Emotions are almost the most important thing in a person and inherent only to him. It is a mental state associated with the nervous system, caused by chemical changes that are variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses and degrees of pleasure or displeasure.
There is currently no precise scientific definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, character and motivation. They add color to our lives, describing feelings of sadness, joy, loneliness, fun and others.
What are emotions - definition and meaning
Human emotions are a mental process that arises in accordance with current situations.
The manifestation of emotions can be of different directions, and have both negative and positive connotations. This depends on the subjective evaluative opinion of each person. In simple language, emotions can be called the possibility of manifestation of experiences in the soul due to any situation. Translated from Latin, this word means “wave” or “shock.”
Thus, this is a certain process in which a person is not in a neutral state: he evaluates the situation with a certain sense of experience.
This condition overtakes a person from the inside. Externally the following signs appear:
- facial expressions;
- gestures and body position;
- voice;
- general behavior.
For example, you slipped on the street. In such a situation, many thoughts instantly arise in a person’s head: “How slippery! Now my leg hurts! You'll have to go to the emergency room.
Why do I even live in a country where there is winter?!” After assessing what happened, you will have a choice: silently keep your resentment and irritation to yourself, or lash out at some person, and it doesn’t matter whether you know him or not. Thanks to emotions, something special appears in our lives, motivating us to live.
Gray everyday life is brightened up with various feelings. Emotions help us live. Without them, human life would be like a robot's existence. Feelings are what distinguishes us from other creatures and objects.
Reasons for falling into prostration
What leads to a state of prostration:
- chronic lack of sleep – the body does not have time to recover and fails;
- starvation – lack of nutrients;
- physical overexertion – excessive energy consumption;
- high mental stress (long-term work with your head for wear and tear);
- long stay in a stressful situation, nervous exhaustion (divorce, loss of a loved one, troubles at work and other emotional shocks);
- long-term fight against the disease (for example, severe infections, poisoning).
Also, these reasons can lead a person to a nervous breakdown or depression, the treatment of which requires the intervention of specialists.
In fact, prostration is a protective reaction of the body , which turns on when a person’s strength (physical and mental) is running low. Nature is very wise: in order to survive, you need to stop energy consumption or reduce it to a minimum.
For clarity : imagine that you have 10% charge left on your phone. To keep it in working condition for as long as possible, you need to close all applications, set the backlight to minimum, and enable the energy-saving function.
If all this is not done, the gadget will quickly turn off. The measures taken will increase the time you use the device.
So it is with the body. While a person is in prostration, his strength is spent only on maintaining the functioning of vital organs. At this time, it is necessary to replenish lost resources .
The body takes on part of this task - fortunately, it is capable of self-healing. The responsibility for the other part lies with the person himself. Read about it below.
Emotions and feelings are different from each other
Emotions and feelings are an integral part of personality.
Thanks to emotions, people can distinguish good from bad and create amazing pictures, songs, or stories. Emotional richness makes our lives varied and interesting. Without emotions and feelings, a person will not be able to love and regret. All our feelings and emotions can sometimes cause the desire to act irrationally. Very often, feelings and emotions are used interchangeably. This is partly true, but there are some differences between these definitions:
- Emotions tend to last a short amount of time. For example, you bought a car that you have been wanting to buy for a long time. You will be happy for a while. Perhaps even the whole day. But gradually the emotion will subside, and you will begin to use your imagination and dream about something else. If it concerns a negative key, for example, if someone steps on your foot, you will become angry, but you will soon be able to forget about this incident, since there is no serious threat to your health;
- Feelings are long-term. They are also called emotions that arise in a person over a long period of time. For example, you can show the emotion of love for your child from the moment he is born. Or spend your entire life being angry at the person who broke your heart. In these cases, love and anger have been present in a person’s life for a very long time, this fact makes them feelings.
Emotions can become feelings. If we talk about the spectrum of positive emotions, then there is nothing bad. Chronic joy is not a disease. However, when people keep negative images within themselves for a long time, they begin to destroy themselves from the inside, which is very harmful to the spiritual and physical state of a person.
