Joyful feelings of a person. Types of human feelings and emotions

All types of feelings and emotions can be divided into negative (sadness, fear, hostility, disappointment, anger, despair, guilt, jealousy), positive (happiness, mood, joy, love, gratitude, hope) and neutral (compassion, surprise).

Human feelings in psychology consider subjective experiences of emotions. Experiences and mental states of the body that arise when the brain perceives emotions that appear in external stimuli are considered.

Content:

Feelings and reactions to emotions occur in an area of ​​the brain. In addition, they are subjective in nature, being influenced by personal experience, memories and beliefs.

The fundamental difference between emotions and feelings, according to neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, is that emotions are involuntary responses, a more complex version of a reflex. For example, when you are in danger and your momentum accelerates. Feeling is awareness of that emotion.

Feelings are part of the human being from birth. We are sensory beings, and we can perceive the world through various senses.

Feelings are part of a person from the moment of birth. We are sensory beings and we can perceive the world through various senses.

Many stimuli awaken our senses: we sense what we think, what we observe, what we hear, what we feel, what we touch, or what we eat.

Human emotions and feelings

There are 6 basic emotions in humans: disgust, anger, fear, surprise, joy and sadness.

First, we must distinguish feelings from emotions.

Although these two terms are used in a vague manner in many cases, we will see a definition of each:

Emotions- These are impulses that are associated with automatic reactions and represent an innate set of systems of adaptation to the environment by an individual.

Emotions typically have a shorter duration than feelings and are those that motivate and encourage people to act. They are shorter but also more intense.

Feelings are blocks of integrated information, a synthesis of data from previous experiences that a person has lived, desires, projects and his own value system.

You can understand feelings as a subjective state of a person that arises as a result of the emotions that something or someone evokes.

They are an emotional mood and tend to be long lasting. They are the inner guide to how a person manages his life and confronts the environment.

Feelings and emotions: their types and functions

Research agrees, pointing to four main functions of the senses:

Subjective and specific point of view of the subject

They serve to establish their connection with the world. People, as well as the knowledge and environment perceived by the individual, pass through the filter of the senses earlier.

These are those who interpret if something is known, wanted, desired, or, on the contrary, rejected.

Feelings are meant to represent people

Subjectively and differently for each individual, they indicate the state in which we find ourselves at all levels (biological, mental, social, economic, etc.).

The meanings according to which a person acts

Through feelings a person leads his behavior in one direction or another. They set the guidelines, the way forward. They make it easier to appreciate the reality in which we act in a certain way.

Feelings are the basis of the connection that unites us with other people

They help us express ourselves, communicate and understand each other.

First, feelings influence where we are and therefore how we act.

Additionally, this expression is perceived by the person we are interacting with, indicating what state we are in and acting as the basis of our communication.

Secondly, feelings allow us to develop empathy, help us understand the state that another is in, and makes it easier for us to put ourselves in their shoes so that we can understand and help them.

Types of human feelings

We can divide types of feelings into three types depending on the reactions they provoke in the person experiencing them: negative, positive and neutral.

Negative feelings

Negative feelings manifest as discomfort in a person and serve to indicate that something is wrong. Although the common tendency is to dismiss this type of feeling, it is necessary to live with it, analyze it and learn from it.

This, among other things, helps us develop as humans. Although from time to time they can become more serious condition generators and lead to diseases such as depression or anxiety.

This occurs when negative feelings are stronger than positive, repetitive and habitual ones.

There is a long list of feelings that can be classified as negative. We will only name and define some of the most common ones:

Feelings of sadness appear as a response to events that are considered unpleasant or undesirable. A person feels despondent, wants to cry and has low self-esteem.

The main triggers of sadness are separation of a physical or psychological state, loss or failure, disappointment and situations of helplessness.

Anger is defined as a response to irritability or anger that occurs when a person feels that his rights have been violated.

The main triggers of anger are in situations where a person feels wounded, deceived or betrayed. These are situations that block a person and prevent him from achieving his goal.

