Identify, Process, and Express Your Emotions

 Emotions

Why It's Vital to Identify, Process, and Express Your Emotions

Why befriending your emotions is key to a connected, successful, and whole life. 

There are many different types of emotions that have an influence on how we live and interact with others. At times, it may seem like we are ruled by these emotions. The choices we make, the actions we take, and the perceptions we have are all influenced by the feelings we are experiencing at any given moment. 

Basic Emotions

During the 1970s, psychologist Paul Eckman identified six basic emotions that he suggested were universally experienced in all human cultures. The emotions he identified were happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger. He later expanded his list of basic emotions to include such things as pride, shame, embarrassment, and excitement.

Combining Emotions

Psychologist Robert Plutchik proposed a "wheel of emotions" that worked something like the color wheel. Emotions can be combined to form different feelings, much like colors can be mixed to create other shades.

According to this theory, the more basic emotions act something like building blocks. More complex, sometimes mixed emotions, are blendings of these more basic ones. For example, basic emotions such as joy and trust can be combined to create love.

"The cure for the pain is in the pain”

“痛苦的解药就在痛苦之中” “Tòng-kǔ de jiě yào jiù zài tòng-kǔ zhī zhōng” 

"Ubat untuk kesakitan adalah dalam kesakitan"

Français: « Le remède à la douleur est dans la douleur »

I think a lot more of us, though, can agree on the fact that our world needs more emotional intelligence as it becomes increasingly technological and siloed.

Potentially today more than ever, many people get stuck from not identifying and processing their emotions. I'd argue this is the key reason we get stuck most of the time (I wouldn't say all the time because in some contexts or situations it can be healthy to block out emotion). The simplest way I make sense of the root problem is that we often grow up in environments where it wasn't safe to feel, process, and express what we were feeling. In other words: we are conditioned to tune out emotion. We also live in an emotionally phobic society; it often feels like our culture disregards and downplays emotion. Emotional suppression (conscious) and repression (subconscious) may have worked well for us in the past but it can often get adults in trouble, especially when we want to understand ourselves better, make better decisions, and have healthy, nourishing relationships.

Follow this ( click here ) to cut the chase.

If you prefer,  continue learning about emotions here, read on 📚 and discover more ...

A 2017 study suggests that there are far more basic emotions than previously believed. In the study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, researchers identified 27 different categories of emotion. Rather than being entirely distinct, however, the researchers found that people experience these emotions along a gradient. 

When we take the time to feel and understand our emotions, it can often lead to a more insightful outlook on life, better relationships, and improved physical health. Working through them and expressing them enables us to improve our mental and emotional health. Humans are not designed to ignore emotional information, as emotional information is among the most important signals our body sends us. The good news is it’s never too late to learn to identify, process, express, and manage your emotions.

Let's take a closer look at some of the basic types of emotions and explore their impact on human behavior.

Happiness 😊 🙂 ☺️ 😃 🥲 😸 

Of all the different types of emotions, happiness tends to be the one that people strive for the most. Happiness is often defined as a pleasant emotional state that is characterized by feelings of contentment, joy, gratification, satisfaction, and well-being.

If our lives are a journey or trip, emotions are the inner compass or GPS, revealing our most important and pressing needs—and our problems in the moment, along with possible solutions. Disregarding your GPS (representing emotions in this metaphor) can make it harder to get to your destination on your trip. For example:

●If you’re feeling sad, you may have lost something important, and may need comfort.

●If you’re feeling angry, you may have been mistreated and need to fight back or protect yourself.

●If you’re scared or feeling fearful: you may be anticipating something bad happening and need to protect yourself or leave a dangerous situation.

Research on happiness has increased significantly since the 1960s within a number of disciplines, including the branch of psychology known as positive psychology. This type of emotion is sometimes expressed through:

○Facial expressions: such as smiling

○Body language: such as a relaxed stance

○Tone of voice: such as an upbeat, pleasant way of speaking

While happiness is considered one of the basic human emotions, the things we think will create happiness tend to be heavily influenced by culture. For example, pop culture influences tend to emphasize that attaining certain things, such as buying a home or having a high-paying job, will result in happiness.

The realities of what actually contributes to happiness are often much more complex and more highly individualized.2 People have long believed that happiness and health are connected, and research has supported the idea that happiness can play a role in both physical and mental health.

As a general rule with some exceptions; when we continually suppress our emotions, not only do they not just go away, they can even grow stronger and fester in our bodies and mind. The saying goes, "what you resist persists." Ignoring emotion is thus like tuning out essential signals to and from our body and brain, obstructing your success and ability to understand, take care of yourself, and act wisely and intentionally. This is why perhaps one of the most important findings in psychotherapy over the last 40 years has been the importance of emotion in the healing process: the most powerful and transformative moments in therapy sessions are often when a client is feeling the most.

Meditate on these four phases:

♤I am sorry, 

♧please forgive me,

◇thank you, 

♡I love you 

"Love is the dove 🕊 of peace, the spirit of brotherhood, it is tenderness and compassion, forgiveness and tolerance." 

