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Understanding Emotions and how they affect us and our state of being:
Emotion, in its most general definition, is an intense mental state that arises autonomically in the nervous system rather
than through conscious effort, and evokes either a positive or negative psycological response. An emotion is often differentiated
from a feeling.
Positive and negative perception
Like aromas, emotions are experienced as either positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant; emotions do not seem to
be neutral. Like odors, feelings come and go, defy logic, and clearly show upon our face and in mood signs.
Many people find it hard to express emotion. Some emotions may include; happiness, sadness, jealousy, excitedness and
many others. A common disease commonly known as depression is a type of illness but sometimes has an unknown cause. Depression
is very common, and many like to use different types of treatment. Many rely on herbal and mind power to heal, where as others
take tablets or medicine. Emotions contribute to our well being or to many illnesses we experience.
Although a common word, it is not easy to come up with a generally acceptable definition of emotion. Growing consensus
does agree that the distinction between emotion and feeling is important. According to Damasio, feeling can be viewed as the
subjective experience of an emotion that arises physiologically in the brain.
Emotion is sometimes regarded as the antithesis of reason. This distinction stems from Western philodophy and is reflected
in common phrases like appeal to emotion or your emotions have taken over. Emotions can be undesired to the individual experiencing
them; he or she may wish to control but often cannot. Thus one of the most distinctive, and perhaps challenging, facts about
human beings is this potential for entanglement, or even opposition, between will, emotion, and reason.
Emotion is complex, and the term has no single universally accepted definition. Emotions create a response in the mind
that arises spontaneously, rather than through conscious effort. It is unclear whether animals or all human beings experience
emotion. Emotions are physical expressions, often involuntary,
related to feelings, perceptions or beliefs about elements, objects or relations between them, in reality or in the imagination.
The study of emotions is part of psychology, neuroscience, and, more recently, artificial intelligence.
Emotion as the subject of scientific research has multiple dimensions: behavioral,, physiological, subjective, and coggnitive.
Sloman argues that many emotions are side effects of the operations of complex mechanisms (e.g. 'alarm' mechanisms) required
in animals or machines with multiple motives and limited capacities and resources for coping with a changing and unpredictable
world, just as”thrashing” can sometimes occur as a side-effect of scheduling and memory management mechanisms
required in a computer operating system for purposes other than producing thrashing. Such side effects are sometimes useful
sometimes dysfunctional.
Other theorists argue that emotions themselves are necessary for any intelligent system (natural or artificial). Some
state that there is no empirical support for any generalization suggesting the antithesis between reason and emotion: indeed,
anger or fear can often be thought of as a systematic response to observed facts. In any case, it is clear that the relation
between logic and argument and emotion is one which merits careful study.
Psychiatrist William Glasser’s theory of the human control system states that behavior is composed of four simultaneous
components:
1. deeds
2. ideas
3. emotions
4. physiological states
He asserts that we choose the idea and deed and that the associated emotions and physiological states also occur but cannot
be chosen independently. He calls his construct a total behavior to distinguish it from the common concept of behavior. He
uses the verbs to describe what is commonly seen as emotion. For example, he uses 'to depress' to describe the total behavior
commonly known as depression which, to him, includes depressing ideas, actions, emotions, and physiological states and further
asserts that internal choices (conscious or unconscious) cause emotions instead of external stimuli.
One of the most influential classification approaches in the study of emotion is Robert Plutchik’s eight primary
emotions. The emotions that he lists as primary are:
* anger
* fear
* sadness
* joy
* disgust
* surprise
* curiosity
* acceptance
Similar to the way primary colors combine, primary emotions are believed to blend together to form the full spectrum of
human emotional experience. He reasons that these eight are primary on evolutionary grounds, by relating each to behavior
with survival value. For example: fear motivates flight from danger, anger motivates fighting for survival. They are considered
to be part of our biological heritage and built into human nature.
Physical responses
Attached to the idea of primary emotions as innate is the notion that each emotion causes a detectable physical response
in the body. These responses are often perceived as sensation in the body; for example:
* Fear is felt as a heightened heartbeat, increased “flinch” response, and increased muscle tension.
* Anger, based on sensation, seems indistinguishable from fear.
* Happiness is often felt as an expansive or swelling feeling in the chest and the sensation of lightness or buoyancy,
as if standing underwater.
* Sadness is often experienced as a feeling of tightness in the throat and eyes, and relaxation in the arms and legs.
* Shame can be felt as heat in the upper chest and face.
* Desire can be accompanied by a dry throat, heavy breathing, and increased heart rate.
Some practitioners propose that distressing emotions are relieved by emotional “discharge”. Hence
crying, laughing, sweating, shaking, and trembling. , practitioners propose that distressing emotions are relieved by emotional
“discharge”. Hence crying, laughing, sweating, shaking, and trembling. These actions commonly associated
emotions, are thought to not be the original sensation, but instead nearly automatic responses that dispel the discomfort
of disturbing feelings. These actions commonly associated emotions, are thought to not be the original sensation, but instead
nearly automatic responses that dispel the discomfort of disturbing feelings.
Emotions are thought to be related to activity in brain areas that direct our attention, motivate our behavior, and determine
the significance of what is going on around us.
Based on discoveries made through neural mapping of the limbic system, the neurobiological explanation of human emotion
is that emotion is a pleasant or unpleasant mental state organized in the limbic system of the mammalian brain.
Defined as such, these emotional states are specific manifestations of non-verbally expressed feelings of agreement, amusement,
anger, certainty, control, disagreement, disgust, disliking, embarrassment, fear, guilt, happiness, hate, interest, liking,
love, sadness, shame, surprise, and uncertainty.
May we experience Good Health on all levels and live in a state of Well Being
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