The feeling of fear arises due to the appearance of danger, or their possible appearance in the near future. Serves as an alarm warning of the proximity of danger.

The fear that a person feels will be associated with resources and real opportunities to combat it.

That is, in cases where a person believes that he does not have enough resources to cope with the situation there will be a feeling of fear.

Hostility is defined as feelings of resentment, bitterness, and resentment that are accompanied by verbal responses and/or motor reactions.

The main triggers are physical violence and indirect tolerance of hostility. When a person feels that another is pointing at him, or at some close person in his environment, an attitude of irritability, dissatisfaction or apprehension manifests itself.

Feelings of hopelessness are characterized by the subjective belief of a person who has little or no alternative to change an unpleasant situation. Or you feel unable to mobilize your energy and use it to your advantage.

This feeling is taken into account in the cases of people with depression because, as numerous studies have shown, it correlates with autolytic ideas and attempts.

The main triggers are usually decreased or worsening physical and/or psychological well-being, social isolation and long-term stress.

The feeling of disappointment occurs when a person's expectations are not met, unable to achieve what is intended.

The more expectations or desires there are to achieve it, the greater the disappointment if it is not achieved. The main trigger is the failure of a desire or hope to achieve something.

The feeling of hatred is defined as antipathy or disgust towards something or someone. There is also a feeling of wanting evil for the hated object or object.

Primary factors are people or events that cause or threaten a person's existence.

Guilt arises from the belief or feeling of violating social or social ethical norms, especially if someone has been harmed.

The main trigger is an omission (or belief in commission) that a person commits that leads to remorse and a bad conscience.

Jealousy is defined as the feeling experienced by a person when she suspects that a loved one feels love or affection for another, or when she feels that another person prefers a third party over her.

Various situations that are real or perceived as threatening by a person can cause such feelings.

Positive feelings

Positive feelings are those that generate in a person a subjective state of well-being in which a situation is assessed as beneficial and implies pleasant and desirable sensations.

In addition, numerous studies have shown the benefits of having positive emotions, highlighting among others:

• Greater flexibility of thought
• This promotes creativity and a broader perspective.

They function as a buffer of negative feelings because the two are incompatible. They protect a person's physical and mental health, for example by acting against stress and preventing harmful effects on a person. And they support social connections, not only producing well-being in us, but also those around us.

Below we will name and define the most common positive feelings:

The feeling of happiness has a great influence on a person. It is a way in which life is valued positively in all its different aspects, like family, couple or work.

A number of benefits derived from happiness have been demonstrated, such as increased empathy, creativity, learning or altruistic behavior.

The main triggers are the person's achievement of the goals or objectives he or she wants and the fit between what he or she wants and what he or she has.

Humor refers to the perception of a stimulus as pleasure and can be accompanied by physical expressions such as smiling or laughing. It also gives the person a good predisposition to perform the task.

Triggers can be very varied and varied in nature, usually the situation or social environment.

The feeling of joy is characterized by the creation of a good mood and personal well-being, in addition, a person in this state has a constructive and optimistic mood.

A trigger is usually an event that a person perceives as favorable. It may also be accompanied by some kind of physical sign, similar to a smile.

It may be a transitional state as a result of a specific fact (passing an exam or getting a job) or a life tendency or habitual attitude by which a person guides his life.

Love is defined as the affection we feel for a person, animal, object or idea. Triggers are perceptions or subjective judgments we make about another person.

Other factors, such as loneliness or insecurity, can lead to feeling love as a necessity.

Gratitude

This feeling is felt when a person appreciates the benefit or benefit that someone has provided. This is accompanied by a desire to correspond with the same message.

Primary triggers may be actions performed by another person or a sense of general well-being that the person values.

Hope

This feeling is defined as a belief on the part of a person that he can achieve the goals or objectives that he has proposed. The person believes that he has the potential or resources necessary to solve a given situation.

In addition, this feeling can act as a stimulus, providing motivation and energy that is aimed specifically at achieving what is proposed.