冥想这四个阶段：Míng-xiǎng zhè sì gè jiē-duàn:

♤我很抱歉，Wǒ hěn bào-qiàn,

♧请原谅我，qǐng yuán-liàng wǒ,

◇谢谢你，xiè-xiè nǐ,

♡我爱你 ♡wǒ ài nǐ

“爱是和平的鸽子🕊，是兄弟情谊的精神，是温柔和同情，是宽恕和宽容。” “Ài shì hépíng de gēzi 🕊, shì xiōngdì qíngyì de jīngshén, shì wēnróu hé tóngqíng, shì kuānshù hé kuānróng.”

Renungkan empat fasa ini:

 ♤Saya minta maaf, 

 ♧tolong maafkan saya,

 ◇terima kasih, 

 ♡Saya sayang awak 

"Cinta adalah merpati 🕊 kedamaian, semangat persaudaraan, ia adalah kelembutan dan belas kasihan, pengampunan dan toleransi."

Français: Méditez sur ces quatre phases :

♤Je suis désolé, 

♧Pardonne-moi, 

◇Merci, 

♡Je t'aime 

« L’amour est la colombe 🕊 de la paix, l’esprit de fraternité, il est tendresse et compassion, pardon et tolérance. »

Happiness has been linked to a variety of outcomes including increased longevity and greater marital satisfaction. Conversely, unhappiness has been linked to a variety of poor health outcomes and challenges in relationships.

So the next time you're feeling a strong emotion about something, when it’s safe to do so, either alone or with a safe person, I'd invite you to resist the urge to bottle it up, and instead acknowledge your feelings. Use the mantra above. This, over time, can make it easier to identify them in your mind to yourself, verbally or in writing, and let them out in a healthy way. A “healthy” way can mean in a supportive or therapeutic group format, cardio or anaerobic exercise, meditation, journaling, and reaching out to your social supports, among many other options. This will help you understand yourself better, especially the challenges you are facing and the potential solutions needed. It will also help you in your relationships, as strong, close relationships are built on sharing vulnerable emotions. Luckily emotions are a skill you can learn and it's never too late. What skills have you recently surprised yourself by learning? Cooking? Learning a language? A video game? Identifying, processing, and sharing our emotions is similar.

Stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness, for example, have been linked to things such as lowered immunity, increased inflammation, and decreased life expectancy.

Sadness 😔 😟 🙁 😥 😞 😿 

Sadness is another type of emotion often defined as a transient emotional state characterized by feelings of disappointment, grief, hopelessness, disinterest, and dampened mood. 

Like other emotions, sadness is something that all people experience from time to time. In some cases, people can experience prolonged and severe periods of sadness that can turn into depression. Sadness can be expressed in a number of ways, including:

■Crying

■Dampened mood

■Lethargy

■Quietness

■Withdrawal from others

The type and severity of sadness can vary depending upon the root cause, and how people cope with such feelings can also differ.

Sadness can often lead people to engage in coping mechanisms such as avoiding other people, self-medicating, and ruminating on negative thoughts. Such behaviors can actually exacerbate feelings of sadness and prolong the duration of the emotion.

Fear 😨 😟 😱 🙀 

Fear is a powerful emotion that can also play an important role in survival. When you face some sort of danger and experience fear, you go through what is known as the fight or flight response.

Your muscles become tense, your heart rate and respiration increase, and your mind becomes more alert, priming your body to either run from the danger or stand and fight.

This response helps ensure that you are prepared to deal with threats in your environment effectively. Expressions of this type of emotion can include:

●Facial expressions: such as widening the eyes and pulling back the chin

●Body language: attempts to hide or flee from the threat

●Physiological reactions: such as rapid breathing and heartbeat

Of course, not everyone experiences fear in the same way. Some people may be more sensitive to fear, and certain situations or objects may be more likely to trigger this emotion.

Fear is the emotional response to an immediate threat. We can also develop a similar reaction to anticipated threats or even our thoughts about potential dangers, and this is what we generally think of as anxiety. Social anxiety, for example, involves an anticipated fear of social situations.

Some people, on the other hand, actually seek out fear-provoking situations. Extreme sports and other thrills can be fear-inducing, but some people seem to thrive and even enjoy such feelings.

Repeated exposure to a feared object or situation can lead to familiarity and acclimation, which can reduce feelings of fear and anxiety.

This is the idea behind exposure therapy, in which people are gradually exposed to the things that frighten them in a controlled and safe manner. Eventually, feelings of fear begin to decrease.

Disgust 😬 🫣 😝 🤢 😫 

Disgust is another of the original six basic emotions described by Eckman. Disgust can be displayed in a number of ways including:

●Body language: turning away from the object of disgust

●Physical reactions: such as vomiting or retching

●Facial expressions: such as wrinkling the nose and curling the upper lip

This sense of revulsion can originate from a number of things, including an unpleasant taste, sight, or smell. Researchers believe that this emotion evolved as a reaction to foods that might be harmful or fatal. When people smell or taste foods that have gone bad, for example, disgust is a typical reaction.

Poor hygiene, infection, blood, rot, and death can also trigger a disgust response. This may be the body's way of avoiding things that may carry transmittable diseases.

