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Week 7 (04.05-10.05) Emotions

Probably everyone feels some emotions and probably those emotions can have  big influence on your life and your decision making process, that is why you should learn something more about them. There are many different representations of emotions, here I will present two of them. Below you can see the first diagram which represents the most basic human emotions:
As you can see in the presented diagram there are  8 basic emotions and 24 derivatives of them. In total 32 emotions, but below you can see a more complicated diagram of  human emotions:

As you may see in two diagrams there are many different types of emotions and each emotion can have influence on your life. I think that the biggest influence on your life from all the mentioned above has fear, because I have seen a lot of people who were afraid to make a decision to do what they like and they wanted to do or to talk to someone who they like. They were afraid that they would lose something and usually fear was unfounded, but they were unable to make a decision.  That is why I decided to present some method of controlling your emotions:

  1. Name what you feel at the moment. Usually if you find out what emotion you are feeling at a particular moment it may help to decrease the impact of this emotion.
  2. When you are angry imagine you are breathing out all your anger.
  3. Imagine what you could do being someone else. Try to take a step back and change your perspective. Eliminate the selfish beliefs which give rise to your disturbing thoughts and negative emotions. Create opinions on deep logical analysis of causes and effects of each reaction
Sources:

Comments

I think emotions are a really complex topic and it's certainly not possible to pick the most influential emotion or anything like that - for one person it can be anger, for another - fear, etc. Every person is different, and we all have different mechanisms of dealing with emotions. For each person another method of coping can be efficient.

If anyone seeks a method to deal with certain emotions, like anger, anxiety or sadness, I would recommend a book called "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy" by David Burns, and cognitive-behavioral methods you can find on the Internet, as these are the most scientifically accurate and proven to be working.
Unknown said…
Thank you for the interesting topic. I've found some interesting things for me.
I've knew only one method from 3 ones that you presented - the first one: "Name what you feel at the moment. Usually if you find out what emotion you are feeling at a particular moment it may help to decrease the impact of this emotion.". Sometimes people don't even realize that they are controlled by their emotions.
Unknown said…
From what I've heard only sociopaths or psychopaths don't feel emotions, so "probably" most of us feel some emotions ;P

I would agree that fear is often the reason why people do or don't do something. I'm not really an impulsive person so I don't find myself so angry or so emotionally unstable that I would have to calm myself down but maybe your advice will became useful one day ;)
Unknown said…
When I was preparing my master's thesis I was reading a lot about emotions. They are really important in my work. I agree that emotions have a very huge influence on our life but not only them. Some of human emotions are describe by colors. We should work hard on our character and learn how to control some of our feelings. It is hard but when you earn it you will have it easier with some stressful situations in life and many others.
We are all humans so we do have all sorts of emotions. I agree that if you are able do identify what emotions you feel at a moment it may help you deal with it. For example if I am angry I stop for a second and strat to think. Why am I so angry or iritated? Is it really worth it, is it really so important to think about it the way I think? Usually I get frustrated easily so I trained myself not to care so much about little thinkg that I cannot have impoct on. It helps me stay more bad emotions free and I can concentrated on the thinkgs that relly matter for me..;) Changing a point of view is a great way to learn how to communicate with people. Sometimes I cannot imagine why someone would do such a thing, but then I strat to think and put myslef in his/ ers situation and sometimes it turnes up that I would probably do the same thing....
I am really interested about emotions being described by colors. Can you say something more?:)
I heard that people who don't show their emotions, who are not impulsive, who have tendency to keep all emotions inside them can have some problems with health because it is better to purge and let it out..What do you thing about it?
Unknown said…
I have heard about emotions which were referred to the colour. Izabela you can read more about it there https://www.colorcode.com/choose_personality_test/ and you can do the test yourself.
Cezary thanks for your presentation. Great and really important topic I think. You specified the most important thing in that area.
You were totally right when you wrote about fear and its influence for people's behaviour.
I know this is question for Paulina, but I would say it's overgeneralization. I'm also not an impulsive person, it's really hard to make me really angry. However, it has nothing to do with keeping emotions inside me; I just plainly do not feel anger most of the time. Many people think not showing emotions is always the result of hiding them, but in reality it can be just lack of a particular emotion at the time. :)
I visited this site and I must say that it unfortunately sounds really far-fetched. These are not actual connections between colors and emotions; colors are used as a differentiation of a various groups of people, "labels", as you may call them. They could as well be replaced with numbers or letters identifying the group :)
Unknown said…
I like this topic. My optimism is my strength. I practice controlling emotions day by day. I feel like I also am vulnerable to emotions of the others. When interacting with a stranger I focus on the positives and imagine "sending" them good energy. It works :)
Mateusz Frycie said…
Very interesting topic. Same with the one about describing emotions with different colors.

