DEALING WITH NEGATIVE EMOTIONS (1)

An Introduction to Emotions

It’s Funday Monday again, or isn’t it? Well, we try to make it fun for you on Mondays with our content, and this week would be no different.

In the previous series of our Monday posts, we have talked about relevant skills required to be a professional worker, suggested digital skills to learn, and posts on virtues and character building. If you missed any of those posts, you can always read them here, you might have missed but you didn’t lose.

This month, I would address a critical topic that touches on a part of our lives that greatly influences our productivity at work and in our personal lives. It is one part we are all aware of, but unfortunately, few people have attained some form of mastery. Books have been written, papers have been published, talks have been delivered, and research studies have been carried out across various circles, but despite these noble efforts, people still haven’t adopted a universally working approach to handling this topic.

I do not claim to be an academic expert in this field as I haven’t professionally studied or carried out research on psychology and human emotions, but I have lived long enough, read enough, and observed enough to be able to make some sense of available data. I would, therefore, try to use my observations, and effective strategic steps that have worked for me and for millions of others across the world to offer an answer to the challenge posed by this topic.

If you haven’t been informed already, this month I would be writing on Dealing with Negative Emotions, and it’ll be an amazing time. In this post, I would introduce the series, and try to do a general overview on mental and emotional health and how it affects our productivity. I would also briefly list out some of the emotions we commonly feel and the effect they have on us. Finally, I would categorise them, and list out a few of the negative emotions we would focus on dealing with in the series.

So, if you’re set, let’s fly!

According to Merriam-Webster, an emotion is a conscious mental reaction (such as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as a strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioural changes in the body.

They are central to the human soul, even though animals display some sort of emotional reaction to events around them. Emotions are intangible, yet very powerful, and largely control the lives of most people. Findings have shown that people report experiencing at least one emotion 90% of the time and that there are 27 distinct dimensions to our emotions.

Did you Know?

1. Contrary to popular belief, women are not more emotional than men
2. Emotions are the biggest motivator of human actions
3. You have 43 facial muscles expressing the whole spectrum of emotions
4. Moods last much longer than emotions
5. Love is not an emotion; the seven basic emotions are anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt and happiness.
6. Just 1% of the population can hide their feelings successfully
7. 10% of the population don’t know how they feel

Types of Emotions

The emotional quadrant above classifies emotions using the positive and negative, and the active and passive quadrants. I would, therefore, classify emotions into:

1. Positive-Active
2. Positive-Passive
3. Negative-Active
4. Negative-Passive

1. Positive-Active Emotions

This refers to the range of feelings that are pleasant and prompt you to take action when you feel them. They are caused by the reception of pleasant news that stimulates or prompts action. They include being excited, happy, or aroused (astonished).

Some things that could trigger these feelings are: getting a nice job, passing an important exam, getting married, falling in love, watching your favoured sports team win a competition, or getting paid for a job well done.

Did You Know?

Emotions are not felt for more than 90 seconds, but moods can last for hours

2. Positive-Passive Emotions

They are feelings that are positive but unlike positive-active emotions, they don’t necessarily require you to respond significantly. They are the expected range of feelings for people as they are how we feel when things are going well. They are the feelings we might classify as normal. They include being calm, relaxed, serene, or pleased.

Some triggers for the positive-passive emotions are: preparing adequately for a test or exam, getting enough sleep, getting on well with your colleagues, completing tasks on time, or a simple hello from a person you respect.

3. Negative-Active Emotions

Nobody wants these but we all get our moments every now and then, and while they hardly bring any good in people who haven’t learnt to handle them properly, we must all have them and learn to handle them. They are the range of feelings that come when things do not go according to our expectations or desire and provoke tangible action. They include being angry, annoyed, alarmed, tense, or frustrated.

Some things that could trigger these feelings are: losing your job, being cheated or played, being aggressively challenged, performing poorly in an important exam, losing a loved one, or getting rejected repeatedly over an application.

4. Negative-Passive Emotions

They are the new norm for a lot of people in the world today, helped no doubt by increasingly negative happenings even before the global lockdown of 2020. They are quietly felt emotions that affect your general countenance and body language in a negative manner. They include being bored, droopy, gloomy, depressed, or miserable.

Negative-passive emotions could be triggered by events such as: losing a friendly game, running out of data to browse, being idle, getting grounded, having to work on a large project by yourself, or running out of money.

Trivia

The four quadrants listed above each appear to be dominant with a natural human temperament. Can you match the temperaments with their quadrants? I’ll give a hint: Negative-passive emotions are dominant in melancholics

At this point, I’d bring the introductions to a close. Did you learn a thing or two about your emotions, especially in the fun facts? I’m sure a lot of ladies would feel better knowing that men are just as emotional as they are.

In my next post, I’ll be sharing with you on the first negative emotion we would be dealing with, I won’t tell you which one yet.

Until then, stay smart!