Triggers can be very diverse. On the one hand, the confidence that a person is on his own. And, on the other hand, an unfavorable situation may predispose a person to feel hope of overcoming it.

Neutral feelings

Neutral feelings are those that, when they occur, do not cause pleasant or unpleasant reactions, but they will facilitate the occurrence of later emotional states. Some of the basic neutral feelings are:

Compassion

This is a feeling in which a person can feel pity for another who is suffering or in an unpleasant situation, and also wants to accompany him in this process.

Triggers can vary, but usually it involves an unpleasant situation that happens to someone in the environment, although it does not have to be a loved one or a famous person.

Astonishment

Surprise is defined as a reaction caused by something new, strange or unexpected. A person’s attention is directed to processing and analyzing the stimulus that provoked the reaction.

Triggers are those stimuli that are not expected and appear suddenly or occur in a context that is not normal.

It’s difficult for me to understand my feelings - a phrase that each of us has encountered: in books, in movies, in life (someone else’s or our own). But it is very important to be able to understand your feelings.

The Wheel of Emotions by Robert Plutchik

Some people believe - and perhaps they are right - that the meaning of life is in feelings. And in fact, at the end of life, only our feelings, real or in memories, remain with us. And our experiences can also be a measure of what is happening: the richer, more varied, and brighter they are, the more fully we experience life.

What are feelings? The simplest definition: feelings are what we feel. This is our attitude towards certain things (objects). There is also a more scientific definition: feelings (higher emotions) are special mental states, manifested by socially conditioned experiences that express long-term and stable emotional relationships of a person to things.

How are feelings different from emotions?

Sensations are our experiences that we experience through our senses, and we have five of them. Sensations are visual, auditory, tactile, taste and smell (our sense of smell). With sensations everything is simple: stimulus - receptor - sensation.

Our consciousness interferes with emotions and feelings - our thoughts, attitudes, our thinking. Emotions are influenced by our thoughts. And vice versa - emotions influence our thoughts. We’ll definitely talk about these relationships in more detail a little later. But now let’s remember once again one of the criteria for psychological health, namely point 10: we are responsible for our feelings, it depends on us what they will be. It is important.

Fundamental Emotions

All human emotions can be distinguished by the quality of experience. This aspect of human emotional life is most clearly presented in the theory of differential emotions by the American psychologist K. Izard. He identified ten qualitatively different “fundamental” emotions: interest-excitement, joy, surprise, grief-suffering, anger-rage, disgust-disgust, contempt-disdain, fear-horror, shame-shyness, guilt-remorse. K. Izard classifies the first three emotions as positive, the remaining seven as negative. Each of the fundamental emotions underlies a whole spectrum of conditions that vary in degree of expression. For example, within the framework of such a unimodal emotion as joy, one can distinguish joy-satisfaction, joy-delight, joy-jubilation, joy-ecstasy and others. From the combination of fundamental emotions, all other, more complex, complex emotional states arise. For example, anxiety can combine fear, anger, guilt and interest.

1. Interest is a positive emotional state that promotes the development of skills and abilities and the acquisition of knowledge. Interest-excitement is a feeling of capture, curiosity.

2. Joy is a positive emotion associated with the opportunity to sufficiently fully satisfy an actual need, the probability of which was previously small or uncertain. Joy is accompanied by self-satisfaction and satisfaction with the world around us. Obstacles to self-realization are also obstacles to the emergence of joy.

3. Surprise - an emotional reaction to sudden circumstances that does not have a clearly defined positive or negative sign. Surprise inhibits all previous emotions, directing attention to a new object and can turn into interest.

4. Suffering (grief) is the most common negative emotional state associated with receiving reliable (or seeming) information about the impossibility of satisfying the most important needs, the achievement of which previously seemed more or less likely. Suffering has the character of an asthenic emotion and more often occurs in the form of emotional stress. The most severe form of suffering is grief associated with irretrievable loss.

5. Anger is a strong negative emotional state, often occurring in the form of affect; arises in response to an obstacle in achieving passionately desired goals. Anger has the character of a sthenic emotion.

