TALKING ABOUT EMOTIONS

I chose to start the year by talking about emotions because when reflecting on the past year, I didn’t feel like making New Year’s resolutions, but rather celebrating the achievements of the year that was ending. In doing so, I realized that one of the most valuable tools of my past year was undoubtedly the fact that I had learned to deal with my emotions in a different, more consistent, and conscious way. So, why not share this information so that others can use these personal development tools for their own benefit?

What is an emotion?
The dictionary defines emotion as “a disturbance or agitation of the mind, feeling, passion; any excited or vigorous mental state”; “being an automatic, intense, and rapid response, unconscious and/or conscious, to a stimulus and a neural impulse that leads the organism to produce an action.”

Basic Emotions: Although there are pleasant and unpleasant emotions, all these emotions can be basic, as long as they are innate, genetically programmed, and essential for the organism’s survival. Basic emotions are intimate, as there is no control over the will to feel them, due to the fact that they are predetermined by psychophysiology.

Basic Emotions

Joy
Happiness, pleasure, relief, contentment, satisfaction, delight, fun, pride, sensual pleasure, excitement, ecstasy, enjoyment, euphoria, gratification, good mood, rapture, enthusiasm, and at the extreme, mania. Joy is one of the basic emotions activated by favorable events, affecting individuals directly or indirectly. The terms happiness, satisfaction, optimism, contentment, and pleasure often appear as synonyms for joy.

Love
Acceptance, friendship, trust, kindness, affinity, devotion, adoration, fascination, agape.

Surprise
Shock, astonishment, amazement, admiration.

Sadness
Pain, sorrow, discouragement, melancholy, self-pity, loneliness, dejection, despair, and when pathological, deep depression. Sadness is another basic emotion related to significant losses, losses whose meaning is greatly valued by the individual experiencing the loss. It is one of the most enduring emotions, with various types of losses causing this emotion, such as: rejection by a friend; loss of admiration for another; loss of health; loss of a part of the body or function due to an accident or illness; and, for some, loss of a precious object. Some synonyms for this emotion are: disturbed, disappointed, downhearted, discouraged, desperate, helpless, and miserable.

Fear
Anxiety, apprehension, nervousness, worry, dismay, dread, caution, distress, distrust, terror, horror, panic, and phobias. Fear is one of the basic emotions associated with danger and serves to protect individuals from certain risks. Its primary function appears to be to protect the physical and psychological integrity of the person, motivating them to escape or flee from potentially fearful situations.

Anger/Rage
Fury, outrage, resentment, anger, exasperation, indignation, acrimony, hostility, annoyance, irritability, and in extreme cases, hatred and pathological violence. Anger is a basic emotion related to frustration due to unmet desires. It is a response accompanied by increased blood pressure, faster heart rate, and a surge of certain hormones, like adrenaline, prompting vigorous action.

Aversion
Contempt, disdain, mockery, disgust, repulsion.

Shame
Guilt, embarrassment, remorse, humiliation, regret, mortification, and contrition.

Functions of Emotions

The functions of emotion are linked to adaptation and expression, acting as a stimulus between behavior and the environment. Emotions are, therefore, a multidimensional variable that has sparked great interest in the scientific community, leading to a growing number of scientific studies on the subject. Emotions can be essential for psychological well-being and quality of life, playing an important role in health states, as they contribute to both health and illness through their motivational properties. Thanks to this motivational property, emotions can modify healthy behaviors such as physical exercise, balanced diet, rest, etc., often leading to the adoption of specific behaviors because of them.
In this sense, emotions that cause well-being are considered positive, as they are the ones a person constantly seeks, while emotions that cause discomfort and embarrassment are considered negative, those that individuals try to avoid and dislike feeling.
Despite being ancient in the evolutionary process, emotions are an essential component in vital regulation mechanisms, as they are part of the system through which the human body regulates its survival.
Emotions play an active role, alongside other mechanisms, in the ongoing internal regulation of the body.
For an organism to live, it is essential to maintain minimum necessary conditions, such as body temperature and oxygen concentration in the blood, which are physiological aspects in which emotions also intervene. The purpose of emotional regulation is to keep emotions regulated, as excessively intense emotions that last longer than necessary can disrupt the individual’s stability.

