Emotions

Emotions Emotions “Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.” -Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC) What is an emotion' One definition, by dictionary.com, is “A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling.” To most people, that definition doesn't seem quite complete. Emotions and feelings are very personal - no two people experience any one emotion the same way, nor do they experience any one situation the same. While one person may be happy to receive a B on a test, another may be disappointed s/he didn't receive an A. Eric Jensen, Ph. D. lists the core emotions as anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, joy, and fear. These core feelings are only a small portion of the range of emotions that are present nearly every day. Naming emotions in their full range is very challenging, because emotions, by their very nature, are not rational. When we try to put a label on how we are feeling, we move from emotions, person, fear, emotion, very, help, one, someone, experience, cause, ways, understand, rational, feelings, feeling, become, emotions, something, s/he, react, rather, people, nearly, motivated, joy, his/her, felt, feel, example, combinations, about, world, way, try, truth