6. Disgust is a negative emotional state caused by objects (objects, people, circumstances), contact with which (physical or communicative) comes into sharp conflict with the aesthetic, moral or ideological principles and attitudes of the subject. Disgust, when combined with anger, can motivate aggressive behavior in interpersonal relationships. Disgust, like anger, can be directed toward oneself, lowering self-esteem and causing self-judgment.

7. Contempt is a negative emotional state that arises in interpersonal relationships and is generated by a mismatch in the life positions, views and behavior of the subject with those of the object of feeling. The latter are presented to the subject as base, not corresponding to accepted moral standards and ethical criteria. A person is hostile to someone he despises.

8. Fear is a negative emotional state that appears when the subject receives information about possible damage to his life well-being, about a real or imaginary danger. In contrast to suffering caused by direct blocking of the most important needs, a person, experiencing the emotion of fear, has only a probabilistic forecast of possible trouble and acts on the basis of this forecast (often insufficiently reliable or exaggerated). The emotion of fear can be both sthenic and asthenic in nature and occur either in the form of stressful conditions, or in the form of a stable mood of depression and anxiety, or in the form of affect (horror).

9. Shame is a negative emotional state, expressed in the awareness of the inconsistency of one’s own thoughts, actions and appearance not only with the expectations of others, but also with one’s own ideas about appropriate behavior and appearance.

10. Guilt is a negative emotional state, expressed in the awareness of the unseemlyness of one’s own actions, thoughts or feelings and expressed in regret and repentance.

Table of human feelings and emotions

And I also want to show you a collection of feelings, emotions, states that a person experiences during his life - a generalized table that does not pretend to be scientific, but will help you better understand yourself. The table was taken from the website “Communities of Addicted and Codependent”, author - Mikhail.

All human feelings and emotions can be divided into four types. These are fear, anger, sadness and joy. You can find out what type a particular feeling belongs to from the table.

And for those who read the article to the end. The purpose of this article is to help you understand your feelings and what they are like. Our feelings largely depend on our thoughts. Irrational thinking is often at the root of negative emotions. By correcting these mistakes (working on our thinking), we can be happier and achieve more in life. There is interesting, but persistent and painstaking work to be done on oneself. You are ready?

This might interest you:

P.S. And remember, just by changing your consumption, we are changing the world together! © econet

Imagine for a moment that you live in a world where every imaginable human emotion is available to you, and you are free to choose which emotions to experience and how to express them at any given time. In this world you will have access to the pain of disappointment, anger and frustration, as well as the joy of pride, confidence and fun. You may writhe in the throes of jealousy, regret, fear, grief and hopelessness, but only as long as it takes to extract useful information from these experiences. After this, you instantly come to your senses and move on. In this world, you don't have to hide the feelings that express your essence because you simply don't know how to express them. In return, you have access to all the emotions and behavior patterns that are authentic manifestations of who you are and who you want to be. The standard for interactions in this world is a mutually satisfying dance of emotions and behavior, and if you accidentally step on the fragile emotional toes of others, then only occasionally and through an unfortunate mistake.

How close are most of us to living in such a world? What is this world like? Nowadays, sweaty palms are a common occurrence for a person who is about to have a business meeting or a product presentation. He fidgets, his voice breaks; his attention darts from one worry to another. It doesn't matter what he's worth as a worker or how real his consignment is; the presentation will be undermined by anxiety in feelings, behavior and appearance. However, in a world where, to everyone's delight, emotional choices are a skill, such a person will choose to present himself with a sense of deep self-confidence and competence, which will be evident in his calm manner and quick, empathetic reactions.

Personal life would also undergo significant changes. We all know couples who, after many years of emotional deprivation together, do not miss the opportunity to tease each other in every possible way in public. Such barbs, even delivered, as is often the case, in a humorous manner, inflict deep wounds, steadily exacerbating the smoldering resentment that has already disfigured the relationships between such people. But in a world of emotional choice, outrage will not be so easy to achieve. Instead, these people will recognize and respond to their own and their partner's emotional needs and desires. Over the years, they will experience greater confidence and a sense of security, since each day will provide them with fresh examples of their ability to notice and respond gracefully to the fluctuations in the emotional atmosphere that naturally characterize the weather of relationships.

