By Dr. Juliette Hazart
As a behavioral and experiential phenomenon, the term “emotion” has many definitions depending on its affective, cognitive, situational, physiological and behavioral dimension… Depending on the individual’s interest, there are many intra-individual, inter-individual and intercultural variations.
Generally speaking, emotions are conveyed through the body. Depending on the feeling, it is qualified as “pleasant” or “unpleasant”. When the situation is in agreement with our needs and values, we feel pleasant emotions such as joy, peace, love, motivation…
What kind of emotions are we focusing on here?
Among the main unpleasant emotions, we first distinguish three primary emotions (reflex and animal):
Then, there are two secondary emotions (which involve a thought or a judgement)
However, unpleasant emotions are useful in order to :
Sometimes violent, sometimes inconsistent or paralysing, sometimes a source of stress or causing sleeping disorders or behavioral “slips”, unpleasant emotions can overwhelm us.
This is called an emotional overload, and when it happens, it is imperative to regulate and to balance out the emotions.
Why and How to balance your emotions ?
Our emotions can impact our physical and psychological health. According to the Fédération Française de Cardiologie (French Federation of Cardiology), “ the sudden onset of angry outbursts can increase the risk of heart attack by ten in weakened individuals”
Emotions also seem to have an influence on blood sugar levels. Indeed, according to the Fédération Française des Diabétiques (French Federation of Diabetics), emotions are one of the many reasons for the variation in blood sugar levels in people with diabetes
And as anger seems to weaken the immune system, positive emotional states seem to reinforce it.
Balancing your emotions would also appear to be beneficial to fight :
- High blood pressure
- Rheumatism
- Headaches
- Some skin problems
Then
- Respiratory diseases such as: asthma, or emphysema
- Bowel problems
- Chronic pain
- Sleep disorders
But also
- Fatigue
- Professional exhaustion or burnout
- Moderate depression
- Difficulty concentrating
- Addiction
We have the ability to balance our emotions
Let’s focus on a particular occurrence. The same occurence doesn’t always trigger the same emotion or the same behavior. Indeed, emotions do not always depend on the occurrence that triggers them, but rather the way we evaluate those occurrences. Paying close attention to our emotions, to settle down and welcome them into our bodies in a benevolent manner, without trying to change them, and learning how to decode them is the first step towards emotional intelligence, essential to better connect to oneself and to others.
translated by Zahra Kharbouch.