Emotions and Feelings

("Stress"-3)

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Emotions

During the first cycle of natural development (between birth and puberty), a child learns to express, or not to express, emotions .

Emotions are physiological (at a Person's Level-A [1] ) and psychological (at Level-C [1] ) responses , triggered by specific events .

Each emotion has its purpose, its usefulness, a specific, natural function, serving the survival of the individual or their social and community life. Examples of emotions: Fear to face dangers, Anger to react to excesses and injustices.

Four Key Emotions

During the 4 RTIV stages [2] of this first cycle, the Model-2L retains four universal key emotions [3] , which the child experiences, in this order: Fear , Anger , Pain , Joy .

When it comes to these four emotions, we are not all equal.

We have one of them that is easier to express than the other three. And another that is more difficult to express. We even sometimes "convert" an emotion: for example, transforming fear into tears or anger depending on our "easy" emotion. Crying when we have "easy" Pain and "difficult" Fear ("Fear of being Afraid"). Or transforming Fear into Anger when we have "easy" Anger. Becoming aggressive to hide our Fear (even if we are not afraid of it).

Physiological and psychological reactions

Emotions cause physiological reactions such as changes in heart rate, sweating, or increased blood flow.

They are generally immediate , automatic , short-lived and almost involuntary, in response to a stimulus. They therefore correspond to a stress process which requires a response. Emotional stress.

The emotional response can be "growing" [4] , resolutive, adequate.

Conversely, it can be "in survival" [4] , inadequate, a source of physiological and psychological dysfunctions.

Feelings

A distinction between emotions and feelings is essential for the proper management of human emotional stress.

Feelings are often accessible to our " conscious mind ." They are the result of a conscious or repressed interpretation of emotions . They can last longer than the emotions themselves, or even take on a chronic dimension .

They are influenced by personal history, culture, religion, beliefs.

Examples of feelings: the feeling of anxiety shaped by the emotion of Fear, the feeling of hatred shaped by the emotion of Anger.

We will soon review, for each of the 4 key emotions, some complex emotional processes that we often use without our knowledge, from our knowledge [5] .

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The Next Episode: Fear .

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References

[1] See the Model-2L introductory series on the Matrix-2L

[2] See the Model-2L initiation series on the 4 RTIV Stages

[3] Paul Ekman adds two more emotions (surprise, disgust), to which Robert Plutchik adds two more (trust, anticipation). When it comes to managing stress and emotions on a daily basis, the 2L Model does not consider these four other emotions as universal core emotions. However, they can be approached in the same way as the one suggested for managing the four core emotions of the 2L Model.

[4] See the 2L Model introductory series on Growth and Survival

[5] See the Model-2L introductory series on INSU