![]() It is talked about a lot - developing emotional awareness, but what does that actually mean and how do we do this? Firstly we need to start with understanding emotions and the depth of these, and look at all aspects including body sensations, thought related feelings, triggers and how these connect to all our experiences. We may inadvertently dampen down our emotional life by striving to managing it, however being more curious of our emotions and feelings is a more mindful way of embracing them when they arise. Understanding the full breadth of our emotions and feelings build self-awareness. Many people use the terms “feelings” and “emotions” interchangeably however while they can appear remarkably similar, there is a marked difference. An emotion is a physiological experience (or state of awareness) that gives you information about the world, and a feeling is your conscious awareness of the emotion itself and the meaning you assign to the emotion. Simply, emotions are more physical reactions whereas feelings are the mental associations and reactions to the emotions. Emotions are an immediate physiological response to perceived stimulus. This all happens automatically usually without thought. Emotions can be measured by our blood flow, brain activity, facial expression, and body stance. Our emotions continuously regulate every living cell to adapt to emerging threats and opportunities. Emotions provide raw data about the world around us, essential to our functioning. Chemicals are then released in response to our interpretation of a specific trigger. It takes our brains about 1/4 second to identify the trigger, and about another 1/4 second to produce the chemicals. Emotion chemicals are released all through our bodies not just in our brain which creates a feedback loop between the brain and body and interestingly, emotions last only about 6 seconds in the body. Feelings are both the physical and mental sensations that arise when we begin to interpret and integrate the emotions into the brain. It’s when we begin to ‘think’ about the emotion. Feelings are related more to thought and are more cognitively orientated. It is also how we make meaning of our emotions as we pay attention and react to our perceived threats or opportunities. As our emotions become integrated into our brain, we begin to feel. Feelings reflect your personal associations to your emotions. They can then be integrated with a mix of emotions and last a lot longer than emotions. Moods are more generalised and happen over a period of time. They may not be associated to a specific incident but a range of experiences and external stimulus. This can be influenced by our energy, workload, people around us, how much we have slept the day before, how healthy we are and also our current feelings. Moods last a lot longer than a feeling and can last hours or even days. Core Emotions During the 70’s, psychologist Paul Ekman identified six basic emotions which are happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise and anger which have been viewed as universally experienced in all human cultures. Later he expanded on his list of basic emotions to include pride, shame, embarrassment, and excitement. There is still a lot of discussion and differing opinions on what are the core emotions. Some theorists categorise them into six, eight and even four areas. Happiness A pleasant emotional state that elicits feelings of joy, contentment, and satisfaction. Sadness An emotional state characterised by feelings of disappointment, grief, or hopelessness. Fear A primal emotion that is important for survival and triggers a fight, flight or freeze response. Anger An emotional state leading to feelings of hostility and frustration. Surprise A brief emotional state, either positive or negative, following something unexpected. Disgust A strong emotion that results in the feeling of being repulsed. In 1980 Psychologist Robert Plutchik created the wheel of emotions that is like a colour wheel. The emotions are combined to form different feelings, the same as mixing colours on a colour wheel. According to his theory, the core emotions are building blocks for which other emotions and then feelings are related. Complex emotions are made up of two or more core basic emotions. For example, fear, anger, and disgust make up the complex emotion of hate. Emotions and Body Sensations Sensations are physical feelings in the body, and these can be experienced with a range of emotions and feelings. Sensations describe the sensations based on the five senses of taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight. To become more aware of our own emotions and feelings, it can be helpful to notice what physical sensations we can feel in the body. This helps to ‘name and tame’ the emotion. When we attune to the obvious and subtle body sensations, we can learn to understand ourselves better. This means we can savour the positive emotions and experiences and manage the difficult and uncomfortable emotions and experiences with more resilience as we tune into the emotion, rather than avoid or dismiss it. The more we learn to trust our bodies, the easier we can manage the inevitable ups and downs of life and accompanying difficult feelings. To help children and teens manage their emotions, we need to firstly help them recognise them and understand them. We can then help them to ‘befriend’ their emotional experiences. Just like adults, children and teenagers need a range of strategies to manage their emotions which then helps to build their social and emotional skills. The more socially and emotionally aware and then also skilled, the more effective they will be at self-regulating, managing relationships and problem solve the difficulties in their life. The more we can get children to ‘name’ their emotions, the more they can ‘tame’ their emotions. This helps to calm the brain’s limbic system. Once they are calm, they can then Mindfully choose how to respond to situations.
0 Comments
|
AuthorGeorgina Manning Director of Wellbeing For Kids Archives
January 2025
Categories |