I must admit that sometimes I feel like there is much more types of emotions than described on both of those diagrams. It's hard to control them, or even to focus on one of them an "take step back and think about it".
MartaSB said…
This is really interesting! I think every person has to control his/her emotions daily -sometimes it's automatic, because we are used to some situations and we know how to react to them, but sometimes things can get out of control and then we have to make sure we are able to control our emotions and behaviour. I believe it's the main part of building our social maturity.
Anonymous said…
I’m not so sure whether letting one’s emotions out is such a good idea. On the one hand, I would definitely agree that it’s much healthier than suffocating with anger and unspoken words. On the other hand, some time ago I’ve read ”50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior”. In this book I have read that allowing oneself, for instance, to smash something as an immediate reaction to a stressful situation only enhances the level of anger. Furthermore, people who tend to react this way to less stressful events get irritated more easily than those who are able to calm down on the psychological level and then talk about the problem. Otherwise the lack of talk may produce feeling of dissatisfaction. I’m not saying it’s true or that it is easy to shut off the emotional side from the reasoning. It’s just a theory and I think we all know how difficult it is to overcome anger or fear.
I agree with you that some emotions can have bigger influence on different kind of person, but from my personal observation the biggest impact have fear.Thank you for book recommendation I will definitely read it in near future.
I'm glad that you like this topic and I hope those things will help you.
I would like to emphasize that we should control especially impulsive emotions. After some time it will became a habit. The maturity means to act appropiately to situation.
This is only psychological division I also believe in wider range of emotions. Every person has different sensation.
I am very happy because of your attitude. If everyone have such attitude, life would be so much easier and better.
I see that everyone have other experience and you are eager to share your knowledge. I see this subject as very important and that it causes a lot of struggle at least between people i know.
I am glad for your answer. Changing point of view is the most important in my opinion. When I see how people comment someones behavior, opinion or decision and very often the only insult or ridicule them I am worried. Why they do not understand that this decision has cause? Why it is so hard for them to at least keep their opinion for themselves?
I would like also to encourage you to read about personalities that are based on emotions and reaction during particular situations. The whole exercises are showing how to work with particular personalities. Here is the link: https://weirdblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/22/personality-types-lion-beaver-otter-and-golden-retriever/.
Emotions are very complicated broad subject. Even specialists have different ideas about them. That is why it is so hard to find ambiguous answer to any question that is related to this subject. One of my observations show that interestingly in Poland there is more and more personal life coaches that learn people how to live. It only shows that there is huge request for help.
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
rf. said…
Same here :)
rf. said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
rf. said…
I really like your three easy suggestions that one can apply in order to control oneself better :)
Unknown said…
Thanks for really interesting presentation. As you wrote, emotions can influence us very strongly, so it's good to know how to cope with them.
Unknown said…
I agree with Patrycja - just because I'm not impulsive (by nature) doesn't mean I'm hiding my emotions. Those are two completely different things. I think it's better to express what you feel and talk it out but being able to control your behavior in particular situations isn't a bad trait. I always try to express how I feel rather than keep it inside but it's still not "aggressive" and I would rather hang out with people who can rationally look at a situation and talk about what they feel than people who have to smash stuff or shout to feel "better". I understand that kind of behavior may be helpful or necessary for some people in really extreme situations, but in my opinion aggression isn't a good way to cope with your emotions on a daily basis.
Unknown said…
That's a very interesting presentation. I think some of the tips may prove helpful for me when dealing with my own emotions. I didn't know about the first method you mentioned, the „Name what you feel at the moment”. I will remember about that. Maybe it will save me some day. :)
Unknown said…
I totally agree. I often find myself in situations when people don't even try to understand others and that's the most common cause for arguments.
Unknown said…
That's a very interesting presentation. I think some of the tips may prove helpful for me when dealing with my own emotions. I didn't know about the first method you mentioned, the „Name what you feel at the moment”. I will remember about that. Maybe it will save me some day. :)
Marcin Lyzwa said…
I'm not sure if it is so easy to categorize emotions and assign them a color. I think this is more complex problem connected with chemical reactions in our body especially in our brain.
For example cortisol is associated with fear like endorphins with happiness.
I'm not an expert in this domain but it seems to me that environment in which we grow up has a big impact on how our emotions are formed.
I agree 'breathing out all your anger' is helpful just like any sport activity.
Very nice presentation. There is a lot to say about emotions but I agree that fear is the one which has the most influence on people. In fact, many emotions are just some variants of fear or derive from fear. People mostly fear changes and unknown - because of that many people are unhappy because they are too afraid to do something to change their lives.
There are a lot of quotes about fear in books, movies and other media. There is one that helped me understand the world and fear better - in one of books of Malloreon series by David Eddings one of the characters says that possibility can make much more impact than actuality. Fear of something bad happening can have much more impact on peoples lives than it actually happening to them.
Julia Osiak said…
This is an interesting topic. It's useful to be able to control our emotions in everyday life. Making important decisions while our emotions all over the place tends to be a pretty bad move. There are many situations, both in personal and professional lives, where not giving into emotions is advised. In such cases the technique that you described could really come in handy.
That's totally true. We are constructed of emotions. Every time we feel something but we do not realize that what we feel are emotions indeed. Some people know only about being happy or sad which are two extremes. For our better development we should know most of the emotions and feel them as much as possible. Highly develop people have not only well-educated, broad mind, but also profound emotional system, however every human show off them in different way.
I’m too busy to thinking about my emotions, I don’t have a time to do this. The most frequent I’m irritated, optimistic and creative. Sometimes I’m thinking that I have some kind of depression, because I like drink alcohol for better comfort and good sleep. Maybe I just like it :D
Unknown said…
I believe that every emotion on the diagram above has an important role in our lives. Some of the emotions are considered bad for your mental health and development as a person. That is not true, in fact all emotions have an important role in our lives. Fear can get us to reconsider a decision that could lead to us being hurt, feeling inadequate could be our best motivator to make positive changes in our lives. In my opinion all emotions are necessary for people to develop a resilient and balanced psyche. The important lesson here is to control our emotions so they do not control us.