People can also experience moral disgust when they observe others engaging in behaviors that they find distasteful, immoral, or evil.

Anger 🤬 🗯 😡 👿 😠 😤 

Anger can be a particularly powerful emotion characterized by hostility, agitation, frustration, and antagonism toward others. Like fear, anger can affect the body's fight-or-flight response.

When a threat generates feelings of anger, you may be inclined to fend off the danger and protect yourself. Anger is often displayed through:

●Facial expressions: such as frowning or glaring

●Body language: such as taking a strong stance or turning away

●Tone of voice: such as speaking gruffly or yelling

●Physiological responses: such as sweating or turning red

●Aggressive behaviors: such as hitting, kicking, or throwing objects

While anger is often thought of as a negative emotion, it can sometimes be a good thing. It can be constructive in helping clarify your needs in a relationship, and it can also motivate you to take action and find solutions to things that are bothering you.

However, anger can become a problem when it is excessive or expressed in unhealthy, dangerous, or harmful ways. Uncontrolled anger can quickly turn to aggression, abuse, or violence.

Anger Issues: Take the Test

This type of emotion can have both mental and physical consequences. Unchecked anger can make it difficult to make rational decisions and can even have an impact on your physical health.8

Anger has been linked to coronary heart diseases and diabetes. It has also been linked to behaviors that pose health risks such as aggressive driving, alcohol consumption, and smoking.

Surprise 😮 🫢 😲 

Surprise is another of Eckman's six basic types of human emotions. It is usually quite brief and characterized by a physiological startle response following something unexpected.

This type of emotion can be positive, negative, or neutral. An unpleasant surprise, for example, might involve someone jumping out from behind a tree and scaring you as you walk to your car at night.

An example of a pleasant surprise would be arriving home to find that your closest friends have gathered to celebrate your birthday. Surprise is often characterized by:

●Facial expressions: such as raising the brows, widening the eyes, and opening the mouth

●Physical responses: such as jumping back

●Verbal reactions: such as yelling, screaming, or gasping

Surprise is another type of emotion that can trigger the fight or flight response. When startled, people may experience a burst of adrenaline that helps prepare the body to either fight or flee.

Surprise can have important effects on human behavior. For example, research has shown that people tend to disproportionately notice surprising events.

This is why surprising and unusual events in the news tend to stand out in memory more than others. Research has also found that people tend to be more swayed by surprising arguments and learn more from surprising information.

Other Types of Emotions

The six basic emotions described by Eckman are just a portion of the many different types of emotions that people are capable of experiencing. Eckman's theory suggests that these core emotions are universal throughout cultures all over the world.

However, other theories and new research continue to explore the many different types of emotions and how they are classified. Eckman later added a number of other emotions to his list but suggested that, unlike his original six emotions, not all of these could necessarily be encoded through facial expressions. Some of the emotions he later identified included:

●Amusement 

●Contempt

● Contentment 

● Embarrassment 😳 🫠 🤦 😑 😕 😪 

● Excitement 

● Guilt 😔 😭 😦 😢 🙁 ☹️ 

●Pride in achievement

●Relief

●Satisfaction

●Shame

Other theories of emotion

As with many concepts in psychology, not all theorists agree on how to classify emotions or what the basic emotions actually are. While Eckman's theory is one of the best-known, other theorists have proposed their own ideas about what emotions make up the core of the human experience.

For example, some researchers have suggested that there are only two or three basic emotions. Others have suggested that emotions exist in a hierarchy. Primary emotions such as love, joy, surprise, anger, and sadness can then be further broken down into secondary emotions. Love, for example, consists of secondary emotions, such as affection and longing.

These secondary emotions might then be broken down still further into what are known as tertiary emotions. The secondary emotion of affection includes tertiary emotions, such as liking, caring, compassion, and tenderness.

A more recent study suggests that there are at least 27 distinct emotions, all of which are highly interconnected.11 After analyzing the responses of more than 800 men to more than 2,000 video clips, researchers created an interactive map to demonstrate how these emotions are related to one another.

“We found that 27 distinct dimensions, not six, were necessary to account for the way hundreds of people reliably reported feeling in response to each video,” explained the senior researcher Dacher Keltner, faculty co-director of the Greater Good Science Center.

In other words, emotions are not states that occur in isolation. Instead, the study suggests that there are gradients of emotion and that these different feelings are deeply inter-related.

Alan Cowen, the study's lead author and former doctoral student in neuroscience at UC Berkeley, suggests that better clarifying the nature of our emotions can help scientists, psychologists, and physicians learn more about how emotions underlie brain activity, behavior, and mood. By building a better understanding of these states, he hopes that researchers can develop improved treatments for psychiatric conditions.

Final Thoughts

Emotions play a critical role in how we live our lives, from influencing how we engage with others in our day to day lives to affecting the decisions we make. By understanding some of the different types of emotions, you can gain a deeper understanding of how these emotions are expressed and the impact they have on your behavior.

It is important to remember, however, that no emotion is an island. Instead, the many emotions you experience are nuanced and complex, working together to create the rich and varied fabric of your emotional life.