It's Time to Meet Your Emotions!
Emotions are a part of our day to day life, of our routines. And yet, they go by unnoticed by most of us, and more often than not we don’t stop to listen to what they are telling us.
Emotions are like warning signs from our body. When they appear, they’re trying to show us something. Why not look further into them? Are we afraid? In today’s article, we’re going to introduce you to your basic emotions…
“The emotions predispose us in different ways to action; each one of them points to a direction that, in the past, allowed us to properly solve the many challenges that human existence has undergone.“
-Daniel Goleman-
Joy
Joy is the positive feeling that emerges when we achieve a goal or objective. When we live through an experience we find pleasant or that reduces our discomfort. Joy is considered a positive emotion.
Under its influence, we are capable of bringing up happy memories. It works as a engine that stirs up our life. And it makes us choose those moments during which we experienced this positive emotion.
It leads to hormonal changes that reduce stress, improve the autoimmune and cardiovascular responses. It makes social interaction easier. Joy makes us more communicative people, more likely to help others. And it eases the effects of negative emotions.
Joy is contagious. When we feel happy, we tend to share it with others and with the world in an attempt to make everything that surrounds us feel it too.
Sadness
Without sadness, we wouldn’t be able to feel joy.
Sadness is a negative emotion that’s characterized by the decay of our mood and the reduction of our mental activity and actions.
Being sad is very subjective and personal. Sadness appears when one is faced with situations in which we lose something or someone. Or at times in which our “me” is damaged. It can range from a mild melancholy to intense grief. But, we can’t confuse it with depression.
It influences our thought processes, lowering our creative capacity. We focus on the available data, focusing on negative things that have happened. And we don’t explore other options to resolve the conflict or get out of the negative situation.
Feeling sad makes us reluctant to engage in social contact. This emotion makes us isolate ourselves or, on the contrary, makes us look for help. When we feel continuously sad, we may experience a learned helplessness that makes us think that no matter what we do, we won’t be able to change things. And this makes us not want to even attempt it. But sadness also has its positive side. It makes you reflect on what’s really important to you.
Anger appears when we’re subjected to situations we find frustrating or harmful to our integrity and that of people we care for. Anger shows us there’s a threat before which we must defend ourselves.
