It’s the time of year when strong emotions can surface. We investigate during online meditation classes London why we have felt in the first place, how we can relate to and navigate them, and the extraordinary alchemy that occurs when we give them our undivided attention.
What are Emotions?
We feel them, talk about them, hold them close, and sometimes push them away, but what are emotions?
The word “emotions” comes from the Latin “emovere,” meaning to “move out.” It alludes to something that passes through and out of us. There is no universally accepted definition of emotions; however, taking online meditation classes in London helps you improve your ability to express emotions.
We experience numerous emotions daily, but scientists agree on core emotions. Depending on an entire school of thought, there may be four, five, or more core emotions, but the four universally agreed upon are joy, fear, sadness, and anger. Others in the core group include surprise, disgust, and shame, and some include love. We like to have happiness. Of course, many other emotions exist, but most can be considered derivatives of these core emotions.
Although many use the terms interchangeably, emotions and feelings are distinct. Emotions emerge spontaneously in us and leave physical and mental imprints – we can feel anger as a heartbeat, sadness as a heaviness, or joy as an expansion. Emotions can exist even if we are not aware of them. Feelings can refer to emotion directly, but they frequently mingle with our thoughts, interpretations, and biases. For example, there may be a surprise when someone says something unexpected, but we may say we felt awkward because we don’t know what to say in response.
Why Do We Have Emotions?
Emotions, in short, help us survive, grow, and evolve. Fear, for example, manifests as an arousal state in the body that sends signals of danger, prompting us to fight, flee, or freeze. This helped us escape tigers in the past and now allows us to avoid dangerous streets.
Sadness assists us in letting go, creating space for us to move forward by relaxing and slowing the body, causing us to pause to say goodbye and grieve what we have lost mentally. Also, consider taking online meditation classes London, which will help you enhance your ability to let the sadness go.
Anger arises when our boundaries are violated, prompting us to consider whether we should accept or change a situation. Joy allows us to enjoy life; it is the great engine that propels us from moment to moment. However, you can learn to deal with various emotional situations by taking online meditation classes London.
How Can We Relate to Emotions?
Emotions must be honored, understood, and, most importantly, felt because they play an essential role in our survival, growth, and well-being. Emotions are the primary motivator for our existence; everything we strive for in life is motivated by the satisfaction of feeling a certain way. They infuse color, meaning, and motivation into our lives. There is no human existence without emotions.
Nonetheless, emotions are heavily vilified in modern society; their role is subordinated to that of thinking. There is no reason for thinking to be prioritized over something as valuable as feeling. Our felt sense of the world contains at least as much information as conscious thought, is often faster to receive and send signals than conscious thought, and we agree with many scientists that it can assist in directing our thinking.
How Can We Tune Into Emotions?
The best way to notice our emotions is to pause, notice sensations in the body, and then gently inquire about what emotions might be present. Check to see if your findings ring true. Instead of getting caught up in our perceptions or expectations of how we should feel, checking in with our bodies allows us to identify the actual emotion. For example, if you think you’re okay, but your gut is twisted, and your face is frowning, you might wonder what’s wrong.
Regarding the body, it’s important to remember that it’s not just our brains that are intelligent, giving signals back and forth – our gut and heart have their nervous systems, with neurons firing left, right, and center. This is the origin of the term “gut instinct,” and the same is true of the heart. Pay attention to your entire body.
How Can We Manage Complex Emotions?
Being able to navigate complex emotions or emotional regulation is a skill we are supposed to develop during childhood if we are raised in a supportive environment. It is a necessary quality for us to grow into healthy, functioning adults. Emotions are visceral and can be intense – babies cannot regulate emotions, so they act out on them by crying, screaming, wriggling, and giggling.
When an emotion that we find challenging to be with arises, our advice is first to pause and notice, with lots of self-compassion, that we are indeed experiencing an intense emotion that is difficult to be with. And that’s okay; some feelings are designed to be challenging, which doesn’t make them or us wrong.
The Final Words
In a nutshell, emotions become problematic when we don’t allow ourselves to feel them, hold them, and will enable them to flow through and eventually out of us. They only become a problem for our mental health when they become stuck, either by being ignored or held onto.