This can lead to apathy and depression. This happens due to the fact that at some point in time we did not allow the emotion to come out. For example, if a person at school age was offended by a classmate and he could not do anything to him, in the depths of his soul, unexpressed emotions will be deposited. They will make him remember this situation again and again in his thoughts, and he will become more irritated.
Don't keep all your emotions inside. Everything you feel has strong energy that can harm your health. To prevent this from happening, you need to show your emotions. When expressing your feelings, remember that your actions may harm your loved ones or people around you, so try to respond to situations within the bounds of accepted decency
Emotions must be brought out and not kept inside, because negative emotions can significantly ruin a person’s life. Negative emotions that a person experiences for a long time can provoke a depressive state. A strong blow to the nervous system will cause great damage to health and cause emotional instability.
Emotional manifestations and their varieties
All emotional manifestations, according to duration and intensity, are divided into affects, emotions themselves, feelings, mood and stress.
All emotional states are transitory. But typical conditions occur in humans quite often and are accompanied by manifestations characteristic of the individual.
Affective state and affect.
The affective state is expressed in gradually increasing emotional tension. An affective state always has some kind of completion.
Affect is an intense, violent and short-term emotional outburst. Affects include intense anger, rage, horror, intense joy, deep grief, and despair. This emotional reaction completely captures the human psyche.
Affect is the most powerful emotional response. It completely captures the human psyche, predetermining a single reaction to the situation as a whole. Distinctive features of affect: situational, generalized, high intensity, short duration.
Affect imposes on a person the need to perform some action, but at the same time the person loses his sense of reality. He loses control of himself and may not even be aware of what he is doing. It also happens that in a state of passion a person becomes numb, his movements and actions stop completely, he seems to be speechless.
Emotions. Emotions are longer lasting states. They also represent a reaction not only to current events, but also to probable and recalled ones. Emotions themselves are longer lasting states. They can be a reaction not only to accomplished events, but also to probable or remembered ones. Emotions reflect events in the form of a generalized subjective assessment and anticipate the result of an action.
Fundamental emotions include the following:
Joy is an emotion associated with the possibility of fully satisfying an urgent need.
Surprise is an emotional reaction to unexpected circumstances.
Suffering is a negative emotion associated with information received about the impossibility of satisfying the most important needs of life.
Anger is an emotional state caused by the sudden appearance of a serious obstacle to the satisfaction of an extremely important need.
Disgust is a negative emotion caused by objects, people, circumstances, contact with which comes into sharp conflict with the ideological, moral or aesthetic principles and attitudes of the subject.
Contempt is a negative emotion that arises in interpersonal relationships. It is generated by a mismatch in the life positions, views and behavior of interacting people.
Fear is a negative emotion that appears when a person receives information about a real danger.
Shame is a negative emotion. It arises when one realizes that one’s own thoughts, actions and appearance do not correspond to the expectations of others, as well as one’s own ideas about appropriate behavior and appearance.
Mood . Mood is a more or less long-lasting and stable emotional state that colors all other experiences and activities of a person. Mood is the longest lasting emotional state that colors all human behavior.
Long-term moods can color a person's behavior for days or even weeks.
Mood always has a reason. It can be the surrounding nature, events, people, activities performed, health status. However, these reasons are not always realized. It’s not for nothing that they talk about unaccountable sadness and causeless joy.
Stress. Stress is an emotional state that is caused by an unexpected and stressful environment. Stress is an emotional state caused by an unexpected and stressful environment. An organism in this state is characterized by a complex of reactions to adapt to new conditions:
Stress has the following stages:
– alarm phase (mobilization of the body’s defenses, increasing its stability);
– stabilization phase (at the onset of adaptation);
– exhaustion phase
1) anxiety reaction;
2) resistance;
3) exhaustion.
According to G. Selye (see “General Adaptation Syndrome”), stress is an integral part of human life; it cannot be avoided. For each person there is an optimal level of stress at which the greatest efficiency is achieved[7].
Frustration. Frustration is the collapse of hopes. Frustration occurs only when the degree of dissatisfaction is greater than what a person can bear.
Frustration occurs in conditions of negative social evaluation and self-esteem of the individual. Emotional natures that are not hardened in the “battles of life”, poorly prepared for adversity and difficulties, and with underdeveloped strong-willed character traits are more susceptible to frustration. Spoiled children, for example, often experience frustration when faced with restrictions.
