Sometimes it can seem like our emotions are out of our control.
A first step to getting in control can be to identify what the hell you’re feeling.
The big four adrenalin-triggering emotions, as far as I can see, are:
Fear
Anger
Sadness
Guilt
Fear has some little sisters – anxiety, unease – and some big sisters – panic, dread, terror.
Anger’s younger siblings are irritation, annoyance and frustration. It has one older one: rage.
Sadness at a lower register has things like wistfulness and nostalgia. Up a level is the wildness of grief.
Guilt is a strange one. I didn’t use to include it, but I realised that a lot of difficult situations are characterised by these very human emotions of guilt, shame and embarrassment. Less clear cut, but still powerful.
There are of course less problematic emotions like happiness, joy, excitement, comfort, peace.
Those are not so much of an issue, right?
A good habit to get into (along with noticing your jaw) is to begin to go:
What am I feeling right now?
If we want to be able to stay steady inside high stakes situations, we need to practice when things are less full-on.
Being able to identify what you are feeling is important. If we treat emotions as signals, it can help to bring them more under our influence.
Comments: I love it when you leave a comment, even a sentence or two. Is this categorisation of emotions useful to you? What questions does it leave you with?
Comment policy:
(a) Half-baked, unfinished thoughts very welcome. Systems With Capital Letters? Not so much.
(b) No advice, please.
(c) Be nice.
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Twitter: darxyanne
It’s a useful list I can try to keep in my pocket, but for me I know I have wires crossed and sad comes out as angry and vice versa sometimes. Very challenging.