There are different authors and theories, but we can consider that these are the basic emotions: anger, sadness, fear, joy, love and surprise.
Starting from those six basic emotions, add another three that belong to the same family or group. Look for words that represent the meaning of each emotion, that will help you recognize them in your day-to-day life.
The next step is to locate where you feel them, where in your body you live each of those emotions. It’s a very interesting exercise. We start with an example, continue with your own list and indicate where you feel them:
We already know the basic emotions, now we will go deeper. Greenberg classifies emotions as primary, secondary and instrumental.
They respond to our most basic needs but not always inform us properly. They can be adaptive or maladaptive:
They hide our true emotions to make us feel good with our beliefs, values and with our own self-image.
We use them to achieve a goal consciously or unconsciously. We intend that people around us react in a certain way when we show those emotions:
Make a list. Search your day to day emotions that meet the criteria set out above.
In any case we must be aware that, whatever they are, emotions indicate needs. It is very important to know what those needs are to give them an adequate response, or to review them.
Do the exercise “My emotional record” to get to know your emotions better.
Get to know yourself better to build new ways of perceiving, feeling and acting.
Being able to generate positive emotions to better face life’s challenges.