Wellness Calendar: Saturday 11 May
Emotionally available
Emotion: a stirred-up, bio-chemical state that occurs in response to an event. Emotions can be measured by blood flow, brain activity and facial expressions.
Emotions can be so mild we hardly notice them, or they may be so intense that we become entirely fixated on them.
Emotions can either be allowed to run their course or they can be suppressed. Suppressing emotions can cause multiple health problems further down the line.
Feeling: a reaction to an emotional experience.
How we respond to what’s happening in our bodies depends on how emotionally aware/intelligent we are and how we interpret our emotional messages.
Our feelings can vary according to whether or not we consider an emotion to be okay or not okay, pleasant or unpleasant. If we remain neutral about an emotion, we are likely to have a different feeling than if we were to make a judgment about it.
As well as emotions triggering feelings, feelings can, in turn, generate emotions. Sometimes, if we are worried about the type of bodily arousals we are having, we can become over-anxious and overwhelmed, stressed and exhausted by the
ongoing sensations swirling around our body, feeding off each other.
Once a feeling has been felt and acknowledged, it can leave the body without any complications. That is why understanding and accepting our feelings and emotions can be so important to our general well-being.
Facial expressions: positions and movements of muscles beneath the skin that help to reveal what a person is feeling.
Bodily sensations: feelings or sensory experiences that affect parts of the body, such as heat, prickles, pain or butterflies in the stomach.
Mood: whatever combined emotional and mental state we have at any given time, be it for minutes, hours or days. Moods are not caused by any one event or episode, but rather a result of any number of factors, such as our environment, people, our physiology, health and diet, as well as our genetics and temperament.
Do these definitions make sense to you, or would it be worth making a note of your own interpretation of these terms?