What are emotions?
Emotions are complex psychological states which include three components. Personal experience, bodily reaction to an impulse and behavioral response are our unique way of understanding and communicating with the world.
Certain states of mind are the direct result of the constitution of our nervous system and have always been independent from our will. When senses are excited, nerve force is generated in excess, and is transmitted in certain directions, dependent on the connection of the nerve cells. Nature of these movements often have been habitually practiced.
Emotions can be divided into positive and negative energy flows and any strong excitement of the nervous system interrupts the steady flow of nerve-force to our muscles. Claude Bernard has been the first to experiment with mind stimulation to notice instant affect to the heart. Since then there were numerous studies and modalities defined to help people understand their emotions and learn to live while experiencing them.
In 1872 Charles Darwin performed a broad study to understand our relative experience. He undergoes analysis of numerous native tribes and compares their facial expressions and bodily functions with those of contemporary men of Asia, Europe and America. Our human way of experiencing life is nearly identical with only little cultural differences. He extended his studies to compare human reality with our pets or wild animals. But as it might surprise you, there are many similarities in the way animals and us humans experience emotions, fear, terror, sadness, happiness or joy. Facial expressions, muscle tension, extended or shrunk spine, sweating, heart rate, shortened breath are very similarly expressing our tensions or joys.
As our body is managed by the nervous system which is responsible for all bodily functions including extremely important secretion from
- hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and pineal gland in our brain
- thymus between your lungs,
- the adrenals placed on top of your kidneys
- pancreas which is behind your stomach.
Each emotion carries an impulse which directly or indirectly affects various organs. An angry person may commend the movements of his body, but he cannot prevent his heart from beating rapidly. Joy quickens the circulation and stimulates the brain which affects the whole body. There is a case from 1865 when a person learning about his new inheritance was overflowed with intense joy. Soon entered the highest spirits, behaved as intoxicated, vomited and suffered from ‘hangover’, not touching any alcohol. I guess all of us have experienced once in our life an emotion so high that it overtaken us.
Recently, Stephen Porges Polivagal Theory explained how our Autonomous nervous system is responsible for the way our body processes all emotions. Nearly all body functions are managed by our flight / flight / freeze / fawn response. Porges theory brings a link to what Darwin discovered in the XIX century and gives it a broader scientific reasoning. His theory on understanding our own nervous system can give us clarity on understanding ourselves.
What triggers our emotions?
Nowadays we hear everywhere about triggers.
We can divide them into natural triggers as those which can be experienced in animals or people from different cultures and learned triggers.
Natural triggers are when we feel frightened by a loud noise, disgusted by a smell, suffer from loss, experience love, or encounter horror.
Learned triggers are our reactions towards situations we experienced via our senses, behaviors which have conditioned us or happenings which left a mark or a bruise on our being. Learned triggers are also our thoughts which we have created to assimilate the incident which happened to us, they generate manufactured emotions. They do not occur naturally when our body perceives a situation, but how do we make sense of what has happened. Yet, they generate the same type of energy as natural emotions.
All of our personal existence has been a conditioning experience. Many of our inner triggers are hidden from us, yet we might experience them rushing for a bus, preparing something for school or work, talking to people or being with ourselves. As each one of us is a different being we all have different sets of queues which bring a certain emotion. For some of us a state of body relaxation can bring peaceful and loving emotions, for others it might mean fear and confusion.
“There is no one way to enlightenment” M. P. Hall as there is no one way to understand what is going on within us.
Natural triggers are normal for all living beings with the exception of organisms which due to unprecedented life horror have extinguished their natural response to fear factors. There are some of us for which extreme activities such as climbing and jumping on very tall buildings without any protection does not trigger the natural fear response. In my opinion those who perform such activities have experienced childhood with no sense of safety, where their natural defenses needed to be taken down in order to survive the situations they were in.
I would like to give you some examples of our learned negative triggers. They are stimuli which evoke strong emotional responses due to an association with past experience or trauma. Things which can trigger in us, responses we do not fully understand, are:
Words:
that you have heard and were unpleasant for you,
critique,
which were not deserved,
Opinion or advice.
Images:
of someone crying,
of specific color,
of a view,
of an object.
Sounds:
of scream,
of loud noise,
of an argument,
of someone's voice.