The knowledge that each of us receives about our own feelings will also become completely different. Many of us grew up without experiencing some emotions and regretting having experienced others. And yet, we need inaccessible emotions, and as for those that we fear, it seems to us that we are not able to block access to them. We've been taught that there are some emotions we shouldn't experience and some we shouldn't express. However, we feel them and dream of expressing them - if it were allowed, and if we knew how to do it. What little knowledge we gained about recognizing the emotional states of others was at best veiled and accidental and usually served only to avoid crossing a dangerous line. It’s time for us, who have already grown up and are putting together pieces of the mosaic, to learn and relearn the elementary principles - and possibilities - of our emotional life. This relearning takes some work, but like all good work, it is exciting, amazing, intriguing and rewarding.

Through years of training as psychotherapists, as well as working directly with clients and ourselves, we have helped turn many troubles and shortcomings into rewarding personal triumphs—including our own. The people we helped invariably faced the same predicament: they saw no choice but to behave the way they behaved in a given situation. They knew things could be different, but they didn't seem to make those other possibilities a reality. The more they yearned for change, the faster they fell back into old, habitual reactions.

What do such people see as the reason for their inability to respond in the desired way? Some kind of birth defect? In our opinion, no. Instead, they discover that at present they simply do not know how to change - just like you once did not know how to tie your shoes until someone showed you how. We usually justify our “failures” and “shortcomings” by saying that we were “nervous”, or afraid, or angry, or jealous, or embarrassed. These are emotions, and when we use them in this way, we discover something that keeps us in place - and not at all where we want to be.

If you sat a few people around and asked them what they really wanted for themselves, they would name emotions such as happiness, patience, hope, perseverance, confidence - emotions that seem unattainable, at least in many cases. Of course, many would also like to learn how to ski, or become more agile, or find a better job. But, as we will see, even achieving such goals often depends on emotional change, such as overcoming a fear of skiing, a sense of responsibility that motivates efficiency, and a sense of confidence that pushes one to look for a new job.

Thus, your emotions do not always correspond to those that you would like to experience in a given situation. In other cases, your behavior becomes primarily a result of emotions, so the ability to influence emotions can have remarkable consequences for the ability to change the way you interact with the world. If these reasons are not enough to motivate you to learn to make emotional choices, think about the staff at the Cape Canaverel center and consider the warning sounded in the first chapter about the high likelihood of becoming seriously ill and even dying if you constantly and patiently endure such emotions as anxiety, fear, helplessness, worry, humiliation, tension and failure.

In his books and lectures, Dr. Robert Ornstein discusses the latest research regarding the connection between emotions and health. For example, he mentions the case of Norman Cousins, the longtime editor of the Saturday Review, who in his book Anatomy of an Illness recounts how he was treated for a supposedly incurable disease. When the doctors gave up, he refused the doctors. He moved into a hotel and prescribed himself a heavy dose of humor, starting with the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy. He recovered. Dr. Ornstein admits that one case does not constitute scientific evidence, but then lists scientific studies that do support the connection between health and the release and expression of emotions.

As for isolated cases of laughter, they are not full-fledged scientific facts. But if you turn to cancer research, there is one area of ​​research where the link between emotional expression and health is supported by numerous studies. Many studies have shown that lung cancer patients tend to suppress their emotions. They seem to ignore negative feelings such as hostility, depression, and guilt. A recent comparative study of breast cancer survivors and deceased patients found a similar pattern. Women who have survived and lived long enough express feelings such as anxiety, hostility, alienation and other negative emotions to themselves and many others much more actively than those who do not live long. They have a more negative mood and more actively express a negative attitude towards their illness and almost everything in general. The connection between “outpouring of feelings” and mitigation of cancer is now well proven. (From the audio recording “The Feeling Brain: Emotions and Health”)

Despite the subjectively obvious (and clinically proven) fact that our emotions are inextricably linked to behavioral management and well-being, many people ignore the importance of their emotions while trying to conquer the world. You can get acquainted with the correct style of self-presentation at seminars on image and manner of dressing, as well as through seminar video materials. Attention is invariably focused on appearance - the outward manifestation of success. These seminars and workshops will teach you how to speak, stand, walk, dress, shake hands, etc.

