Exploring Emotional Wellness
The second post in the Exploring Wellness series is all about exploring Emotional Wellness.
What is Emotional Wellness?
Generally speaking, Emotional Wellness is the ability to recognize or identify, and experience, the full range of human emotion.
It is also the ability to effectively control those emotions instead of being controlled by them.
What Are Emotions?
Emotions are a complex set of mind-body reactions that consist of cognition, physiological reactions, and actions or behaviors. Emotions are characterized by:
- Expressive reactions, like a smile or frown.
- Physiological reactions, like increased heart rate or sweating.
- Coping behaviors, like running away.
- Specific cognitions, like the thought a person has.
There is a wide continuum of emotions, all of which will vary from person to person based on our individual personalities, current state of health and well-being, and past experiences.
The intensity of the emotion we experience will differ, as well as the behavior or action that follows. The connection between our minds and bodies is well demonstrated when experiencing strong emotions.
What specific emotions can humans feel?
This is a tricky question and the answer will vary from theory to theory. The most commonly acknowledged human emotions are fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and joy. Just think of Pixar’s Inside Out.
I love that movie.
A recent theory, by UC Berkeley, is that humans experience as many as 27 different emotions, ranging from admiration to empathetic pain to triumph.
I encourage you to check out this list from Wikipedia outlining each of the most prominent theories of human emotion. Even the “Other Websites” listed at the bottom of the page contain interesting information.
Experiencing Emotions
Being able to effectively experience your emotions seems like it should be simple, but how you experience your emotions is important.
- Do you suppress uncomfortable emotions?
- Act out irrationally?
- Do you find destructive methods for coping?
Even harmless actions like venting to a friend isn’t really all that helpful. Actually, venting can have the opposite effect if done after those intense feelings have dissipated. You physically relive those earlier events during the retelling, getting you all jazzed-up again. It can also be stressful for the person listening.
Finding positive ways to deal with what you are feeling is much more helpful. Journaling, meditating, listening to music, exercising, or talking to a trusted friend (under the right circumstances) are all beneficial ways to deal with strong emotions.
Sometimes our individual efforts are just not enough. Seeking help from a health professional is not only advisable, but responsible self-care.
The Mind-Body Connection
As previously mentioned, the connection between our minds and bodies is strong. When we feel intense emotions, we often have intense physical reactions.
To understand this connection, we need to take a quick look at our forebrains, specifically the limbic system and cerebral cortex. This portion of the brain is responsible for emotional processing and managing our response to environmental stimuli.
- Cerebral Cortex – Processes emotions. Controls higher-order thinking and abstract functioning.
- Thalamus – Relay station for incoming sensory signals and outgoing motor signals that pass to and from cerebral cortex.
- Amygdala – Senses the emotional significance of all experiences.
- Hippocampus – Helps convert short-term to long-term memories. Stores memories that are of emotional significance.
- Hypothalamus – Emotional core of being. Controls and monitors the ability to feel extreme pain or pleasure.
Our experiences are essentially tagged with emotion then filed away, helping us prepare for a future encounter. This can be helpful if our emotional response is appropriate, but it can create challenges too. Sometimes we are quick to anger, or fear, based on past experiences, but if that response is no longer necessary, we have to re-learn how to effectively manage our emotional response.
Emotional Processing
When we are confronted with an environmental event, for example a tiger jumping out of a bush, our brains go through a complex process to help us react quickly. In this case, a tiger = danger, danger = fear, and fear = the Stress Response. Traditionally called Fight or Flight, this response now includes other reactions such as Faint, Freeze, Flag, and Fright.
The Stress Response
When confronted with an alarming event, our bodies prepare for action almost immediately; even before we think, “Oh no, a tiger!” As we move from “rest and digest”, the following physiological functions occur:
- Adrenaline and cortisol are released.
- Pupils dilate, increasing sensitivity to light.
- Heart rate and breathing increases, flooding the body with oxygen-rich blood, preparing for action.
- Blood flow is redirected from the digestive system to legs and arms, allowing you to run or fight more efficiently.
- Digestion ceases, causing a dry mouth and GI distress, such as nausea, cramping, or diarrhea.
- Perspiration increases, preemptively preparing to cool your body.
Sounds fun, right? Now that your body is primed for action, you need to do something with it.
Let’s say you were successfully able to run away from the tiger. Your body is able to return to a normal state because you quickly metabolized the adrenaline and cortisol with physical exertion. Your heart rate and breathing decrease, your blood flow slowly returns to your digestive system, and you can get back to the business of living.
What if this wasn’t a tiger, but something far less dangerous, like an email from your boss. Maybe you aren’t feeling fear, but anger. The stress response is still triggered and you may experience all of these physiological symptoms.
But now, how do you resolve it? Sure, we fantasize about running away, or telling this person what we really think, but living in a modern, civilized society means we need to find other ways to cope with intense emotional responses and stress.
Effectively Managing Emotions
The first step in being able to effectively manage your emotions, is having the ability to respond instead of react.
We can slow down, think through what we are feeling, and choose an appropriate response. By following the five steps below, we can gain control of our emotional reactions.
Maybe we won’t be able to beat our brains to the physiological response, but we can choose not to say or do something we might regret. All you need is a little time to slow down, take a beat, and process what you are feeling.
Stress Management
Creating this time to process and respond is a huge part of stress management. The basics of effectively managing stress involves three strategies:
- Implementing immediate stress relief techniques, like deep breathing or taking a quick walk, during times of acute stress.
- Regularly practicing relaxation therapies to lower chronic stress.
- Cultivating a life that reduces the daily hassles and stressors you can control, such as constantly running late.
“It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out—it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.”
~ Anonymous
Being able to effectively manage your emotions can be challenging, but putting in the time and effort to better manage your response to difficult events is definitely worth it. You’ll save yourself plenty of angst and regret.
Resources
- https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-emotions-2795178
- https://news.berkeley.edu/2017/09/06/27-emotions/
- https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emotions
See more of the Exploring Wellness series as we take a closer look at each of the seven dimensions of wellness; Physical Wellness, Emotional Wellness, Intellectual Wellness, Spiritual Wellness, Social Wellness, Occupational Wellness, and Environmental Wellness.
