Brave Mind - Understanding our Emotions
Have you ever wondered why we feel sad or happy? Or get excited for pudding? You probably know that these feelings and sensations are called emotions, but I bet you didn’t know how useful they are. Our emotions are short and intense reactions that we have to a situation, they are created by different structures in our brain that work together to produce an emotion [1] and give us plenty of information about how we are feeling.
Emotions are useful to us because they tell a story about how we are feeling. Currently, researchers believe that there are six universal emotions that all humans can understand [2]. They are Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Anger and Surprise. This make emotions important, because they allow us to communicate how we are feeling to other people, such as our parents, teachers, or friends, about how we feel in certain situations.
Important situations that might create emotional reactions include tests, sports trials or making new friends. It is completely natural to want these situations to go well and this can sometimes make them feel stressful. If you have been in situations like this before you may have felt anxiety or fear, and that is normal! Just remember that emotions give us important information about the way we are feeling in certain situations. More on managing our emotions next month!
When it comes to better understanding your emotions, there are some useful tools that you can use. First off, have a go at using the emotion wheel below. Begin by finding the emotion you are feeling from the six universal emotions in the middle of the wheel. Next, using the colours to help you, try and work out how you can more accurately describe that emotion from the four options. Maybe do this activity with a parent, teacher, or friend.
You can also have a go at naming the way your emotions make you feel physically, our emotions often make us feel a certain way in our bodies. Whether it be butterflies when we feel nervous or a warm buzz when we are excited, our emotions are linked with physical sensations that give us even more information about how we are feeling.
[1] https://www.brainframe-kids.com/emotions/facts-brain.htm
[2] https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-types-of-emotions-4163976
Emotion wheel photo credit: https://www.brainframe-kids.com/emotions/printables/c-emotion-wheel-younger.htm
