How to Understand Your Own Emotions and Feelings.

Emotions and feelings play a critical role in how we live our lives, from influencing how we engage with others in our day to day activities 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.

Feelings

You may have experienced both emotional and physical sensations. For example, we may feel cold because of the weather and in the same way we may emotionally feel cold too. It is something that we sense when we are hungry or thirsty.

“Feelings are mental experiences of body states, which arise as the brain interprets emotions, themselves physical states arising from the body’s responses to external stimuli. (The order of such events is: I am threatened, experience fear, and feel horror.) – Antonio Damasio Neuroscience Professor at The University of California”

Emotions

You can feel emotions through emotional experiences in your life. Emotions are touched with thoughts, actions, experiences, desires, and beliefs.

“Emotions play out in the theater of the body. Feelings play out in the theater of the mind- Dr.Sarah Mckay Neuroscientist & Author”

There are different types of emotions that are depending on the way we interact or have an impact on any situation. Hence, many times we may think that we are ruled by emotions and feelings. It is because the experiences we have, the choices we make, or actions we take, every single step have emotions involved in them.

Psychologists have also tried to understand kinds of emotions, therefore in 1970, a psychologist Paul Eckma observed 6 types of basic emotions that are experienced by humans and they are,

1. Happiness - Happiness has been linked to a variety of outcomes including increased longevity and increased marital satisfaction. Conversely, unhappiness has been linked to a variety of poor health outcomes
2. Anger - Anger is considered as a negative and powerful emotion both. It is differentiated as a different type of feeling antagonism, agitation, hostility and frustration for others. Like fear, anger can play a part in your body's fight or flight response. when a threat generates feelings of anger, you may be motivated to fend off the danger and protect yourself.
3. Sadness - Sadness can often lead people to engage in coping mechanisms such as avoiding other people, self-medicating, and focusing on negative thoughts. Such behaviors can actually intensify feelings of sadness and extend the duration of the emotion.
4. Disgust - 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. People can also experience moral disgust when they observe others engaging in behaviors that they find distasteful, immoral, or evil.
5. Surprise - 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. 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.
6. 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 effectively deal with threats in your environment.

Later, he added Excitement, Pride, Embarrassment, and Shame on the list of types of emotions.

Wheel of Emotions

Emotions can be combined to form different feelings, much like colors can be mixed to create other shades. This term is introduced by Psychologist Robert Plutchik, according to the wheel of emotion, all basic emotions are related to one other. You can also check which emotion can turn another one in a clear and easy way. You can also understand by combining which color will create shade, you may get confused between mixed or complex emotion for example joy and faith can conjoin to create love.

More about Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions.

• Primary: The primary level circle indicates the basic type of emotions: trust, surprise, joy, sadness, anticipation, disgust, surprise and anger.
• Opposites: Every primary emotion has a reverse emotion. Such as fear is reverse to anger, ecstasy is the opposite of grief, anticipation to surprise and so on.
• Combinations: As you can see the faded petals [no color] it represents combinations of two primary emotions. For example, disgust and remorse gives remorse, similarly joy and anticipation offers optimism.

Different Types of Emotions and How They Are Expressed:

• Anger: violence, hostility, resentment, wrath, irritability, fury, and outrage.
• Shame: regret, guilt, contrition, chagrin, remorse, and embarrassment.
• Sadness: depression, grief, melancholy, gloom, despair, sorrow, and loneliness.
• Disgust: scorn, contempt, distaste, disdain, revulsion, and aversion
• Fear: anxiety, fright, nervousness, dread, and panic.
• Surprise: wonder, amazement, astonishment, astound, and shock.
• Joy: enjoyment, thrill, delight, bliss, relief, pride, happiness, and ecstasy.
• Interest: devotion, acceptance, affection, trust, kindness, love, and friendliness.

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 something of a hierarchy. Primary emotions such as love, joy, surprise, anger, and sadness can then be further broken down into secondary emotions.

A more recent study suggests that there are at least 27 distinct emotions, all of which are highly interconnected.

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.