Unknown said…
This is a very interesting topic. I still notice a mass of emotions that I have inside. It is often difficult to control them. I spend many years to work on own emotions and not always prevails over it. And in my opinion this is a very important skill in our society.
Unknown said…
Emotions are big part of every human. When we cannot control ourselves, it's important to concentrate on the "inside" of us. Recently I heard that personal emotions are connected with genetics. For example, child of choleric individual probably will have similar, furious personality. By the way, I wonder why people are afraid to show their emotions, especially these around sympathy and love...
Unknown said…
Thanks for your presentation. I must say that the graphic representation (especially the first one) is very accurate - these emotions really feel like these colors!
In my opinion controlling emotions completely is not good for people. You need to express yourself - otherwise you will get frustrated. And sharing emotions with people you care about is good because it may help you deal with your feelings. And these people will feel better being a part of the process and not being pushed aside. I know it from my personal experience - I've been in a relationship with a guy who kept all his emotions to himself and it felt really weird when he was just empty-faced everytime he got angry or sad. He wouldn't express any positive feelings either, his self-restraint drove me crazy. So - sharing is one thing and the other is learning how to deal with them. I think there is no method that would suit everybody - some want to talk through their emotions, some try to keep themselves distracted. I am more of a talker - I like to share my emotions, it makes me feel that they're somehow "cut in half". It helps me a lot and keeps my loved ones on track with what's going on.
No problem, I hope it will help you guys.
Unknown said…
It is important for everyone to be able to controll his/her own emotions and no to make decisions based on emotions. While we are under strong emotions we dont think clearly, what in my opinion is very undesirable, because by so we could make some stupid decisions
That is right. I hope that it will help in understanding the behavior of your own and others.
I hope it will work for you, because it does for me :) It is good to practice everyday, then it will become a routine.
Of course it is connected with our hormones. And I simplified the whole process. I am not a specialist but it seems for me reasonable. I also heard that the way we grew up is very important and have huge influence on our adult life.
The situation about fear is my observation. I see dozens of people who gave up with everything they really cares about because of fear. If they were brave enough they would change their's situation. They are afraid of application for a new job, about changing place they live in as well as for changing unhappy relationship. Everyone should take a breath and leave fear way behind.
Yes it is :) It is good to understand others and control own decisions. It is sometimes annoying when strangers are jawing and they consider knowing everything better then you are. But the key is understanding.
That is interesting. I think that sometimes everyone should find at least some time to think about those emotions, just because they are missing something in life.
I can't imagine how i would be to not feel anything at all, must be tragic. To avoid one of the greatest things we were given. Extreme emotions are especially needed when you are an artist. I guess painters and musicians has infinite range of emotions.
Sure it is difficult but extremely important. I observe that a lot of people have problem with them, but the first step is to even think a little about that and not ignore the issue.
Decision making process is steeped with that area. It should be noted when we are confident with our own beliefs.
Thanks for a comment. I attached the graphic representation because for some people it is easier to see something like that instead of text description. It depends what do you mean by controlling them. Do you imagine people who are furious or extremely angry? How they could deal with their's emotion without controlling? They can make a harm to themselves and to the others.
A lot of people try a meditation as a try for finding 'inside'. It might be connected with genetics. But still everyone can work on change of bad behavior. We can change everything if we want.
Unknown said…
I consider your method very effective as this is exactly what I do to calm down. I used to have problems with expressing anger and it really made my life difficult. However, I found an outlet for my frustrations: when I'm stressed, I focus on calming my breath and then I usually realize that the matter isn't so serious as I thought.
It is important factor to control especially stress. This can help avoid such tragedies as stroke or hypertension. Also positive attitudes and reduction of anger certainly is not going to hurt anyone. The last sentence is great summary.
I am happy for you. I heard about hygiene of emotions. Not only body should be cleaned but also what is inside of us. That's good to see realistic situation.
Unknown said…
Emotions are very interesting and complex subject. Pictures presented in this article show the connection between specific emotions. Also presented diagrams can be helpful in identifying emotions. Personally, it happens that I have a problem with the term of my emotions.