Smells:
Of food,
Of perfumes,
Of cut grass,
Of alcohol.
Touch:
Someone’s touch,
Unwanted touch
Type of touch,
Of certain fabrics.
Specific Situations:
Being asked to do something,
Opening an oven or fridge,
Hand writing,
Body position,
Needing to confront someone.
For you such a list might be different. We all have experienced different things and the way our body recorded unpleasant memories. We can use self-analysis, meditation, breathwork, yoga or therapy to learn more about our triggers. Making some of our inner systems conscious, is our first step in overcoming those limitations.
List of emotions
Here is list of the most common emotions or body states you might encounter:
acceptance | calm | disgust | hate | miserable | tired |
admiration | carefree | empathy | hope | moody | surprise |
affection | careless | enthusiasm | horror | negative | upset |
afraid | cheeky | fear | jealousy | numb | vengeful |
agitation | contempt | frustration | joy | offended | vicious |
aggressive | courage | gratitude | kind | outrage | weak |
anger | cruelty | greed | lazy | pride | wrath |
anxious | determined | grief | love | self-confident | vicious |
arrogant | despair | guilt | lust | shame | weak |
assertive | devotion | happiness | mad | thrilled | wrath |
How many do you recognize?
How do emotions affect our body?
To give you an understanding of how our body reacts towards certain emotions, I’ll explain the most energetic emotions & body states.
1. Anxiety
Can be observed by increased heart rate and shortness of breath, sometimes hyperventilation. Body might sweat and tremble. Muscles might become tense or stiff. We might get light headed and have stomach problems. Our might usually becomes dry and we might have problems swallowing. Some of us can experience cold or hot flashes For some it might trigger headaches or migraines.
2. Grief
It can be observed that a person suffering from grief often seeks relief by violent and frantic movements. They may occasionally rock themselves while seated.breathing becomes slow and feeble and it's often interrupted by deep sighs. Our eyebrows are raised, our mouth is depressed and our chin is lifted. We might feel weakness and fatigue. Experience chest or throat tightness and muscle tension.
3. Despair
Can make us experience stomach issues as lack of appetite, digestive problems or cramps. It might bring heaviness into our limbs or chest. Our body and spirit experience fatigue and weakness. We might have altered our perception of temperature.
4. Hatred
Hate generates a rapid pounding heartbeat which can be accommodated by tightness in the chest. Our muscles might become stiff usually in the neck, shoulders and jaw, some muscles might tremble. We might find ourselves clenching our fists or grinding our teeth. There might be a flashing sensation in our body which brings redness to our neck or face.. We often sweat and experience headaches. Our mouth becomes dry and our pupils are dilated.
5. Rage
Can bring all of the body sensations of hate including adrenaline rush which gives an urge to act impulsively. We might experience blurred vision as it becomes unfocused and narrowed. Some of our senses might be heightened as increased sensitivity to sound, light, touch.
6. Contempt
Is primarily visible on our face by a tightened jaw and sneering expression. Our lips can be curled, eyebrows are raised. We might experience flushing to the face and chest discomfort. Our appetite will decrease and our body posture will be tense.
7. Disgust
It shows in our digestive system. We might feel nauseous and have a feeling of sickness. We might be gagging or having a reflex reaction and our saliva production might increase. Our facial expressions can be seen by wrinkles on the nose, curling of the upper lip. We often withdraw from the source of disgust.
8. Guilt
Can be seen by our sweating and dry mouth. We often have increased perspiration on our hands and face. We feel unable to relax and have difficulties sleeping. Feeling guilt might cause us to have problems catching our breath.
9. Pride
In this state you often feel a glow of energy. A warm feeling radiates from our chest which expands. We often smile and show a relaxed body. Our body is at ease and our muscles are relaxed giving us an increase in energy. We feel light and our breath is round and deep. Our posture is improved and our mood shows happiness and wellbeing.
10. Fear
Makes us very sensitive to our surroundings and potential threats. We experience goosebumps and our pupils dilate. Our mought dies and the body is covered in cold sweat. Some of us might shake and have tensed muscles. Our heart is rapid and it's not easy to breathe.
11. Horror
11. Surprise
13. Joy
14. Love
15. Devotion
“Jealousy, worry, anger, fear - all these are intemperances just as destructive and wasteful as the more familiar excess of flesh” M.H. Hall
Comments