Are emotions really that important?

Underestimating the importance of emotions can be very costly.

The answer to the question in the title is "emphatically yes". Let's see why.

Let's try to go back in time and visualize ourselves in school, where we were told that human beings are the "only rational animal", indicating that we are at the highest point of the evolutionary scale. Why, because we have a conscience and a cerebral cortex unique to humans that allows us to think.

Yes, all this is true: our cortex or cerebral cortex, which is characteristic of human beings, is what allows us to analyze, plan, deduce, anticipate and, in short, to have intellectual capacities that have brought us, evolutionarily speaking, to where we are today.

But... what about the other word that defines our species: "animal"? Indeed: whether we like it or not, we are animals, specifically mammals and, even more specifically, those mammals whose offspring need more care, protection and time to develop to adulthood.

Y is here where we come across our emotional component, to which we apparently do not give too much attention.which apparently we don't give too much importance to: "That's for psychologists to deal with! "And what about the terrible "rule" that "men don't cry"?

But we say apparently because there are professions (Marketing, Advertising or Sales) in which human emotions are extraordinarily well known and the mechanisms that move us in our daily life are studied, to use them and sell us what is touching us in those moments: a car brand, a trip, a brand of clothes, a cell phone... a specific lifestyle and even some values and vital priorities.

We underestimate the emotional

It is not exaggerated this reflection on the great weight that supposes the emotional component for the human being. It is true that in our westernized society (ours, where we live and, therefore, the one that influences us daily) they are not spoken much of them, at least of manifest form. Thus, it seems that, although in some environments, situations, gatherings and media they may be the object of attention, we must recognize that they are not normally considered as essential for life, nor as important.

What are the consequences of this distancing, this "not paying attention" to our emotional aspect? Let's look at it:

By not talking about them (as if they did not exist or did not have so much importance) it is difficult to pay attention to them and, therefore, to be aware that we experience them.

By not attending to them, it is even more difficult to identify them, to name them when we experience them. when we experience them.

By not identifying them we cannot understand them and, of course, we cannot manage or channel them.

And, therefore, when they become intense (or directly annoying, even disabling), it is really difficult to "live" them, it is really difficult to "live" them..

And now we have the blockage, anxiety, discomfort or more or less intense suffering at the psychological level.....

The importance of emotions

Of course, it is not it is not necessary to go to extreme discomfort or psychological disorders to demonstrate the importance of our emotional life.. In fact, we only have to review our daily life, what is happening to us at the moment, to realize how much our emotional state weighs in order to "value" it as something good or something bad, which causes us discomfort or well-being (to a greater or lesser extent, of course).

Examples such as the following might ring a bell: "I don't know how to tell my boss... I keep thinking about it and it makes me feel overwhelmed"; "I get on my nerves when I go to eat at my parents' house and I don't know what's wrong, because they behave very well with me..."; "I don't feel like eating at my parents' house and I don't know what's wrong. "I don't feel like going with Sara, but I can't do anything else, because it would be very bad for her if I didn't go"; "I feel bad with Pablo but I don't even know what's wrong with him"; "Everybody tells me that I have everything and I feel a kind of dissatisfaction...".

The emotions that we experience in those moments have a determining influence on the positive or negative evaluation of the event or situation in which we are involved, giving it a greater or lesser degree of seriousness.giving it a greater or lesser degree of gravity.... And, of course, emotions influence in a very high percentage (without wanting to put a number, but let's say more, much more than 50%....) in the way to solve those problems, to respond to them.

Some recommendations

In short, emotion is a component or an unavoidable human dimension, fortunately, without which we would not be able to react.without which we would not be able to react to any event in daily life. Hence the extraordinary importance of taking care of it so that it works in our favor and not against us.

With what we have seen, it has already been demonstrated that we are emotional beings, and now what? Without pretending to offer a manual on emotional management, and being very simplistic, I would like to make some recommendations:

1. Identify what is happening

At moment one, as soon as you start to feel a certain discomfort, a certain feeling of displeasure, stop for a second to try to identify what it is that you feel, stop for a second to try to identify what it is you feel.Is it rage, is it anger, is it discomfort, is it anguish, is it sorrow, .... are they all together?

2. Take your time

Wait to do or say anything! Hold on, don't react immediately to whatever it is that has triggered what you are feeling (I know it's hard...). (I know it's hard...).

3. Try to find out what it is that has bothered you.

Has it hurt you because you interpret it as a lack of respect? Do you think there is no solution to what you have been asked? Do you consider that it is an irrecoverable loss? There are thousands of reasons, as many as there are people. .... Depending on what you have found, you can elaborate a response that is adaptive to the situation you have experienced.

Conclusion

It sounds easy, doesn't it? Not really, it is not. We are used to react immediately to what happens to us, because, for all that we have seen above, we neither realize what we are experiencing nor, much less, know how to handle it..... Hence the importance of seeking help to learn how to manage our emotional world so that it is not the one who governs us.

Let's take care of our emotions. How can we? By identifying them, welcoming them (they are all functional, we just have to know how to deal with them), making friends with them and, either through contact with people who have gone through similar experiences, through psychological counseling, emotional or personal development courses, bibliography or, if necessary, psychological therapy, we channel and manage this fundamental component of our being that makes it easier for us to live.