Emotions

What are emotions: – the dictionary informs us that they are

1. A strong feeling deriving from your circumstances, mood, or relationships with others, e.g. “she was trying to control her emotions”
2. Emotions are also instinctive or intuitive feelings distinguished from reasoning or knowledge e.g. “responses have to be based on historical insight, not simply on emotion.”

Essentially emotions are messages from our brains telling us that it has detected a thread or reward. However, what makes this more complex than it sounds is that your brain doesn’t know the difference between something that is happening in real life or in your imagination. It’s easy to let big emotions influence our reality and when that happens, we can lose perspective on what is actually real.

There are five categories of emotions.

1. Enjoyment/joy
2. Sadness
3. Fear
4. Anger
5. Disgust

In 2015 Pixar Animation Studios produced a 3D computer-animated comedy film called ‘Inside Out’ which was set inside the mind of an American girl named Riley; whose basic emotions controlled her actions—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger. Her experiences become memories, stored as coloured orbs, which are sent into long-term memory each night. (its worth a watch; really!)

Whilst that might sound a bit far-fetched our emotions do originate in the neocortical regions of the brain. Our feelings are sparked by emotions which are shaped by our personal experiences, beliefs, memories, and thoughts linked to that particular emotion.

It’s important to recognise that emotions come and go. Some may last a few seconds, other may hang around and influence your mood. Emotions can be mild, overwhelming or anywhere in between. There are no good or bad emotions, they are all valid and tell us something about our world.

Sometimes we might push away those big or intense emotions, as they can feel scary or overwhelming. Even ‘good’ emotions linked to love or joy can be overwhelming sometimes. It’s a real skill to understand our emotions, and with practice we can learn to identify what we feel and put it into words. With time and practice we get better as knowing what we are feeling and why. This is sometimes called emotional awareness.

Emotional awareness helps us know what we want or need and even what we don’t want or need in our lives. It helps us build better relationships; because being aware of our emotions can help us talk about feelings more confidently, avoid or resolve conflicts and move past difficulty feelings more easily.

There is a technique called ‘riding the wave’ that might help. Riding the wave can help us feel more comfortable with happening inside our bodies.

Ride the wave

How do we ‘ride the wave’ when emotions threaten to overwhelm you?’

• Pay attention to your breath and consciously make it slower and deeper.
• Relax your body, letting the muscles release from head to toes.
• Tune in to the feelings you are experiencing in your body and your mind.
• Observe what you are feeling without judging yourself and be kind.
• Continue to let the feelings be there without pushing them away, as the wave recedes.

Meditation

The ability to ride the wave can quiet our mind; a bit like meditation does. Many of our distractions include meditation activities because re-search has suggested that meditation includes the following benefits.

• Reduces “wandering mind,” which is associated with unhappi-ness.
• Increases empathy.
• Improves concentration and attention.
• Enhances areas of the brain associated with well-being, self-regulation, and learning.
• Decreases the volume of the amygdala, which is responsible for fear, anxiety, and stress (see the brain section).

Get artistic

Getting artistic is another way to release and manage emotions. When it is difficult to talk about what is going on for you, it can be helpful to find other ways to let out what you are feeling. Being completely en-grossed in a creative project or task, changes our brain waves to those that are associated with rest and relaxation (they are called alpha waves). This can alter our mood and help us

Feel happier

• Have higher self-esteem
• Have greater optimism
• Increased concentration skills
• Decreased focus on disturbing thoughts
• Have have better coping skills
• Learning how to express your emotions in safe and acceptable way is a real skill and takes practice. And this is built upon the foundation of being able to understand emotions.

Ride that wave, get creative, trust yourself enough to meditate and relax. You’ve got this!