More facts about emotions:
• Emotions are related to an external event and seem to arise when something unexpected occurs;
• Emotions can be innate, genetically determined, or learned as a combination of basic emotions;

• Cognitive evaluation is crucial for understanding how emotions occur;
• Emotions are accompanied by physiological reactions and are typically expressed through changes in facial expressions;
• Emotions can be divided into two groups: those that involve retreat, withdrawal, or negative behavior (negative emotions) and those that involve attraction, approach, or positive behavior (positive emotions);
• Emotions focus and direct attention toward something possibly grand and select what is most important at that moment;
• They prepare for action; in other words, emotions act as a catalyst between the environment and our behavior;
• Contact with certain emotional experiences generates emotional learning that helps us handle future situations;
• They help regulate interaction.

Emotion vs. Feeling

Feeling, according to the dictionary, is: the act or effect of feeling; the ability to receive impressions; sensation; sensitivity; intimate consciousness; the ability to understand; intuition; perception; sorrow; passion; grief; premonition. We can say that feelings are states and reactions that the human body can express in response to events that individuals experience. These reactions or states are something common to all human beings and can be manifested both for recent events and for something that is revived through memories triggered by the mind.

Managing Emotions
One of the best ways to stay healthy, serene, and happy is by learning to manage our emotions. There are many ways to do this, and they are all certainly quite effective. However, the most effective way is undoubtedly self-awareness. It is through observation and awareness.
Through self-awareness, we can get to know ourselves better, understand how we feel, and from there, become aware of what is going on in our mind and how it affects our life. Being aware of our habits and thoughts, we can identify them as good or harmful and work to make them more or less frequent and powerful. A person with more understanding of their inner self can use this to grow and evolve. A person who is conscious of themselves and their thoughts can identify their strengths and weaknesses and focus on developing themselves constantly.

Self-awareness is a process aimed at identifying thought patterns and personal habits and, from this, allowing us to improve our behavioural responses and decision-making. Self-awareness starts inside the mind and reflects outside, positively changing the way we perceive the world and react to different situations.
Through exercises, we can better understand our goals and desires and, from this, create more efficient plans to achieve them. Moreover, it is also possible to control destructive thoughts and habits and prevent them from negatively impacting our lives.
On a personal level, it helps us understand how our behaviour, skills, and emotions can assist us in achieving our personal goals. Professionally, it is closely linked to our career and the expectations we create regarding the path we want to take in this area.

Another very useful tool at our disposal is Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligence is about our ability to understand and manage our emotions and obtain pragmatic benefits, meaning better cooperation between people and taking advantage of the best qualities each person has.
We believe that, as constantly evolving human beings, we can be happy in all situations and not just when we leave work at the end of the day. We must know how to use certain skills such as: self-awareness; self-management; motivation; empathy; and lastly, social skills. Psychologists use the term “metacognition” to refer to the awareness of our own emotions.

Goleman (2014, 56th ed.) states that emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize our own feelings, those of others, motivate ourselves, and manage relationships with others and ourselves.
Recently, emotional intelligence is defined as the ability of people and the deliberate process, which requires effort, to attend to and understand feelings, to assimilate and comprehend them appropriately, and to regulate and modify our mood or the mood of others voluntarily.
According to Daniel Goleman, the anatomical part of the brain that supports emotional intelligence is the last circuit of the brain to mature. According to neuroplasticity, the brain shapes itself with lived experiences. After all, when emotional intelligence is practiced, it becomes beneficial.

Wait for the second part of this topic to read practical tips on how to manage your emotions.

Thank you for reading to the end. If you have any comments or questions, please email ana.cecilia.autora@gmail.com

This article was inspired by the books “Outra Forma de Ver as Coisas”, “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman, “Descartes’ Error” by António Damásio and the articles “What do I want to feel? Emotion goal in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood” Lopéz-Pérez, B., Gummerum,M., Jiménez,M. and Tamir,M.; “Using emotion to guide decisions: the accuracy and perceived value of emotional intensity forecasts” Carlson,S.J., Levine,L.J., Lench,H.C, Flynn,E., Winks,K.M.H., Winkckler,B.E.