In a state of frustration, a person experiences a particularly strong neuropsychic shock. It reveals itself as extreme annoyance, embitterment, depression, complete indifference to the environment, unlimited self-flagellation.
If excessive tension cannot end in discharge, then frustration occurs in other inadequate conditions. Thus, irritability, annoyance, and anger can be discharged on completely innocent people, friends, comrades, family members.
Why do people need emotions (the main functions of emotions)
Signal. Perhaps the most important function. Its essence is to express a person’s desire. It helps to understand what a person wants at a given time. Thanks to it, a person can build his future steps.
Motivational-regulating. In many ways similar to the signal one. Its difference is that it helps to build a plan of steps for the long term, while the signal one helps to make a decision immediately in a stressful situation.
Communicative. Of course, emotions play an important role in communication. Thanks to them, we can see what mood our interlocutor is in. We will be able to clearly see emotions such as sadness or anger and, based on the information received, we will understand how to build communication.
Protective. In some situations, emotions can save us from any external influences. For example, fear and cowardice will take us away from a dangerous place and save our lives and nerve cells.
Emotions largely depend on the person and his thoughts. If he thinks about positive things, then he will not be tormented by negative feelings. And if a person is fixated on the bad, then he will perceive everything bad that happens around him personally.
What can be done additionally and in parallel:
- Change your image: dye your hair, get a new hairstyle, change your wardrobe. Choose one thing yourself or all at once.
- Go on a trip. You don't have to buy a ticket to another country; you can start exploring your city.
- Get a pet, at least a fish. The need to take care of someone is a good way to get out of a state of prostration. Again, no one can cancel the positive emotions from communicating with animals.
- Change something in the apartment. You don’t have enough energy for a full renovation; it’s better to do something small: hang beautiful photographs, print out your photo album, replace the curtains.
Why do people experience emotions?
Emotions arise spontaneously, but certain factors are necessary for their occurrence.
For example, if a person is in great pain, then you can see the corresponding facial expressions on his face, and he may also scream. Each person has his own emotional threshold of sensitivity. Therefore, each person reacts differently to the same situations. We probably have emotions because they help us survive. But they can also drive us crazy when they control us too much.
There is another reason why we have developed emotions. It lies in the fact that emotions help build relationships and connect communities of people. We would not be able to coordinate our goals so well if we did not love, fear, trust, and have a sense of pride.
A person is predisposed to experience certain feelings that are necessary not only for survival and relationship building, but also for everyday life. Without emotions we would live like robots. Work would be monotonous, like all of life. Emotions color our world.
What types of emotions are there?
There are a large number of emotions, thanks to which we have the opportunity to better perceive our world. Until recently, scientists believed that there were only 7 basic feelings. However, recent studies have proven that there are many times more emotions, about 27.
Globally they are divided into three parts: positive, neutral and negative. According to the degree of manifestation, they can be sthenic (manifest very actively) and non-sthenic (almost not manifest).
Despite the fact that in the global sense there are only 3, there are many more subtypes:
- Basic. These emotions are inherent to every person. They do not depend on gender, age, nationality. Everyone knows how to be sad and happy;
- Variable. Due to territorial characteristics;
- Congenital. Emotions we are born with. For example, fear of heights;
- Purchased. Emotions that we acquire throughout life. For example, after a car accident, people may become afraid to drive private vehicles;
- Elementary. Neutral. Mainly emotions of calm;
- Composite. They are a combination of elementary;
- Natural. Inherent in man by nature
- Cultural. Emotions received in the process of learning from their parents or mentors;
- Cognitively simple. We experience such emotions as a result of instant reactions to any stimulus;
- Cognitively challenging. Unlike cognitively simple ones, such emotions are born after a deep understanding of what happened.
Thanks to the expanded classification system of our functions, we have many possibilities for expressing emotionality.
Positive emotions
As mentioned above, emotions can be negative and positive. Most people like to feel good, and positive emotions help us feel uplifted and more comfortable. Positive emotions usually do not need a reason; we feel them involuntarily.
Experiencing emotions such as happiness, excitement, joy, hope and inspiration are vital for anyone who wants to lead a happy and healthy life. Luckily, you don't have to experience them all the time to reap the benefits of positive emotions.