Externally “successful” behavior can work, but only if it generates the sense of validity and competence necessary to congruently reinforce success in a given situation. True. is that if your well-being does not radiate from within, the result is a permanent lack of congruence between the self and the inner world. So, instead of being confident, you acquire an outward veneer of confidence, while regrettable and unpleasant emotions continue to simmer inside. Having been saturated with your physical and mental resources, these unpleasant emotions will sooner or later make their way out, where they will influence your behavior and make you look like a deceiver.

There are many reasonable reasons why you should take control of your life, including your emotions. We are not talking about the kind of conventional control in which people always and everywhere try to show only a certain kind of positive reaction. This is not control; it is being under the control of one's own inertia. True control comes from having emotional choices and being able to choose the best options given your current desires and circumstances. What is beyond your control, beyond your choice, can make your life insignificant and miserable. And even kill you.

As you look back over the past week, month, or year, you will likely find many instances where your feelings coincided with your ability to do what you want, be what you want, and achieve what you want to achieve. If you review even the experiences of the last hours, you will find that your emotions form a large part of your experiences, and that they determine to a huge extent your reactions. It may be, for example, that anxiety or dread about an upcoming meeting has caused you to focus on how not to attend it rather than on making the most of your presentation, as you would if you were feeling determined and anticipating success. Or maybe you were shy and felt out of place at some meeting, and therefore closed yourself off, and when they approached you, behaved awkwardly, which would not have happened if you had reacted to the same situation under the influence of curiosity, dexterity and own attractiveness. There have probably been times when you wanted to experience romantic excitement, tenderness and love, but in reality you felt like a sleepy fly, which is why your relationship suffered. This has happened to everyone - situations in which feelings did not benefit us.

Sometimes these harmful emotions are pleasant, and sometimes they are not, but they are always with us: you lash out angrily at children when you should be understanding; you feel like you understand and accept someone who is tripping you up for the third time, and it’s time for you to feel anger; you are afraid of the upcoming interview, when it would be more appropriate to feel hope and confidence; You're gloomy about the prospect of a satisfying relationship when you'd better be determined to make it happen.

By “hitting” your head against an emotional wall, you become convinced that people are not given the opportunity to choose their feelings and that most of life is spent struggling with emotional adversity. However, we are pleased to inform you that this is completely optional. You can choose your emotions and, in doing so, experience the experiences you desire for your everyday life.

How do you know that you are making progress in acquiring emotional choices? To make them more obvious, let's first look at the manifestations of a lack of emotional choice.

People show their inability to cope with emotions in three ways. First, they constantly and chronically react to everyday or current life situations with harmful emotions such as feelings of failure, helplessness, shame, despair, anger, or frustration. For some people, the evening news, a teenager's provocative haircut, a computer error in a bank newsletter, or a scam triggers emotions that throw them off balance.

Secondly, people do not know how to cope with emotions that they consider unbearable - shyness, loneliness, inadequacy, fear or guilt. They often try to escape from them through extreme isolation, violence, use of various chemical substances, even abuse of them.

Thirdly, many are convinced that some emotions simply cannot be experienced: for example, lust, envy, anger and irritation. Therefore, as soon as they experience such an emotion, they are immediately overcome by a feeling of shame or guilt.

However, the same life situations that evoke harmful emotions in some people produce enviable reactions in others. We all know people who are able to not only cope well, but even succeed in situations in which we usually feel and act inappropriately. These people demonstrate emotional choice and have two qualities.

