EMOTIONAL LEVELS

Most people today believe that emotions work on a number of levels. A common view is that emotions consist of:

Subjective feelings

This is how we interpret what we are feeling at any time. These are inner personal experiences. How one person interprets “being in love” will likely be different from the next person.

Expressive behaviours

This refers to the outward signs that a feeling is being experienced. These behaviours can be intentional or unintentional, and includes facial expressions as well as body language.

Physical reactions

This involves body changes which occur when we experience an emotion. It is often our awareness of the changes that makes us suddenly aware that we are experiencing an emotion. Life is a roller-coaster ride, but our emotions serve a number of functions to keep us on track.

Important functions of emotions include:

• Arousal – emotions cause us to move and take action.
• Motivation – emotions provide the adrenaline to control behaviour.
• Adaptive functions – emotional reactions help us cope with difficult situations and occur when we are under stress.

Dealing with emotions is very importance to your health. It’s all very well to say that we must deal with these feelings, but how do we go about doing so, and what exactly is “dealing with our emotions”?