Understanding Emotions and The importance of them.

Hi all, It has been a bit since I posted a blog- but I am back. I hope to be more consistent and a resource for those looking for counseling in Ogden Utah.

I am going to begin a series on emotions – feeling all the feels and being curious about what they tell us.

First and foremost, emotions are awesome!

The crazy cool thing about emotions is that every single person on this planet, no matter where they live, what their sexual orientation is, their ethnicity, or age has emotions. Emotions are not biased. However, they can be scary. They can also be painful. They can also be surprising and feel like they come out of nowhere. Emotions can also be exciting and bring joy. In this blog post, I am going to break down what emotions tell us and why are they important. Over the next 10 blogs, I will get into all the nitty-gritty of emotions and hopefully answer some of your thoughts and questions.

What are emotions?

Emotions are fundamentally action tendencies. They are instinctive, natural, and are functional. Primary emotions come from the deeper parts of our brain, which makes them reactionary, and are important for survival. Sometimes clients show up in my office informing me that their emotions when reacted to can be harmful to themselves, their relationships, and acquaintances’.

Here is how that looked for me -

When I was in my early 20’s I struggled to feel sadness, cry and express myself. This would often come out on friends in unhealthy and unproductive ways. I would get mad, distance myself, or push people away, and create chaos. I often felt out of control and I lost a lot of friends during this time.

I honestly did not know what was happening -

But many years later, a whole lot of therapy and healing I am glad to be in a different space where I feel more emotionally grounded.

Now when I am sad, I can feel this in my stomach, moving up to my chest, my throat tightens and I have a hard time swallowing. I am aware and now know what to do with this emotion. I can also now express myself. It is a beautiful thing to experience.

When I am mad, my spine extends, I move forward, my arms lift and my fists start to clench. I also find myself wanting to make a loud quick noise.

Ultimately in these two examples, my emotions are telling me something. That is what emotions do. They are a signaling system that is communicating something. They provide vital information about safety, security, and danger.

Why is it important to understand emotions?

Ultimately, all of us need to understand emotions. With more awareness comes the ability to connect, feel the sensation in our body, and know how to work through the emotion. We feel emotions with our bodies as much as with our brains and it is important to listen and learn what our bodies are trying to tell us. A lot of the work I do with my clients surrounds slowing them down in session to feel, describe the sensation, and also understand the movement or action the emotion wants to do. It can be magical and scary all at the same time.

Over the next few weeks, we will explore the primary emotions:

Joy/Happy, Sadness, Anger/Mad, Fear/Scared, Surprise, Disgust. So, stay tuned, and in the meantime, if you are looking for a therapist in Ogden Utah who can help you drop into your body and feel your emotions please contact me here. I specialize in trauma therapy and PTSD treatment, high-functioning depression, anxiety and stress relief, and Brainspotting therapy.