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12 Observations About Emotions
How to make navigating emotions at work easier.
5 min readAug 22, 2021
- Emotions and feelings are not the same things. We often use these two words interchangeably. here is a difference. Emotions are body sensations that we aren’t always conscious of. Feelings follow when our brain recognizes the changes. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio talks about it this way: “Feelings are mental experiences of body states.” His work has advanced the field, read more of his insights.
- All feelings can be useful. Feeling content isn’t better than feeling dissatisfied. Feelings are just information. Everyone has them. Be careful not to judge yourself or others for having a certain feeling. What we do with our mental states is more important than the simple fact of having them. Of all them, I find shame the trickest. Shame can make us hate ourselves and others leading to devastating outcomes. Address shame when you recognize it.
- We favor some emotions over others. When we say someone is emotional what we often mean is that tears have leaked through rather than someone who’s displayed anger or frustration. Both are emotions. We also tend to define crying as unprofessional more often than anger. We’re harder on people who exhibit some emotions (tears) while allowing others to escape feedback (anger). Emotions are the body’s signals in reaction to a…