These moments, often fleeting, can be what make your life better and brighter. Beyond just feeling good, positive emotions are also an important part of happiness. Moreover, happy people live longer and work better.
Negative emotions
Negative emotion or affect is the experience of negative emotions such as anger, frustration, guilt, nervousness and fear. Causing negative emotions in your friends when they are enraged by your behavior is one of the ways to make them angry.
Therefore, it is important to learn how to prevent negative influences from affecting you and instead create positive emotions. To do this, it is enough not to be an irritant to other people and to behave correctly in certain situations. It is important to understand how much your behavior will be accepted by society at the right time.
A person can mask his emotions depending on the situation in which he finds himself. In our society, many emotions are considered to be a sign of weakness, therefore, people often hide their emotional experiences and try to smile in those moments when there is no joy in their souls
Treatment methods
In the fight against prostration, the main method will be general strengthening of the entire body. You should also conduct a diagnosis to rule out the presence of other diseases that contribute to fatigue and loss of strength. An obligatory step will be taking vitamin complexes that fill all the cells of the body with energy and health. During the day, it is necessary to control the amount of drink, as a lack of it dehydrates the body. Walking in the fresh air and light exercise will help here. In addition to vitamins, it is recommended to take eleutherococcus tincture; it can improve the general condition of the body, add energy and strength.
Getting enough sleep will help you get out of this state. Meditation will be effective in combating prostration; it will help restore clarity to the head and vital energy to the body. Positive emotions will be an important element in treatment; they are the most effective means of bringing a person out of this so-called period of oblivion. Also, try to accept the state of prostration as some kind of stage in your life, which will become a useful reboot for the body. In prolonged and severe cases, you should consult a psychologist or psychotherapist to avoid recurring states of depression and loss of strength.
List of all emotions (most common)
Among all known human emotions, the most powerful are the emotions from the list below:
- Anger. Has anyone ever told you not to do what you want? How are you feeling? Is your blood starting to boil, is your temperature rising? This is usually how anger is described. Your body reacts to something that is not happening your way, and this is an attempt to correct the situation;
- Sadness. If you miss a deadline, get a bad grade, or don't complete work, you'll probably feel upset. Sadness happens when we are unhappy with ourselves, our accomplishments, or the behavior of someone else around us. Sadness can be a healthy experience because it indicates that we are passionate about something. It can be a great catalyst for achieving change;
- Joy is a feeling of delight, happiness, and perhaps even euphoria, often experienced as a sudden surge due to something good;
- Hope is a feeling of optimism and anticipation of a positive future;
- Pride is a feeling of self-approval and pleasure in an achievement or skill.
To prevent your emotional state from harming you and your environment, you need to learn to control your feelings and emotions. Despite the fact that emotions arise on their own, it is quite possible to curb them. In any current situation, you need to look at the circumstances soberly in order to prevent bad consequences.
A list of a person’s emotions and feelings will help you understand your inner state. Using this table, you can divide our emotions into certain groups in order to understand your inner world more deeply and stop in time if the situation gets out of control.
How to learn to control your emotions
To avoid an outburst of emotions, it is worth taking a few simple steps to calm your agitated spirit and restless mind. When the situation passes, believe me, you will thank yourself for being able to keep your emotions in check and become your own boss.
Fully managing yourself emotionally requires mental discipline and sacrifice. For those who are primarily familiar with their sentimental experience, managing emotions can be one of the most difficult aspects of life.
Having a reliable method in your arsenal is a game changer. We are going to share a technique that many famous people use to constantly monitor their condition and free their mind from constant indulgence in the vast emotional palette offered to us all.
Everyone experiences negative and unproductive thoughts, and most of us can remember ones that have left us confused, wondering what alternate universe or reality they came from.
You can't always control the crazy things that come into your head, but you can control how long that thought stays constant, whether you allow it to take root, influence your feelings, and ultimately dictate your actions. Although you cannot have absolute control over your feelings, you can control some of them through closed action.
The path of closed action is a phenomenon in which a person suppresses feelings within himself for a certain period of time. For example, it is better to contain your anger if you are sitting in your boss’s office.
