In therapy, your provider might explain that you’re going to “explore your emotions.” That might make you want to roll your eyes. Didn’t you come to therapy to not have to deal with those pesky emotions in the first place? Doesn’t it make sense that we want to feel less anxious? Less depressed? Less angry? By distracting ourselves and avoiding our emotions we may feel better in the short term, however, this makes this life harder in the long run.
It’s like if we went on a hike and a rock was in our way. We pick it up and throw it behind us so we can keep moving. We do that every time we see a rock to clear the path. After a while, the hike is feeling harder and harder. That’s because our backpack is open and catching all those rocks we’re tossing behind us. We no longer see the problem, but we’re carrying the extra weight around and making our lives harder.
In the short-term, though, exploring and processing our emotions means we have to face things that might be uncomfortable. On the other hand, emotions can be helpful tools to solve our problems in the long-run! A full range of emotions is a full toolbox. One of the first benefits of being tuned into our emotions is that it prepares us to take action. Our emotions are hard-wired to prompt us to act in ways that our bodies think will be helpful for our survival. When we feel that we are in danger, we might feel a desire to flee a situation. When we feel anger, we might feel a strong urge to fight back against something we don’t like. When we feel sadness, we might feel a need to call a friend for support. Oftentimes, listening to our emotions gives us a lot of information about what is going on around us and what we are needing to do to stay safe and care for ourselves.
Emotions offer another key benefit - communication! Emotions tell us essential information about our environment, experiences, and relationships. They tell us when we do like things and when we do not like things. This is incredibly helpful for people. It helps to organize our experience! That’s how we know how we like to spend our time and energy. What tells us that we should get Indian food instead of Polish food today. Or that we should hang out with Jamie instead of Riley. Emotions also communicate our needs to other people. This allows others to support us when we need it. A crucial safety net for everyone. People can only help us when they know we need help. They need to see and hear the clues that make this possible. No emotions would mean almost no support.
Lastly, emotions help us connect. Think about your favorite movie or favorite song…Think about your favorite parts and what draws you in specifically…I think you’ll notice that it’s your favorite because it pulls at your emotions. We can only connect to something or someone when there’s an emotion to connect with! And it turns out, you’re always feeling something. Even when we don’t think we are. We can use our emotions as a compass to let us know how we are doing and what we need.
Four of the most common emotions human beings have are: happiness, sadness, anger and fear. These four emotions are like big umbrellas that contain other similar emotions underneath. Having lots of words to describe our emotions is really important as you’ll see! To start, though, let’s talk about the most general and most common forms of our emotions. If you’d like to learn about these common emotions, check out the Tips & Tools section to learn more!
