by objects (objects, people, circumstances), contact with which (physical or communicative) comes into sharp conflict with the aesthetic, moral or ideological principles and attitudes of the subject. Disgust, when combined with anger, can motivate aggressive behavior in interpersonal relationships. Disgust, like anger, can be directed at oneself, lowering self-esteem and causing self-judgment.
7. Contempt - a negative emotional state that occurs in interpersonal relationships and is generated by a mismatch of life positions, views and behavior of the subject with those of the object of feeling. The latter are presented to the subject as base, not corresponding to accepted moral standards and ethical criteria. A person is hostile to those whom he despises.
8. Fear - a negative emotional state that appears when the subject receives information about the possible damage to his life well-being, about real or imagined danger. Unlike the suffering caused by direct blocking of the most important needs, a person, experiencing the emotion of fear, has only a probabilistic forecast of possible trouble and acts on the basis of this forecast (often insufficiently reliable or exaggerated). The emotion of fear can be both sthenic and asthenic in nature and proceed either in the form of stressful conditions, or in the form of a stable mood of depression and anxiety, or in the form of affect (horror).
9. Shame - a negative emotional state, expressed in the awareness of the inconsistency of one's own thoughts, actions and appearance not only with the expectations of others, but also with one's own ideas about proper behavior and appearance.
10. Guilt - a negative emotional state, expressed in the realization of the unseemliness of one's own act, thought or feelings and expressed in regret and repentance.
Table of human feelings and emotions
And I also want to show you a collection of feelings, emotions, states that a person experiences during his life - a generalized table that does not pretend to be scientific, but will help you better understand yourself. The table is taken from the site "Communities of dependent and co-dependent", the author is Mikhail.
All human feelings and emotions can be divided into four types. It is fear, anger, sadness and joy. To what type this or that feeling belongs can be found from the table.
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And for those who read the article to the end. The purpose of this article is to help you understand your feelings, what they are. Our feelings largely depend on our thoughts. Irrational thinking often underlies negative emotions. By correcting these mistakes (by working on our thinking), we can be happier and achieve more in life. There is an interesting, but persistent and painstaking work on oneself. You are ready?
This will be of interest to you:
P.S. And remember, just by changing your consumption, we are changing the world together! © econet
People experience different emotions every day – sometimes good, sometimes not so good.
It has become so habitual that we do not even think about how and why emotions appeared in our ancestors. But they were very important!
We experience many emotional outbursts, but among them there are seven of the most important, basic emotions, without which our life would be completely different. It is about them that we will now talk.
Any emotion is involuntary if it is sincere.
Mark Twain
6. Base emotion - Surprise
Emotion, with the help of which we have the opportunity to better orientation in space, increase attention and achieve mutual understanding. Such a reaction facilitates the opportunity to consider something new in what we are already accustomed to. However, if a person is in a state of anxiety, then instead of surprise, he may experience fear.
7. Base emotion - Joy
One of the best possible emotions that supports our external manifestations. Thanks to this reaction, we reduce the distance between ourselves and other people and can interact with them. It is a reaction to receiving pleasure, or what is meant by it.
Conclusion
This is far from the whole "palette" of our emotions, especially since new ones are often added to the already existing ones.We need to learn to understand our emotions, and then we will be able to clearly determine how we react to different events and how to behave in this or that case.
Listen to your mind - and truly wonderful opportunities will open before you!
During the day, a person experiences a lot of emotions, which, mixing with each other, create a bizarre bouquet. This bouquet colors the perception of a person, making the day lived “bad” or “good”.
Surely any person wants to wake up every morning with a smile and spend the day in a positive mood. Living every day happily, filling your life with joyful emotions - this task may be impossible until a person learns to manage his emotions.
You can change your mood as we want, it is not necessary to be dependent on circumstances. In order to feel the emotion of joy, it is not necessary to wait for the right moment when someone or something makes us laugh.
To be happy, you just need to be happy. For happiness, it is not necessary to look for a reason: money, health, soul mate, recognition, and so on. You can just be happy. After all, all we need to already have is our emotions.
It remains only to understand the art of managing your emotions. To do this, first of all, you need to know the types of human emotions in order to learn to distinguish, separate emotions from each other, because they rarely appear in their pure form.
Each person has four pure emotions:
- anger
- fear
- joy
- despondency
These types of emotions create a combination of other feelings and emotions that each of us can experience on a daily basis.
Watch this short video, it shows the faces of different people experiencing the same emotions: from joy to fear.
Conventionally, the types of human emotions can be divided into three main categories: negative, positive and neutral.
List of basic human emotions and feelings
Positive
1. Pleasure
2. Joy.
3. Rejoicing.
4. Delight.
5. Pride.
6. Confidence.
7. Trust.
8. Sympathy.
9. Admiration.
10. Love (sexual).
11. Love (affection).
12. Respect.
13. Tenderness.
14. Gratitude (gratitude).
15. Tenderness.
16. Complacency.
17. Bliss
18. Schadenfreude.
19. Feeling of satisfied revenge.
20. Good conscience.
21. Feeling of relief.
22. Feeling of self-satisfaction.
23. Feeling safe.
24. Anticipation.
Neutral
25. Curiosity.
26. Surprise.
27. Amazement.
28. Indifference.
29. Calm and contemplative mood.
Negative
30. Displeasure.
31. Woe (sorrow).
33. Sadness (sadness).
34. Despair.
35. Grief.
36. Anxiety.
38. Fear.
41. Pity.
42. Sympathy (compassion).
43. Regret.
44. Annoyance.
46. Feeling insulted.
47. Indignation (indignation).
48. Hatred.
49. Dislike.
50. Envy.
52. Anger.
53. Despondency.
55. Jealousy.
57. Uncertainty (doubt).
58. Distrust.
60. Confusion.
61. Fury.
62. Contempt.
63. Disgust.
64. Disappointment.
65. Disgust.
66. Dissatisfaction with oneself.
67. Repentance.
68. Remorse of conscience.
69. Impatience.
70. Bitterness.
Perhaps some of the readers will not agree with such a division of feelings. Feelings are divided not from the standpoint of ethics, but from the standpoint of the pleasure or displeasure delivered.
A person puts a huge amount of energy into his emotions. In fact, this energy is neutral, only emotion can give it a positive or negative character, direct it in the direction of creation or destruction.
Take a closer look at this list, determine for yourself in which emotions you invest your strength more, in the emotions of destruction or creation?
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