"What are emotions"

Emotions according to Wikipedia are mental and physiological states associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Emotions are a prime determinant of the sense of subjective well-being and appears to play a central role in many human activities.William James stated that emotions are caused by our interpretations of events that trigger a physiological reaction.

1. The source: Emotions come from within rather than from observation.
2. A response: the body responds to the emotions with feelings.
3. The expression: how emotions are expressed.

Emotions are an interpretation of an event and the feelings are the responses to the emotions. Our emotions control how we feel , our behaviors, thoughts and affect our bodies.

In present of an event (my mother is screaming at me), we interpret the situation with feelings according to a belief ( I’ll never do it right). We feel emotions (frustration, anxiety , anger, etc) that are the feelings we experience from the interpretation. Then we take action (behavior) based on our beliefs and feelings. We experience the emotions in our bodies ( general tension, stomach ache, etc).

We usually repress our emotions because in general we had been told that emotions are bad and we have to deny them together with our feelings. These repressed emotions and feelings stay in our bodies until we learn to release them. Buried emotions create fatigue and depression. Affect our relationships and can cause serious illness. If we don’t release our past emotions, our reactions to the present moment will be reactions from past events brought to the present.

1. Overeating . Compulsive overeaters feel better when they eat denying their emotional pain.
2. Pretending that something never happened. Ignoring painful events so that you might feel that everything is under control.
3. Excessive drinking of alcohol. Excessive drinking can make you feel to talk more , it can make you feel with courage and so on.
4. Drugs can make you to feel free denying what you feel.
5. Tranquillizers make you are feeling more bearable.
6. Exercising compulsively is a distraction to avoid feeling.
7. Always busy so you can’t feel
8. Intellectualizing and analyzing a way to numb what a person feel.
9. Excessive TV another way a person can avoid feeling.

There are more ways we avoid our feelings our emotions. We have to understand that the emotions are not good not bad and learn ways to acknowledge them , feel them and release the negative emotions that are not serving us.

Different researches define emotions in different ways . What are emotions? according to the researches:

Antonio Damasio - Emotions are nerve activation patterns that correspond to a state of our internal world. When we experience emotions our brains record this body state and then the information is used to behave appropriately.
Antonio Damasio is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, and the European Academy of Arts and Sciences. Is the author of Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

Baruch Spinoza - According to Baruch Spinoza emotions are passions. Emotions are directed outward and because our passions are external to us we have no control.
Baruch Spinoza was a Philosopher that was born in Amsterdam in 1632. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1904.

Candace Pert- She explaines in lectures throughout the world how emotions exist both as energy and matter, in the vibrating receptors on every cell in the body. For Dr. Pert, the mind is not just in the brain , it is also in the body. The vehicle that the mind and body use to communicate with each other is the chemistry of emotions. She conclude that emotions creates the bridge between mind and body. New ways to to understand ourselves, our feelings, and the connection between our minds and our bodies . By establishing a biomedical basis for emotion, and explaining how our feelings, emotions, and bodies are connected , we can begin to understand our lives like.
Candace Pert is a Pharmacologist gratuated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, served as Chief of the Section on Brain Biochemistry of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), held a Research Professorship in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. She is currently the Scientific Director of RAPID Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Candace Pert is the author of Molecules Of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine

Charles Darwin- Charles Darwing defines emotions as sensations and desires, they are universal and considered associated habits. Charles Darwin says that emotions evolved via natural selection to warn other creatures about your intentions .
Charles Darwin (1809-1882), English Naturalist who established the theory of evolution.

Ivan Pavlov - Ivan Pavlovs stated the theory of classical conditiong that occurs through associations between an external stimulus a.
Ivan Pavlov was born in 1849 a well known Russian physiologist known chiefly for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex.

James Papez - For Papez emotions are impulses that move an organism to action, they originate by an automatic reaction behavior as a survival need.
James Papez (1883-1958) was an American neuroanatomist. He is most famous for his description of the Papez circuit.

Joseph LeDoux- Emotions are viewed as biological functions of the nervous system, particularly the brain itself.
Joseph E. LeDoux is a neuroscientist and Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at New York University. He is the author of The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life

Lisa Feldman Barrett - See emotions as a psychological processes. Anger, sadness and fear are not considered specific emotions, instead are considered mental events.
Lisa Feldman Barrett is a Professor of Psychology and Associate in Research at Boston College. Author of Emotion and Consciousness

Paul D. MacLean - The source of emotions for Paul D. MacLean is the limbic system and when this part of the brain is stimulated emotions are produced.
Paul D. MacLean (1913 – 2007) was an American physician and neuroscientist who made significant contributions in the fields of physiology, psychiatry, and brain research.

Paul Ekman - Paul Ekman relate emotions to facial expressions. The muscles of the face react when different emotions are experienced.
Paul Ekman is the director of the Paul Ekman Group, LLC (PEG), a small company that produces training devices relevant to emotional skills. Author of The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions .

Robert Plutchik- For Robert Plutchik emotions are a chain connected to events. They begin with an stimulus, this means that feelings does not happen in isolation. Emotions respond to situations in life and motivate actions.
Robert Plutchik is professor emeritus at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and adjunct professor at the University of South Florida.

Richard Lazarus - For Richard Lazarus emotions are a component of survival. Before emotions occurs, people make an unconscious assessment of what is happening and what it may mean for them.
Richard Lazarus (1922 - 2002) was a psychologist , professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California. Dr. Lazarus was a promoter of the importance of emotion, especially what he described as the marriage between emotion and thought. Author of Stress and Emotion , Stress, Appraisal, and Coping and Coping with Aging

William James - Emotions are the mind perception of physiological conditions that result from some stimulus. William James proposed the James-Lange theory of emotion.
William James (1842 – 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher trained as a medical doctor. He was a founder of the American Society for Psychical Research, as well as a champion of alternative approaches to healing. was found to be the 14th most eminent psychologist of the 20th Century.

About the Author : Carla Valencia.

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