What are emotions for?

The emotions They are of paramount importance to our survival and well-being. They generate the necessary energy so that we can act and adapt to the situations that arise in our lives.

Thanks to paying attention to what we feel, we can stop to observe our life and recognize how honest and consistent we are with ourselves and where we want to go.

Emotions are a treasure, that help us live the most significant moments and also make us connect with the wounds that we have to heal. That is why it is very important to learn to develop emotional competencies to manage them properly and thus make decisions with greater awareness.

In this podcast, David Corbera shows us, through a practical case, how our emotions and feelings affect the way we behave and respond to conflict.

In this video, Curro Aguilar explains the main differences between emotions and feelings, and shares some strategies to influence them, so that we understand the origin of our conflicts.

If you want to learn more about the la method and how to apply it in your life to increase your emotional well-being, follow us on our social networks: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

function of emotions

What are emotions?

The emotions They provide us with the energy we need to act. Its function is to help us successfully adapt to the various situations we go through in life and, ultimately, to survive.

Also, we can define emotions as physiological reactions They have a sense of adaptation to the environment. In this sense, they are the vehicle that allows us to connect the mind with the body.. Thus, since they are linked to biological needs, we cannot consider them good or bad, but all of them are necessary.

At the same time act as messengers in time. They show us the common thread of the unconscious programs that we have. These are information accumulated in our psyche, and learned during our development.

How can emotion help us?

Emotional reactions are natural, but when they are excessive they reflect our unconscious information in an explicit and revealing way. Thus, when faced with a stressful situation, we experience an emotional state that takes us out of our center of balance and allows us to retrace the path that shows us.

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At that moment we can let go and respond in the same way we have always done. But we can also stop watch how are we reacting, inquire where does this behavior come from and discover what learning this situation offers us. This process of observation and reflection helps us to develop

In this way, recognizing and understanding our emotional states is an excellent way to get to know each other in depth. This allows us to choose our behavior in any difficult situation.

when we are aware of our emotional state, its intensity is lower. Therefore, it does not dominate us in an unconscious way and we can decide who to be and how to respond to what happens to us in an adaptive way.

Attending to and using our emotions in this way allows us to come out stronger from every difficulty and, consequently, to be increasingly capable of managing our lives successfully.

Emotional learning throughout life

Emotional education during childhood

The ability to identify, understand and express emotionsboth in ourselves and in others, helps us to manage our emotional states, to relate in a healthy way and to take the reins of our lives responsibly.

Nevertheless, most people have not received adequate emotional education. It is possible that we learned to silence our emotions and mistakenly believe that there are good or bad emotions. How many times have we heard “children don’t cry” or “don’t get angry, it will hurt you”.

So gradually our true feeling was repressed and sometimes even forgotten, believing that if we didn’t express what we felt, the discomfort would disappear.

«The beginning of everything was emotion. Feeling is not, then, a passive process».

Antonio Damasio

Repressed emotions contain information that does not go away

As sophisticated and perfect as our body functions, we are more than just the result of a series of biochemical reactions. Emotions are part of the basic equipment we are born withTherefore, we cannot learn to get excited, to be sad or happy.

Which can be regulated is the degree to which emotions are expressed. And that has to do with It is directly related to the values ​​and implicit in the education we have received.

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It is possible to have been born in a family in which the expression of anger is frowned upon and that is why we learned to suppress it. However, that does not mean that we do not feel it and that we do not need it.

Also the emotions that we silence will always find a way to express themselveseither by increasing its intensity or making us uncomfortable to the point of affecting our physical and psychological health.

This approach, as well as the distinction between primary and social emotionsis based on the arguments, published in Scientific American, by Professor neuroscientist and professor at Southern California University.

Damasio is the author of books such as: The sensation of what happens, Descartes’ error or In search of Spinoza: neurology of emotion and feelings.

Feel true emotions without thinking

Types of emotions: Hidden emotion and social emotion

To get to the origin of a conflict it is essential to recognize 2 types of emotions. The first is the primary or hidden emotion, which is the one that was felt in a moment of impact but was repressed for not being socially accepted. The second is secondary or social emotionthis is the one that could be expressed for being accepted in the family.

The emotions that we habitually showwhich we accept and are not ashamed of, hide a deeper emotiona suffering that we do not allow ourselves to express due to taboos or beliefs

Emotional management and Bioneuroemotion

When we talk about we are not referring to repressing, holding on or just expressing an emotion. Nor is it rationalizing what we feel.

Rather, in order to manage our moods, it is necessary the origin of our emotional reactionsof the benefits we obtain with our behavior and what we need to learn from each situation.

In doing so, we open a door to . We begin to understand what really happens to us, what beliefs support our judgments, why we act the way we do, and how we can change what harms us in some way. And, by reflecting on this, we will be able to understand ourselves better and .

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How to regulate the intensity of what we feel?

To manage what we feel, it is necessary without judging her. Simply, dare to feel it and welcome it without looking for those responsible. In turn, it is useful to recognize that what we feel happens at a certain moment. For example, we can say: Right now I feel sadness, joy, or anger, etc.

In the face of a conflict, there is a very big difference in expressing “I had a disastrous day, I’m furious”to say that, “when I was stuck in traffic I felt very angry”. Recognizing the moment in which emotions are felt helps us to avoid extending what we feel in timeFocusing on the here and now.

A next step to regulate the intensity of what we feel would be to dare to reformulate our perception of what happened and challenge .

“Let’s not forget that small emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.”

Vincent van Gogh

See, feel and act differently

The main objective of Bioneuroemotion is precisely to help us change the perception of what we feel, see and experience. To do this, it teaches us increase emotional awareness.

That is, it invites us to accept our emotions, to recognize them, and to use them to our advantage. It teaches us to observe without judgement, to allow its expression and inquire from what we are feeling.

It is the path that leads us to discover the origin of suffering in order to be able to give a new interpretation to our present and past experiences. It leads us to understand and comprehend ourselves, to forgive and forgive, to free ourselves and free ourselves.

Emotions guide us, open doors within us, connect us with the body, with our desires, desires, fears and limitations. They represent the winds of our lives and, depending on how we handle them, they can drag us along or provide the necessary energy to head towards new horizons.

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