Steem4nigeria Accelerator Contest Week 35: Dealing with Emotions

ukpono (64)in Steem4Nigeria • 2 months ago

I was in the middle of a financial crisis when I received an alert from my bank. This happened a couple of weeks ago. My bank app showed that I had received ₦10, 000 from one of my clients. He had promised to pay me in a week if I could write some articles for him. I wasn't convinced enough, still I gave him a chance to prove his honesty. When I received the money, I felt this surge of excitement, what I will call a positive emotion.

In this post, I'll share:
🔹my understanding of emotions
🔹the emotion I had that almost made me lose control of myself
🔹5 ways I deal with positive and negative emotions
🔹why I think emotions could hinder a person from achieving their dreams

DISCUSSION 1: How I understand emotions

Emotions are simply the way we feel about the things that are happening around us and how our bodies react to them. Emotions are quite different from feelings. Because:

i. Feelings are specific, but emotions aren't.
For example, what I experienced was the emotion of happiness, which was expressed through the feeling of gratitude, excitement and contentment. If I said, “I'm happy,” that would not be as precise as saying, “I'm so grateful”. Emotions are like an umbrella that covers feelings. The former is general while the latter is specific.

ii. Emotions and feelings occur in various areas of the brain.

Emotions originate in various brain areas, including the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortices, and subcortical regions. Conversely, feelings originate in the neocortical region of the brain and are conscious reactions to emotions. They arise when the brain assigns meaning to the emotional experience.¹

There are four basic kinds of emotions: happiness, fear, sadness, and anger. These are all inherent in every human being.

DISCUSSION 2: The emotion I had that almost made you lose yourself

As I have illustrated above, emotions can be positive or negative. I will share a positive emotion that made me lose myself. It happened during my first term in JSS 1.

Photo by RDNE Stock project

I had promised my parents to dedicate more time to my books. It demanded a lot of discipline but I did it. My efforts paid out at the end of the term when the teacher announced that I not only had the best grade in mathematics but had also come 2nd in class. I was so overjoyed that I screamed and ran around the entire school with my gift and the result in my hand. Everyone stopped to ask what was happening. They didn't know I was overjoyed because it was my first time leaving the chronic 5th place I was somehow attached to in nursery school. That emotion of happiness made me lose control of myself. These and many more are examples of how emotions can affect the way our bodies react to events happening around us.

DISCUSSION 3: 5 ways I deal with positive and negative emotions

As I mentioned earlier, emotions are inherent in man. They cannot be stopped but they can be controlled. Dealing with emotions (both positive and negative) demands the following:

Recognising the emotions. Some emotions could be intertwined. In the second story, I had mixed emotions of happiness and fear. Happiness because I attained that great feat for the first time in my mortal life and fear that I might not be able to sustain it.
Acting swiftly: Because I could sense my fear, I had to do something to avert negative feelings like the imposter syndrome. I ensured that I stuck with my study routine and never looked down on myself.
Talking with a trusted person. Psychologists say that talking is therapeutic. Share your fears, doubts, anxiety or excitement with a trusted family member, friend or professional.
Surrounding yourself with things that ignite the emotions you desire. Remember, emotions are stimulated by the events that happen around us. Choose environments, situations or people who could influence you in the way you would like to be influenced.
Having a threshold. There's a limit to everything. A person who laughs so much ends up appearing as a jerk. A person who cries over trivial things makes themselves an object of ridicule.

DISCUSSION 4: Why I think emotions could hinder a person from achieving their dreams

Both positive and negative emotions could limit a person from achieving their dreams. The excessive feeling of happiness can make one pompous and less diligent in completing tasks. On the flip side, the feeling of fear could prevent a person from taking a risk that could lead to financial freedom or liberation. The fear of what people will say or how they would cope has made most individuals stay fixed in abusive relationships, especially in marriages. It's up to every individual to manage them effectively.

Final thoughts
Using the five steps I suggested above could lead to your liberation and help you not lose yourself to emotions (both positive and negative).

References
¹ Feelings Vs. Emotions: Is There A Difference? - BetterHelp