EMOTIONS MATTER MUCH MORE THAN YOU THINK

ABSTRACT

The article reveals the essence of various terms, such as "emotions", "emotional intelligence" and others. The terms will help to understand the "anatomy of emotions" in general. Various examples and arguments of famous authors will help to find out why we still need emotions, and how to control them. After analyzing the information, we realize how important emotions play in the life of each of us.

Keywords: emotions, the brain stem, neocortex, the almond body, emotional intelligence.

Introduction

What is important to understand by the term emotions? What are emotions for? How to control them correctly? Do emotions really play an important role in our lives?

Our life is in our hands. You and I must manage it properly, to achieve any purpose and, of course, to achieve our best life.

Emotions are an essential part of our life. Have you heard anything about emotional intelligence? No? Then this article will definitely be interesting and useful to you. Intrigued? So, the purpose of the research work is to understand the essence of emotions and the ability to manage them.

As you already understand, the article helps to know about your emotions more than you have known. You catch where they come from in each of us, how to learn how to apply and control them. Believe me, having studied and analyzed more specifically the above; you will be able to understand the real emotions of other people, just by feeling them.

I suggest you finally move from questions to answers. It is necessary to study, understand, analyze and draw the right conclusions, first of all for yourself and your better future life.

The main body

What is important to understand by the term emotions?

The root of the word "emotion" is the Latin verb "motere", which means to move and the prefix "-e" gives the meaning of outward orientation: to move, to remove.

In other words, emotions are mental processes or states of a person that occur in some significant situations, for instance, when you experience joy, pleasure, love, compassion or fear, anger, sadness.

Constantly, we experience various emotions in the form of reactions, and our feelings, passions and aspirations serve as the conductors of emotions. Did you get it?

In this case, it is necessary to realize that there are emotional and rational minds. As for thoughts, knowledge and reflections, we refer to the rational mind. But everything that concerns our feelings, desires and aspirations, we relate directly to the emotional mind.

In many or most moments these minds are exquisitely coordinated; Daniel Goleman writes: “Feelings are essential to thought, thought to feeling. But when passions surge the balance tips: it is the emotional mind that captures the upper hand, swamping the rational mind”.

Brain structure or “anatomy of emotions”

It is important to know that over millions of years of evolution, the human brain improved. And emotional centers have emerged from the most primitive part of the brain – the brainstem, which controls the main vital functions. Also there is a limbic system that encircles the brainstem. It is responsible for our emotions – passion, love, as well as memory and learning. Then several new layers of brain cells formed on top of the cerebral cortex – the neocortex was formed. Thanks to the neocortex, reflections on this feeling are added to the feeling. We acquire the ability to experience in connection with the perception of ideas, art, symbols and mental images. The neocortex allows for a refined and complex emotional life.

But pay attention, the main emotion specialist is the almond body. It plays a major role in the emotional brain. It is located above the brainstem near the lower part of the limbic ring. The work of the almond body and its interaction with the neocortex are the essence of the emotional mind. You haven't forgotten what the emotional mind is, have you?

So, there is an interesting fact, which proves that the absence of the almond body negatively affects our emotional mind. The young man had his almond body surgically removed. He lost interest in people and preferred to be alone. He remained indifferent to the experiences of his mother, close friends, and relatives. He has lost the ability to recognize feelings and any concept of feelings in general.

What are emotions for?

Emotions occur in the process of almost any human activity.

One study conducted by Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California, showed that people show more than 27 different emotions a day, and they are all connected to each other. That is, on average, at least once an hour, a person experiences a new feeling and, as a result, shows a certain emotion.

Daniel Goleman claims that feelings are necessary for making rational decisions; they point us in the right direction, where dispassionate logic can then be used in the best way.

And it is at this stage that we need to understand emotions are important for normal thinking. The thinking brain acts as the controller of our emotions, except for those moments when emotions get out of control and the emotional brain goes into a fury.

And of course it is necessary to touch upon such a concept as emotional intelligence. What do you think is hidden under it? These are the abilities of developing motivation to achieve a goal, despite failures and failures. Emotional intelligence is the ability to control your moods, as well as the ability to empathize and hope.

Unfortunately, in schools and universities we are taught only academic abilities, ignoring emotional intelligence.

For example, a guy from college got five excellent grades of 800 points for an academic aptitude test. Despite his colossal mental abilities, he spent most of his time constantly hanging out somewhere. It took him almost ten years to finally graduate. You can tell everything about your time but no.

Analyzing this example and based on many other studies of psychologists such as Gardner and his followers Sternberg and Salowe, and also on life experience, we can conclude that people who perfectly know their feelings and cope with them as well as comprehend and use the feelings of others, have superiority in every sphere of life.

How to control them?

Our feelings aren’t at all as obvious as we think at first glance. You need to learn to hear yourself, understand your desires, and then you will learn to understand your emotions and will directly feel and understand the emotions of your interlocutor. Only then will you learn to control your emotions, that is, it won’t be difficult for you to manage them.

So, three approaches to controlling your emotions:

- knowing themselves. These people have certain knowledge about their emotional life; they are autonomous and confident in their boundaries. Their attentiveness helps them cope with emotions;

- consumed by emotions. Emotions overwhelm, and these people are unable to get rid of them;

- accepting emotions as something inevitable. These people understand their moods and prefer it.

The following example is a clear fact that emotions can be controlled. Diana Roffe, who won a gold medal in skiing at the 1994 Olympic Games, said of her race that she remembers nothing but complete relaxation: "I felt like a waterfall." The girl got to know herself as much as possible and learned how to control emotions and so she has learned to manage her life.

Conclusion

So, at the beginning of the article, the goal was set, which was to understand the essence of our emotions and learn how to manage them.

In order to achieve the goal, a number of questions were compiled, to which answers were gradually formed. Analyzing theoretical information, we can conclude that, in general, "emotions" are certain mental processes or states of a person in certain situations. Don’t forget that in addition to the rational mind, there is an emotional one, which plays an equally important role, because it is responsible for our feelings and desires.

"Anatomy of emotions" is a rather unusual concept, but thanks to it, terms such as "neocortex" and "almond body" have become not just a strange set of letters, but have acquired a lot of meaning. After all, it is the neocortex that is responsible not for feeling, but for thinking about this feeling. And the almond body is always in a state of readiness, so that we can quickly react to the situation by showing emotions.

I beg you, remember about "emotional intelligence", don't focus only on academic abilities, and don’t be afraid to develop in all directions. Study by yourself!

Remember the three main approaches to controlling emotions:

- self-knowledge;

- absorption of emotions;

- accepting your emotions.

I think that this article didn’t leave you indifferent and was useful to each of you. Now you understand that emotions play a really important role in our lives. Draw the right conclusions. Never be afraid and don't be lazy to get to know yourself and the people around you.

References:

1. Goleman Daniel. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ / Daniel Goleman. – London: Random House Publishing Group; 10th Anniversary edition, 2005. – 352 p.
2. Keltner Dacher. Understanding Emotions / Dacher Keltner. – New York: Wiley; 3rd edition, 2013. – 520 p.
3. Sternberg Robert J. Practical Intelligence in Everyday Life / Robert J. Sternberg. – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. – 304 p.