Understanding Emotions
Human emotions have always been a subject of deep curiosity for many-from laypeople to professionals working around the human mind.
A human’s curiosity is keen to know the origin of these emotions and the level to which they are affected by everything external — words, actions, or circumstances. Another question that comes to mind is when do human beings start feeling emotions. The answer pretty much lies in the time when one becomes aware of their existence as a human.
Dr Alan Watkins, in his TED talk, ‘Why you feel what you feel,’ explains this scenario through a simple example of a two-year-old crying for food when hungry. The moment the kid knows that no one else is crying with him, he realises that he is different from everybody else physically and emotionally.
Feeling the Emotions or Feeling vs Emotions
In this talk, he draws a parallel between feelings and emotions and how they are different yet connected by their occurrence. Emotions are simply energy in motion. They are composite biological signals such as a faster heartbeat or sweaty palms. Thus their origin is within our bodies, and so they stay with us every moment.
Feelings, however, are different from emotions. They are said to be the awareness of the energy causing the emotions. In other words, feelings are caused when we know in our mind about the emotion running at the moment. Hence we do not always feel an emotion; we feel it when we are aware of it. Another essential concern is the external world and its effects on our emotions. But does it cause them and trigger our feelings?
If emotions are inside us and with us every moment, the external world does not cause it. But there are certain things, people, or experiences that make us happy or sad or angry or frustrated; what about them? Well, the environment surrounding us stimulates those biological signals, but we feel the emotions as a reaction to the stimulus. Hence we cause them.
Knowing Ourselves through the Lens of Emotions
Thinking about the varied feelings we have daily as human beings — happiness, anger, sadness, anxiety, worry, or possibly any other feeling existing in our parallel realities, these feelings occur when we realise the existence of emotion because of something internal or external. If this holds, the idea that someone can make us happy or sad may need a second thought.
Understanding emotions and why we feel them makes it necessary to look at ourselves through their lens. Human beings juggle a lot of emotions for a significant part of their lives. Some dig deeper to understand if they can control them. It may not be a rosy path, but initiating the first step towards understanding them as a part of oneself is the way towards a healthier thought process.
To practice control over them, it is necessary to own them. With ownership comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes awareness of the power these emotions have to change our lives. If one knows that the reason behind a sudden feeling of anger is not the action but the reaction to it, the thoughts running in the mind can be channelised in a healthier direction benefitting the surroundings and oneself.
Owning our Emotions- a Possibility
A person may stop feeling certain things at times for multiple reasons, be it a painful external situation or a troubled heart or mind. However, emotions are always there throughout one’s life. As and when we get closer to our being and start understanding ourselves, it is not difficult to understand the emotions and process them. Thus owning our emotions is possible, so is controlling them to a reasonable extent.
When this happens, we can choose our feelings and regulate an extreme situation’s effects on our lives. Our thoughts and actions are driven by the way we feel about ourselves and the world at large. They significantly define our mental health and well-being. Hence maintaining a healthy mind is not that difficult. It needs awareness about ourselves and our emotions.
Thinking about the central question again — why do we feel what we feel? Because we let ourselves feel what we feel. Suppose we shoulder the responsibility of knowing our emotions and understanding our feelings as a reaction to an action. In that case, we may not again stay in the loop of sadness or rely on anyone but ourselves for our happiness. We might also reach the control stage, where things that should not affect will not affect our lives. When the time comes, we may as well become masters of our emotions and build a healthier mind — aware, alert, and known to us throughout.
In-mind
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This article was edited by Atotmyr.