Holidays with Harry- Emotions and feelings

I was feeling low.  I reacted by staying away from everyone. Didn’t receive calls. Didn’t talk to anyone. After a long time, I called Harry to catch up for a conversation. Hoping I’d listen and he’d talk.

“How is it going Abhinay?” asked Harry.

I didn’t want to give a common response. Good. Nothing much. I told, “Literally nothing is happening. I am feeling kinda low.”

“That’s fine,” replied Harry.

Discussing what’s happening at our places, we discussed the recent article Harry wrote.

“What’s the basic difference between emotion and feeling?” I asked.

‘Emotions are non-conscious, physical reactions. Feelings, on the other hand, are conscious, mental experiences triggered by emotions attached to your memories and thoughts.’

“Emotion is majorly bodily(stimuli). And the feeling is your response. The better you respond to your stimuli, the better you can manage your emotions.

Most of the time, we always delve with these basic emotions (Happy, sad, bad, angry, surprised, disgusted, fearful)  and do not go beyond these. Check the emotion wheel. There are a lot of emotions beyond these basic emotions, We should be able to feel these emotions.

“I never thought of it. How does this help? How does being aware of our emotions help sir?”

“Once you are aware of your emotions. You acknowledge those emotions. You feel it as it is.”

“Does managing emotions can be misinterpreted as being emotionless,” I asked. 

“Yes. A lot of us think the other way. Managing emotions is to feel the emotions completely but, not the other way.”

We never give the attention it deserves. All our life, we are told, not to cry, not to be sad, not to be joyful.”

Emotional Intelligence is an interesting aspect as it is critical in all situations. For example, during the game, we feel pressured. When we do not know that we are in pressure, we associate the emotion to different narratives and that decreases our thinking capacity. When we acknowledge that we are in pressure. We process the emotion and we act. This whole process happens in seconds!"

Woah. That’s pretty interesting to know! There’s a lot about emotional intelligence.   

“Watch Inside Out Movie. A beautiful movie on how we react and respond through emotions. If we do not manage our emotions, the emotions hijack our feelings, our thoughts, our relationships as well."

"How do we practice emotional Intelligence?"

"Keep asking yourself, what am I feeling now? As you are aware of your emotions, eventually, you'll manage them as well!"

Good one. Thanks Harry!