Depending on what emotions a person experiences. Internal energy in the body is concentrated in the form shown in the figure. Understanding this, you can direct the flow of this energetic charge in the right direction and learn to control yourself in any situation
How to express emotions
Many people find it difficult to express their emotions. Some people overexpress how they feel, while others don't share at all. Knowing how to accurately express your emotions will help you in your personal, social, and professional life. There are many theories and techniques that teach how to suppress or control emotions. This approach has been proven to not actually be effective.
Emotions and feelings are spontaneous and automatic, and must be felt and expressed. It has been scientifically proven that avoiding and suppressing them can have negative psychological consequences. Modern therapies such as acceptance, commitment and other techniques such as mindfulness can help you accept your feelings and learn how to restore them.
Your emotions are a part of you and need to be taken care of. To express emotions correctly, you must understand the situation you are in.
You need to learn to recognize feelings. You need to see the line between places where you can behave without restrictions, and where you definitely need to control yourself.
It is worth paying special attention to your inner state. To act and react correctly in certain situations, you must always be calm. If you are confused, then most likely the situation you are in will very quickly get out of control
Methods of healing
In the fight against prostration, the main way will be general strengthening of the whole body. You should also conduct a diagnosis to rule out the presence of other diseases that contribute to lethargy and loss of strength. An inevitable step will be to take vitamin complexes that fill all the cells of the body with energy and health. During the day, you need to control the amount you drink, because a lack of it dehydrates the body. Walking in the fresh air and light physical exercise will help here. In addition to vitamins, it is recommended to take eleutherococcus tincture; it can improve the general condition of the body, add energy and strength. Getting enough sleep will help you get out of this state. Meditation will be effective in combating prostration; it will help restore clarity to the head and vital energy to the body. Positive emotions will be a fundamental element in treatment; they are the most effective means to bring a person out of this so-called period of oblivion. And also try to accept the state of prostration as a certain step in your own life, which will be a useful reboot for the body. In protracted and difficult cases, you should consult a psychologist or psychoanalyst to avoid cyclical states of suppression and loss of strength.
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Benefits and harms of emotional state
Sometimes an emotional state can lead to a real disaster. This happens because there is always a need for a balance between negative and positive emotions. If you are too happy, almost to the point of euphoria, you will not be able to concentrate on work or school and will subsequently produce poor results.
This fact is called compensation. We also get harm from negative feelings; we can be sad for so long that we become depressed. We can also benefit from our emotional state. Thanks to some facts that please us, we feel more confident and courageous.
You should take your ability to control your own emotional state very seriously. After all, it has long been proven that oversaturated emotions can cause serious illnesses
Damage to the integrity of your energy shell opens up the possibility of many mental and physical illnesses. In the early stages of this gap, you can correct this situation without much difficulty.
You can seek advice from healers who will explain your problem and help prevent further destruction of the energy shell.
Summarizing
So, emotions are an important chemical process inside the human brain that regulates the psychological part of his life.
Feelings help us respond to any stimuli from the outside world. As a rule, they are accompanied by some changes in the body. They are divided into several types and have many functions. They brighten up our lives and, without any doubt, are our internal guidelines that help us choose the right step in any situation.
People need to be sure to respect their emotions and not keep them inside, as this can be dangerous due to the possibility of falling into depression and other mental illnesses.
Prostration - what is it?
Prostration can be described as a state of exhaustion of the body, loss of strength and depression, absent-mindedness and helplessness. A person can stay in it for several days or for many months. This is a numbness that covers the entire body, and a certain inhibition of speech, thoughts, movements appears, and the reaction to various external stimuli decreases. A person in a state of prostration is not interested in anything, does not excite or makes him happy. He does not care. This is when your gaze is directed at one point, when you look for five minutes and realize that several hours have passed, this is a state of not feeling time. A period of relaxation and helplessness, when the head is filled with fog and there is some kind of veil before the eyes.
Some compare this deviation with depression, but this is not true. Depression and prostration are completely different things. What is it then? Prostration can be called, rather, not a state of melancholy, but exhaustion, some kind of muffledness. Many people wonder why it occurs? Most likely, prostration can be considered a natural defense of the body; it seems to switch all its functions to an economical energy mode.