Your methods of controlling the emotions are also interesting. In particular, the first of them may be useful.
I am glad you like it. There is a lot of different techniques and everyone should find own one that works the best for them.
Unknown said…
This is really interesting topic. Emotions are with us all the time. I think they depend on our attitude to the situation, humor for the day. Sometimes we can't control emotion. Some people are calmer and some are impulsive. Emotions are also dependent on the nature of the individual.
Unknown said…
You can see a power of colors when you are painting your flat. If your room has a lot of blue color you can feel a little sad and lonely but this color can also relax you and make you feel better. A black room will make it look smaller and the red one will make you angry. There are a lot of psychological properties to each of colors and this topic is really huge.
Unknown said…
Nice, colorful diagrams. But every paper representation of emotions is simplification in my opinion. There are no golden rules which work in every case for everybody. Sometimes you should breath out to stop your anger but some people should hold to this anger and let themselves be driven by an adrenaline as this is the state when they are the most productive. This is probably an edge case but you should never forget that some people work this way.
Unknown said…
Next time I will definitely try your way of dealing with emotion :)
I think that emotions are influent our lives very very much. It is everywhere! Damn, I have just imagined a life without any single emotion, everything super neutral, that would be the worst thing ever!
Funny fact is that we put emotions into our everyday -internet, sms - world with emoticons. How awkward it is to get message from a friend without any emoticon - emotion? it seems so weird, so unnatural. I always use so many emoticons, when I am happy, when angry, sad... It helps sharing emotions in the written way of communication :)
Human Emotions are a very complex topic. Both when it comes to the psychological side of dealing with them and the biological side of how do they actually work.
Here is a very short but interesting video describing in a nutshell, what they are and where do they come from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=junA60oeanA
Surprisingly, we feel emotions with our whole body not only the brain! So the traditional symbols like heart for love isn't as inaccurate as many would think in this day and age.
That is about type of personality. Knowing which one is mine I can easily work on my impulsive behavior.
As I said the purpose was to simplify the idea. If you want you can share with us the golden rules. At some point even holding the anger and let being driven by an adrenaline has to by controlled at some point.
You are right, that would be tragic. We got used to express them easily with emoticons or just simplification in text like 'LOL' and everyone knows what do we mean. But it is hard to express exactly what do we want this way. But still as you said it is easier during written communication than to use plain text.
Thank for additional material it is very helpful. I can guess that it is connected with our whole nervous system, and that is why we feel them with out whole body.

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