Emotions: Coins With Two Valuable Faces

Emotions are one of the most important contents of our psychic life. They are so because of what they represent, because of the universal nature of their passing and because of their ability to condition thoughts and physiological processes. To change the rhythm of the heart, the pause of our breathing or the conductivity of our skin.

In the same way they are so because of what they inspire and because they allow us to recognize people similar to us in others. Similar in joy, in pain or in surprises. Similar in broad strokes, because in reality in small features we are very different. There are no two faces that fit exactly in your wrinkles or in your expression, in the same way it happens with the emotional echo within us.

The first face of our emotions: the message

In the title we have said that emotions are a two-sided coin. Both are equally valuable, although in the same way both can be perverted or turned against us. Which is the first? No, it is not the face of a king or other recognized face. The first face of emotions is the message: what they tell us or intend to tell us.

Joy tells us, “hey, if you haven’t heard something good has happened!” . Put the batteries because it is time to enjoy and there will probably be fun. The smile appears and our face lights up. We become a kind of flower that opens because we want to share what happens to us with others, while we embrace emotion with all our desire.

Joy also tells us that we have made the right decision. It validates the chosen procedure and reinforces it, so that in the next similar dilemma we will be more likely to opt for the same alternative. In addition, joy makes us more generous, less distrustful and from the understanding of its message we can also come to feel that we have perhaps been a little “foolish” by worrying too much.

Sadness also has messages for us. It informs us that we have lost something that in one way or another is important to us. Be it a friend, an opportunity or even an object that we were very fond of. Sadness is also an invitation to stop and reflect. He usually tells us that there is some element that does not fit into our history and that we have to turn around so that it can be integrated into it without hurting us with its corners, without hurting us.

Perhaps the emotion that has the most powerful message is disgust. It is a direct and forceful invitation for us to separate ourselves from what has caused it. In the end, like the mido it warns us of a danger, although with this emotion the repertoire of responses is reduced. The most common is that of avoidance.

These three motions serve as an example of the first side of the coin: that of the message. Therefore, the function of emotional intelligence here is clear, it is about knowing how to listen, knowing how to identify what the emotion wants to tell us. But, if it is so simple, why in reality does it not cost so much?

Well, because it is very rare that we experience only one emotion at the same time. How many times have we felt both joy and fear, like when we start a new project and suddenly we have doubts about whether we will be up to the task. How many times have we felt joy and sadness, like when we can enjoy an opportunity but that means giving up many others that we would also like … or when we move and get closer to some people to get away from others at the same time.

The second face of emotions: energy

You have come home exhausted, you go to the kitchen to eat something and suddenly you see thick black smoke coming from the floor below. At that moment the fatigue disappears and you get going. It is exactly the same thing that happens to a student when he has an exam the next day and is able to chain hours and hours of study. Many of the emotions we feel energize us more than any of those sugar and caffeine-laden beverages we can find on the supermarket shelf.

The more intense the emotion, the more energy it brings us. This can be very positive if we are in the jungle and we find ourselves with a lion, but in the contemporary world, in which we operate today, this energy needs a much more intelligent regulation. For example, with the energy that anger or rage provides us, we can do a lot of harm, both to others and to ourselves.

To others for saying or doing something that we later regret, causing injuries or leaving traces that are as undesirable as they are difficult to erase. To us when we contain that energy under seven keys and we do not provide a way of escape to that portion that we do not need. That is why sport is so good for emotional regulation: it allows us to give an outlet to this energy without harming others or ourselves.

Heads or tails? Rather, emotions, as we have seen, are heads and tails. Information and energy. Very powerful elements that can give us many joys if we know how to channel them intelligently.