The Impact of Emotions on Our Lives

Emotions play a large role in our lives, more than many of us like to think.

Where do our Emotions Reside

We live in our consciousness, that is, what we experience in awareness. Underlying that awareness is an ancient physiology that has allowed us, as a species, to survive, and some say to dominate, our environment. Our physiology is not unique, we have much in common with other species, particularly other mammals. And this commonality is primarily seen in the lower and mid brain areas. Where we primarily differentiate ourselves is in the size of the pre-frontal cortex area of the brain, that is, where consciousness and thinking primarily reside. Emotions are found in the mid brain area, and basic physiological functioning, like breathing and heart rate, in the lower brain area.

Primary Emotions

Emotions are messy and very often ill-defined. I like to identify emotions as motivators, feelings, and moods. Jaak Panksepp identified seven primary emotions (what I like to call motivators) and their neurological pathways, that is, he was able to find seven separate pathways in the mid-brain area for emotions that motivate all behaviours. The emotions are SEEKING, FEAR, RAGE, CARE, GRIEF/PANIC, PLAY, and LUST. These emotions work together and at other times work against each other and sometimes one emotion will take over and dominate (for example, FEAR will suppress SEEKING).

Feelings

The primary emotions are expressed in consciousness as feelings, bodily sensations that require attention. There are many different feelings, and they are often mixed. They vary in intensity and valence, that is, positive or negative, and they are reactive to the environment. They also strongly influence our thinking, an influence that is so strong that we “thinking” mammals often deny their strength. This is clearly shown in the work done by Jonathan Haidt on moral thinking. We often think of moral and ethical think as a cognitive process without emotion. Haidt has shown that in reality 90% of our moral thinking is based on emotion. He claims that moral decisions are made based on feelings and that thinking is used to justify the decision.

Moods

Moods are a persistent feeling that dominates behaviour over long periods of time. Depression and anxiety are examples of this. In depression our seeking is suppressed and in anxiety our fear is heightened. Negative mood can have multiple sources ranging from diet, context, to established internal thinking patterns. In my experience depression and anxiety are often due to an inability to express one or more of our primary emotions or motivators due to the dominance of another primary emotion.

Although working with thoughts can be very beneficial, we should also be mindful of our emotions and the interconnection between emotions and thoughts.

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