We
are here to experience a spectrum of emotions. We have so many of
them. Some of them are relatively simple and some are more complex.
Let’s take for example positive emotions. There are joy, gratitude,
serenity, interest, hope, pride, pleasure, inspiration, awe and of
course love. While scientists have already deciphered some of them,
some still are elusive, because they are complex and many chemicals
are most likely responsible for the feeling. How do we interpret what
it means to have hope? Or what is the experience of awe, this often
positive feeling of being in the presence of something vast that
transcends our understanding of the world? Scientists know, that
pleasure is dominated by presence of dopamine. Serotonin is
responsible for pride, but also is a component of other feelings. We
know, that oxytocin is the love molecule and GABA is what allows us
to experience serenity. Joy, which is related to the flow, is more
complex, because partly it is dependent on pleasure, but also on
motivation, serenity, interest, and other factors.
Why
then it is important to experience a spectrum of emotions?
The
modern era of emotion research started, when it became obvious, that
emotions are NOT just feelings, or mental states, but are accompanied
by physiological and behavioral changes, that are an integral part of
them. This has led to today’s view of emotions being experienced or
expressed at three different levels: the mental or psychological
level, the physiological level and the behavioral level. According to
James-Lange theory of emotions, stimuli reaching the cerebral cortex
induce visceral changes, which are then perceived as emotion.
Perception, or feelings, of the physiological changes, as they occur
ARE the emotions.
Personally,
I think that such view makes sense. Given many chemicals have been
associated with particular emotions, most of which act on our nervous
system, it is reasonable to conclude, that they are essential to our health. They not only represent specific
emotion, but their workings determine, if we maintain the balance
inside our bodies or not. The very fact that, we have two types of
emotions, positive and negative, suggests that, there is a feedback
loop inside our bodies to maintain the balance. Negative emotions
reduce chemicals, that make us feel good and vice versa. In addition,
as has been shown with addiction, for which dopamine is mostly
responsible, having just one, predominant emotion, even the positive
one, can be bad for us. This means that, experiencing pleasure for
the extended period of time can be bad for us, probably because we
activate only a certain type of chemicals and ignore others.
Everything is connected and interdependent.
As
for negative emotions, the list is extremely long. It appears that we
are in touch more with negative feelings, than positive ones. On the
list of negative emotions we will find for example, aggression,
greed, control, anger, hatred, grieve, ignorance, anxiety, delusion,
arrogance, impatience, shame, depression, impulsiveness, bitterness,
indifference, boredom, insecurity, coldness, detachment, isolation,
domination, jealousy, complaining, egotism, laziness, fear,
confusion, frustration, unhappiness, sadness, vanity, righteousness,
of course stress and many others. I believe that, one of the reasons
why we have so many shades of negative emotions is, because they
represent variations of basic negative emotions in absence of a
particular positive one. For example, if we are egotistical, we are
probably cold and we overuse motivation and pride at the expense of
gratitude, or love.
Prolonged
stress, on the other hand, has been associated with feelings of
anger, aggression, anxiety, isolation, domination, frustration,
unhappiness as well as others. When we under prolonged stress we
literally obliterate pathways, which make us feel good. We do it
consciously or unconsciously. We activate chemicals responsible for
feelings of stress, which remove chemicals of good feelings from our
bodies, and after a while, we find ourselves in the world where there
is no room for good feelings. We wake up suddenly believing that,
there is a justification for us feeling bad. We find proofs
everywhere. But what actually happens is that, our internal reality
changed, we live in the world of stress chemicals, which run wild
inside us. There is nothing to stop them, because we stopped feeling
of pleasure, or love. We are no longer calm, proud or have motivation
and perseverance.
This
teaches us how important it is to have a spectrum of emotions in our
lives. It also suggests that, once we change the pattern of our
thoughts, from negative to positive, we can change the pattern of
chemicals in our bodies. By simply reducing stress, or cortisol, in
our bodies we remove the constrains put on expression of feel good
molecules. The same probably is true for negative emotions. If we
acknowledge them as signals that we need to be alert, focused and
vigilant, we will be able to solve problems. However what happened to
us is that, we became addicts of negativity and we bathe in it,
because we enjoy it. We nourish it and do not alternate between
different states of feelings. Negative signals are there to remind us
to act and not overuse them. Life is so miraculous, that we should
take advantage and experience it to the fullest; we are here to do
things, but also enjoy life. Coincidentally, this attitude will lead
us towards a healthy life, with few illnesses and disappointments.
I
have always thought having kids is a blessing. And now science has
thought me how true this is. Those who have kids received a precious
gift from life, because they can naturally experience a wide range of
emotions. They are stressed, tired, exhausted, but at the same time,
they persevere, have patience and feel connected. Each day they
should be grateful to life for giving them opportunity to live to the
fullest, because they can experience firsthand the complexity and
beauty of life. A spectrum of emotions connect us to others and shows
us what a miracle life is.
