Chapter 4 - Experiencing and Expressing Emotions

 Experiencing and Expressing Emotions

Emotion is an "intense reaction to an event that involves interpreting event meaning, becoming physiologically aroused, labeling the experience as emotional, managing reactions, and communicating through emotional displays and disclosures." (Chapter 4, Pg. 94)

Emotions express how we're feeling ("short-term emotional reactions to events that generate only limited arousal" - Chapter 4, Pg. 94) and our moods ("An intense reaction to an event" - Chapter 4, Pg. 94). 

I've never been good at expressing my emotions, feelings, or moods. Since a kid, I've always felt that there's no need to express my emotions as I've got better things to do than feel any certain way other than doing what is needed. Whether that be school, work, activities, etc., as I've grown up I realized it's not healthy to repress these emotions. It always leads to feelings of doubt, lack of motivation, and an overall decrease in the quality of living. 

My way of expressing these emotions has not always been healthy as I've never really developed an outlet for them. I tend to go through phases of how I'm feeling because I will find an outlet that makes me happy, so I will hyper-focus on them. One of the worst outlets I hyper-focused on was during the Covid summer and school year. I had been very overweight my whole life, I loved to just eat all day and play video games and just didn't care about what people thought of me. I meet someone who wanted to be my friend but was ashamed to be seen with me as I was so big. This friend ended up leaving and putting me in a terrible mood, some say I was downright depressed. 

I found a new outlet for this mood, I started to not eat, and work out daily or more so I could feel good about myself. I quickly started to lose the weight that had brought me so many issues. Within a year I lost 90 pounds, but it didn't fix any issues with my mood. I was still feeling less of myself, I still hadn't excepted myself and that was the issue. 

It's hard to experience and express emotions, they change you whether that be for better or worse. You need a healthy way to express it or you'll find yourself stuck in a loop of wanting to appease others so your emotions never have to factor in what you go through in life. 

Never stop expressing your emotions or you won't be yourself, you'll only be what people want you to be so you don't have to feel anything.