Emotion

Emotions are powerful, and can control the way we act, talk, and even think.  Although you may not always realize it, you are always feeling a mixture of emotions at any given point in time, that is why they are so important to understand.  Here are some tips to keep in mind to help you understand emotions a little bit better.

- Emotions are physiological: When you are feeling an emotion, specifically intense emotions, your body naturally reacts.  For example, when you are scared your heart rate goes up and your breathing rate goes up.  When you are nervous or impatient you tend to twitch or tap something repeatedly. The main reason emotions feel so different from each other is because our body reacts differently to different types of emotions.  This is why emotions are difficult to control, because our body naturally reacts to the emotion and acts a certain way.

- Emotions are also cognitive: As I just said emotions are physiological, but when you think about it, some emotions cause the same reactions in your body. For example intense passion and fear both can cause an increase in your heart rate.  So how, when we are feeling the emotion, determine what the emotion is?  We can label emotions because our thoughts and mind tells us what we are feeling.  A lot of the time though you feel emotions but can't explain them and your mind searches and searches for a reason until it comes up with a label to put on the emotion.

It is also important to realize how people display emotions and to realize how yourself display emotions.  Display rules are unwritten codes that govern the ways people manage and express emotions.  These emotion display rules consist of:















These are some examples of the five display rules.  By using these display rules and understanding when you use them, you can save a lot of uncertainty and drama.