What is an emotion?

Sounds like an easy question - quick grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down what comes into mind.

For me an emotion is a response to something that happens, however that event is subjective, and the response is psychological.

In 1972 psychologist Paul Ekman suggested that there are six basic emotions that are universal throughout human cultures: fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness and sadness.

On that same page, can you write as many emotions as you can think of… GO! Are there any that you like? Any that you don’t like? Any that you have never experienced?

In the 1980’s Robert Plutchik a professor introduced The Wheel Of Emotions, which you can see HERE.

My next exercise/task is to pick one emotion, one you felt recently, and try and describe it as much as possible.

“We see the world, not as it is, but how we are.”

What do you think this means? And how is this linked to emotions? Well, let’s say you miss your morning alarm, which makes you late for an appointment, which makes someone frustrated at you - this will have an effect on how you see the world.

Now let’s say you wake early feeling refreshed, you get an email saying you’ve won a free holiday (it’s not a scam) but this means you miss your appointment, which makes someone frustrated at you - this will have an effect on how you see the world.

Of course, life is more nuanced than this, as are emotions, quite frankly I could write about this for HOURS, but I won’t. What I will do is invite you to think about your emotions and ask you one more question - do you HAVE emotions or do you experience them?

Hope this made you think! Until next time,

L xx