The first attribute of emotional choice for such people is the ability to use a wider range of emotions. They either don’t experience harmful emotions at all or don’t get caught up in them. The difference here is the number of emotions available and the ease of switching from one to the other. It's like the difference between Foster's, where the ice cream selection is limited to chocolate and vanilla, and Baskin-Robbins, where there are thirty-one varieties of ice cream. Armed with a wide range of emotions, such people are stuck on negative emotions no longer than on a seafood dish that they didn’t like at first.

The second attribute is the ability to respond to your emotions (pleasant and unpleasant) as real and meaningful messages regarding ways to improve your life, and not consider them random blows coming from a hostile environment. By using their emotions to measure the pulse of their own well-being, knowledgeable people manage their attention and behavior to provide the emotional experiences they desire.

You will be on the path to emotional choice when you realize that you can experience many more emotions, and you begin to understand the meaning conveyed to you by each individual emotion.

This book is the fruit of many years of study of emotions and how to access and maintain them. Through our research, we have learned to choose, change, and use emotions to enrich our lives and the lives of those around us. We've turned what we've learned into techniques that anyone can use. You can create the emotional experiences you need, when you need them. You are close to learning how to choose your preferred emotions and express them in a variety of situations, taking into account your personal well-being and the well-being of others. These tools bring release from harmful emotions. With them comes the strength that allows you to always remain on top in everything.

Hello dear reader. In order to show the relevance of our conversation today, I want you to stop reading the article for a few moments and answer the question: “What emotions are you currently experiencing?”
Have you thought about it? Did you answer?

Now let's see what problems often arise when answering this question.

• Many people answer this question in the following way: “Yes, I don’t feel any particular emotions right now, everything is fine.” Does this mean that there really are no emotions? Or does this simply mean that the person is poorly aware of his emotional state? The fact is that a person always experiences emotions, every moment of his life. Sometimes they reach high intensity, and sometimes their intensity is low. Many people pay attention only to strong emotional experiences, and do not attach any importance to low-intensity emotions and even do not notice them at all. However, if emotions are not very strong, this does not mean that they are absent.
• Another possible answer to the question posed is: “Somehow I feel unpleasant. I feel uncomfortable." We see that the person is aware that there are unpleasant emotions inside, but he cannot name which ones. Maybe it's irritation, or maybe disappointment or guilt, or maybe something else.
• Often our question is answered like this: “I feel like it’s time for me to get up from my computer and get to work” or “I feel like this article could be useful to me.” Many people confuse their emotions with thoughts and desire to do something. Trying to describe their emotional state, they describe everything except emotions.

Meditation exercise for understanding emotions

When working with clients, I often use a meditation exercise to help them better understand their own emotions. It is so effective that I decided to make an audio recording so that anyone could use this technique. The mechanism of action of the exercise is based on the connection between emotions and bodily reactions. Any, even the most insignificant, emotion is reflected in the body (read more about this). By learning to listen to your own bodily reactions, you can become more familiar with your emotions.

You can do the exercise right now. Here's the entry:

Once you have learned what emotions are like and have easily learned to describe your inner state, you may be interested in exploring yourself more deeply. For example, you may want to figure out what positive meaning emotions can carry that, at first glance, are absolutely meaningless and even harmful. Read about this in the next

A huge number of different myths are concentrated around human emotions and feelings. This is due to the fact that people have a poor understanding of their diversity and importance. To learn to understand each other correctly, you need to understand what types of emotions exist and find out their characteristics. In addition, you need to learn to distinguish genuine feelings from mere window dressing.

What are emotions and feelings?

The emotional sphere of a person is a complex intricacy of elements that together make it possible to experience everything that happens to him and around him. It consists of four main components:

• Emotional tone is a response in the form of an experience that sets the state of the body. It is this that informs the body about how satisfied its current needs are and how comfortable it is now. If you listen to yourself, you can evaluate your emotional tone.
• Emotions are subjective experiences relating to situations and events that are important to a person.
• A feeling is a person’s stable emotional attitude towards some object. They are always subjective and appear in the process of interaction with others.
• An emotional state differs from a feeling by its weak focus on an object, and from an emotion by its greater duration and stability. It is always triggered by certain feelings and emotions, but at the same time as if on its own. A person may be in a state of euphoria, anger, depression, melancholy, etc.

