Feelings And Emotions

FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS Have you ever felt happy, sad, angry, or afraid? How about jealous, ashamed, or embarrassed? Almost everybody has these different emotions from time to time, and they can have a big effect on the way people think and act. Because emotions have such a big effect on people’s lives.

In this lesson, we will talk about how emotions work. First, we will talk about what causes emotions. Then, we will talk about what happens during an emotion, and how we figure out what emotions we are feeling. Last, we will talk about how we can change our emotions if we are feeling bad and want to feel better.

Figure 1 - A person can have different thoughts about the same situation. Different thoughts can then lead to different kinds of changes in (1) what your body is doing, (2) what you pay attention to and think about, and (3) how you want to act. When you notice these changes, you can use them to figure out what emotion you are feeling.

Figure 2 - In the example on the top, you decide to stay home from school because you are scared to give a class presentation. In the future, you are always too scared to give class presentations. In the example on the bottom, you are also scared to give a class presentation, but you decide to do it anyway. In the future, you become less scared of giving class presentations. These examples show how “approaching your fears” can help you learn to be less scared in the future. If you are feeling angry or sad, other things that can help are exercise and activity. For example, when people are angry, they usually want to yell or say mean things. But going for a run instead often helps people calm down and think more clearly, and it also puts them in a more positive mood. As another example, when people are sad, they often just want to stay home in their rooms alone and think about their problems. However, this can sometimes just make them feel worse (see Figure 3). When you are sad, even if you don’t feel like it, it can actually help a lot to go outside and do something active. For example, you could go spend time with a friend or go for a walk through a park.