S1 E9: What are Emotions?
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See Mood Meter:
https://www.marcbrackett.com/about/mood-meter-app/
Resource for emotion language and aspects:
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Emotions can feel like abstract ideas that we feel and drive our behavior.
Therapy helps individuals to break down the parts and pieces that go into an emotion to gain self understanding and make sense of the emotions that can otherwise be overwhelming.
There are nuances, levels, and language that goes into our emotions beyond just feeling mad, glad, or sad.
Resource for emotion language and aspects: www.atlasofemotions.org
Emotions can be triggered by so many aspects of life and ourselves, which can be complex. This explains how we can have mixed or conflicting emotions. It can take time to explore and understand those aspects that factor into one's emotions.
Certain therapies focus on helping individuals to resolve conflicting emotions and integrating various emotions into a whole.
Therapy involves asking questions to understand what triggers (activates) one's emotions, including the contexts in which the emotion is triggered.
People tend to go to therapy because they are not feeling well. However, emotions are signals that come from thoughts, beliefs, relational dynamics, and past experiences, and so therapy involves giving language to the emotions and then understanding the emotional signals, such as how they become activated and the cycles that maintain them. Doing so can help individuals to feel more grounded. By contrast, not understanding emotions and where they come from can be very dysregulating.
See Mood Meter: https://www.marcbrackett.com/about/mood-meter-app/
The emotional center of the brain is very connected to the frontal cortex that involves executive functions. Therefore, being emotionally dysregulated can interfere with executive functioning skills (e.g., organization, planning, prioritizing).
Talking through therapy or more concrete processes in therapy like using worksheets or visual tools, such as in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), helps individuals to better understand the patterns, themes, and cycles that activate emotions and maintain them over time.
Emotional triggers are any experience that activates an emotion. It is the antecedent to the emotion becoming activated. It can be internal (e.g., thought/memory that pops in one's head) or external (e.g., something someone says to an individual). Again, the emotion derives from the thoughts, beliefs, and past experiences.
There are cultural differences in how emotions are expressed or suppressed. This is an important aspect that therapists can learn about as it relates to the individual's well-being. Existing within different cultures can be conflicting and create a lot of emotions.
Some people are more prone to negative emotions (known as neuroticism), which means that different people can have different emotional reactions to the same situation.
Across various therapies, a commonality is helping individuals to face their emotions given people are very inclined to avoid difficult emotions despite this avoidance limiting or interfering with meaningful aspects of life. Acceptance is also a common aspect across therapies.
Some individuals lean into and channel their emotions into meaningful creative projects.
Research suggests there are various ways in which individuals can navigate and cope with difficult and challenging experiences. There may be different strategies that work in different contexts, situations, and time periods. The key to reflect on what, how, when, and why the strategy is adaptive or maladaptive. There is also research suggesting some individuals grow in some meaningful ways after very stressful experiences.
Difficult emotions alert us and help us to pay attention to what is important and meaningful to us.
Across various emotional mental health diagnoses, emotion dysregulation (e.g., the emotional experience is disproportionately extreme and interfering with functioning) is a core feature across diagnoses. Lack of emotion regulation can lead to a downward spiral in one's life and cycles can maintain the dysregulation leading to what is called a mental health diagnosis. Therapies have been developed that are called "transdiagnostic" to help individuals across various diagnoses better regulate their emotions and address the cycles that maintain emotion dysregulation.
Supporting others can start with asking questions and not making assumptions. There can be conflict and friction within relationships when the emotion dysregulation affects behaviors. Individuals in therapy who gain insight and a helpful process can share that with supportive others in their life so they can be part of their process of healing and growing with emotion regulation.
It can be difficult to recognize how aspects of life impact our emotions when it's ingrained in the "normalcy" of daily life (e.g., consumed by the news or social media; issues in relationships). It can help to take a wide scope to recognize constant aspects of daily life that trigger emotional demotions.
It is common to focus on negative feedback from others. We are protective and often look for threats to us. The "threats" may be primal or they can be more societal like image.
A full life can be thought of as experiencing a full range of emotions. Not just always very low or very high; not just always depressed or always happy. As we learn to regulate our emotions we can allow ourselves to experience and embrace difficult emotions as well as positive emotions, without it becoming debilitating or extreme.
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As we consider how to set goals, establish motivation, and take action it is important to shift focus to the process. In the episode Gerald and Alexis discuss the process of change.
Be curious. Be Open. Be well.
The ReidConnect-Ed Podcast is hosted by Siblings Alexis Reid and Dr. Gerald Reid.
*Please note that different practitioners may have different opinions- this is our perspective and is intended to educate you on what may be possible.