Video: Psychology. Emotions and feelings

Functions and types of emotions

Emotions, to a greater or lesser extent, regulate the lives of each of us. Usually they have four main functions:

• Motivational-regulatory, designed to encourage action, guide and regulate. Often emotions completely suppress thinking in regulating human behavior.
• Communication is responsible for mutual understanding. It is emotions that tell us about a person’s mental and physical state and help us choose the right line of behavior when communicating with him. Thanks to emotions, we can understand each other even without knowing the language.
• Signaling allows you to communicate your needs to others using emotionally expressive movements, gestures, facial expressions, etc.
• Protective is expressed in the fact that a person’s instant emotional reaction can, in some cases, save him from danger.

Scientists have already proven that the more complex a living being is organized, the richer and more varied the range of emotions that it is capable of experiencing.

Emotions and feelings

In addition, all emotions can be divided into several types. The nature of the experience (pleasant or unpleasant) determines the sign of the emotion - positive or negative. Emotions are also divided into types depending on the impact on human activity - sthenic and asthenic. The former encourage a person to act, while the latter, on the contrary, lead to stiffness and passivity. But the same emotion can affect people or the same person differently in different situations. For example, severe grief plunges one person into despondency and inaction, while the other person seeks solace in work.

Not only people have emotions, but also animals. For example, when experiencing severe stress, they may change their behavior - become calmer or nervous, refuse food, or stop reacting to the world around them.

Also, the type of emotions determines their modality. According to modality, three basic emotions are distinguished: fear, anger and joy, and the rest are only their peculiar expression. For example, fear, worry, anxiety and horror are different manifestations of fear.

The main human emotions

As we have already said, emotions are usually associated with the current moment and are a person’s reaction to a change in his current state. Among them, several main ones stand out:

• joy is an intense feeling of satisfaction with one’s condition and situation;
• fear is the body’s defensive reaction in the event of a threat to its health and well-being;
• excitement - increased excitability caused by both positive and negative experiences, takes part in the formation of a person’s readiness for an important event and activates his nervous system;
• interest is an innate emotion that spurs the cognitive aspect of the emotional sphere;
• surprise is an experience reflecting the contradiction between existing experience and new one;
• resentment is an experience associated with the manifestation of injustice towards a person;
• anger, anger, rage are negatively colored affects directed against perceived injustice;
• embarrassment - worry about the impression made on others;
• pity is a surge of emotions that occurs when the suffering of another person is perceived as one’s own.

Most of us easily distinguish the emotions of another by external manifestations.

Types of human feelings

Human feelings are often confused with emotions, but they have many differences. Feelings take time to arise; they are more persistent and less likely to change. They are all divided into three categories:

• Moral (moral or emotional) feelings arise in relation to the behavior of others or oneself. Their development occurs in the course of any activity and is usually associated with moral standards accepted in society. Depending on how much what is happening corresponds to a person’s internal attitudes, he develops a feeling of indignation or, conversely, satisfaction. This category also includes all attachments, likes and dislikes, love and hatred.
• Intellectual feelings are experienced by a person in the course of mental activity. These include inspiration, joy from success and stress from failure.
• A person experiences aesthetic feelings when creating or appreciating something beautiful. This can apply to both objects of art and natural phenomena.
• Practical feelings give rise to human activity, its results, success or failure.

It is impossible to single out more or less important feelings. Different people strive for different feelings and they are all equally important for a person’s normal emotional life.

Often it is the emotional sphere that regulates a person’s life, and our state is formed from emotions and feelings. But emotions are short-term sensations relating to certain things or situations, and feelings are much longer lasting, but they are formed from emotions. Their different types have different effects on our lives and our decisions.