Elucidating Our Primary Emotions
Plutchiks Wheel of Emotions
https://www.6seconds.org/plutchik-wheel-emotions
According to Plutchiks Wheel of Emotions, We Have 8 Primary Emotions:
- Joy, Anticipation, Anger, Trust, Fear, Surprise, Sadness, Disgust
I’ve been studying emotions and psychology for some time now. I must say when I first came across the wheel of emotions , I was perplexed because I had never seen anything like it before. Many people often struggle with the ability to identify their emotions. The Wheel Of Emotions does a wonderful job at helping you simplify that process. Most people confuse feelings with emotions and well, the two are not the same. Our 8 primary emotions are innate, they are embedded into us and well feelings, are just that. They are “feelings” things that you feel as a result of the emotion.
Explaining The Wheel
The Wheel Of Emotions has the 8 primary emotions listed along with its polar opposites, emotional intensities, and our compounded emotions as well.
The emotions that have no color are said to be compounded emotions. The vertical nature within the wheel can be used to describe the different levels of emotional intensity that one may reach if their emotions are left unchecked. This is just a brief description as you can visit the website to learn more about how to interpret the wheel.
Facts About Emotions
Did you know that emotions only last for about six seconds? It’s true, we are only hardwired to respond to our emotions within the first six seconds of them being noticed. Anything after that is simply just us holding on. Research has showed that we have 8 primary emotions that we were born with and tons of secondary emotions. Some examples of secondary emotions are things such as frustration, apprehension, grief, terror, etc. These secondary emotions are more like feelings as they are usually the result of or a precursor to the primary emotion. And to answer your question, Yes, you can experience two different feelings at the same time. In fact the grey area of the wheel gives you an example of that. They are called: Compounded Emotions.
Feelings vs Emotions
To be succinct, feelings are the “result off”. For example, when most people feel angry, they may report feelings of warmth within the body. When some people get nervous, they may start to feel “sweaty” or when they’re fearful, they may report feelings of the body being “tense”. Your feelings aren’t actual emotions and while we may have lots of secondary emotions, it is the 8 innate primary emotions that drive us day in and day out. The emotions that we are born with. The emotions that have been wired into our brains since birth.
Understanding Secondary Emotions
Our secondary emotion is a repsonse to our primary emotion, and they can last much longer. You may have initially felt angry in the moment, but once that initial moment has passed, anything else that’s lingering is considered a secondary emotion. Secondary emotions are different and not considered primary because these emotions are not apart of us. Secondary emotions are emotional responses that were more so cultivated, experienced and learned. In short, our secondary emotional responses is something that we learned and/or were taught through our own life experiences. Understanding this difference can be the key to unlocking and understanding how you are truly feeling at any given time.
Tips On How To Identify and Address Your Emotions
- STAY PRESENT
Staying present helps you pinpoint exactly where the emotion is coming from. If we’re not present, we can’t be sure that our emotions are the result of our current situation or a past situation that’s resurfacing.
2. Sit in Silence to Process
Silence is GOLDEN; There’s a reason that i’m a huge fan of silent meditation. When you sit in silence, you allow your subconscious mind to process information. What better way to address your emotions other than to actually process them? One of the main causes of depression is simply not addressing our issues and leaving them bottled up instead. Emotions are meant to be released, not internalized.
3. Allow Them To Happen
You are allowed to have emotions. Just don’t allow those emotions to run rampant throughout the day. Allow yourself time to actually feel whatever it is that you are feeling instead of just pushing them to the side. This is what I call the waiting period where you don’t address or process but you just simply become aware of what it is that you’re feeling. You know what they say; knowing is half of the battle.
4. Take A Walk
You know, Steve Jobs was very big on taking walks when he needed to work through a problem and I too have utilized this same approach many times. I preferably like to take walks outside so that I can allow nature to influence my thoughts and it does a great job at grounding me and helping me focus. To deal with emotions, we need to be calm and focused. Taking a walk offers you the space and ability to do just that.
5. Get Good Sleep
I’m so serious about getting good sleep. Did you know that during REM sleep dreaming, we are sorting through and processing emotions that we have yet to address in our waking life? Yep! Sleep isn’t just for replenishing energy. It can also help us solve problems, sort through emotions, strengthen our memory connections, etc. So sleep, sleep well, sleep long, and sleep often my friends.
Quick Mention:
I know a lot of people believe that our dreams doesn’t mean anything but I would like for you to do something for yourself that would quickly debunk this theory. Each time you dream, write down what the dream was about. Do this for 30 days, then analyze your dream contents. If you pay close enough attention, you’ll start to notice some themes there.
Emotions can be daunting and draining, I get it. However, do you want to know what’s even more draining? Gathering up the energy to avoid the hard things day in and day out. Think about it, you expend energy anyways by thinking and contemplating on something. So why not just address it and do it?
The sky is the limit when you take the time out to actually process and address your emotions. It’s not healthy to suppress how you feel, so it’s bet if you work towards understanding your feelings instead of avoiding them.
I truly hope you enjoyed this article and that you’re one step closer to working on being a better YOU!
Until Next Time =)
Visit Me at Www.SammyJayy.Com to learn more about how I can help you work through your emotions.
