Chapter Four:  Your Emotions

1. Emotions

Do you sometimes feel that your emotions are out of control?

Every one of us has a force inside at every moment - be it happiness, anger, or boredom. Collectively, these are called our emotions. Some people are very sensitive to their emotions, while others are not, but emotions can never be ignored entirely. Sometimes they are even stronger than our rational thoughts.

Emotions can have an enormous influence on your life. Psychologists tell us that your individual emotions are an important part of what makes up your personality. Emotions will naturally affect your behavior - for example, when you are happy, you will smile or laugh, and may even sing or dance! On the other hand, when you are unhappy, then you will tend to react in a negative way no matter what else is going on. How we perceive things is highly influenced by our emotions.

Emotions do tend to follow certain patterns. Sometimes we describe people as "artistic", but it's not only artists whose emotions tend to follow a pattern. So if you get to know better the pattern of your own emotions, you can control yourself more easily and get better at solving problems.

Dealing with our own emotions is challenging - admitting and accepting our own responses to various situations. We need to ask ourselves how we are feeling at any moment - "Am I nervous? Afraid? Angry?" By knowing what we are feeling, we know how to get along with other people and their feelings, and how to face different situations. We can control our emotions and know ourselves better.

You can become familiar with the pattern of your own emotions through your physical reactions, how you behave, and by observing people around you. A important step in getting to know yourself is to realize that there is no right or wrong about your emotions. Whether you feel happy or excited, it's just how you feel. You can simply say to yourself, "I am afraid" or "I am angry" or "I am unhappy". This is also important because it teaches us not to suppress our emotions, but rather that we should learn to understand them and express them.