Emotions and feelings dominate many aspects of our lives, whether consciously or subconsciously, and it just plays a huge role in influencing human behaviour. Sometimes you may make decisions and take actions based on your feelings or emotions! However, sometimes we try to hide some of them for social and cultural reasons such as conceal sadness, anger, or anxiety and the like...
Often we define emotion in psychology as a psychological state of feeling that can lead to some physical and psychological changes that may affect an individual’s thinking and behaviour.
Those emotions are born of the moment according to the event and disappear in a short time. When you see a poisonous scorpion, you will feel fear for a short period of time and you will jump from your place away from the scorpion, then fear will disappear after you get rid of it. The mood is a condition that the brain enters for a longer period. There are people who after seeing a scorpion remain upset all day and may not want to eat or carry out their usual activities, and this condition is what we call a bad mood.
However, the mood then is an emotional state that lasts for a long period of time and is of two types, positive and negative. The mood may change sometimes without there being a clear reason for the person concerned. For example, you wake up in a good mood or wake up in a bad mood, and it is the opposite of the emotion that is associated with an instantaneous stimulus like seeing a scorpion. The mood may be affected with good or bad sleep, or eating enough food or even emotions such as seeing a scorpion or an old friend. Depression and bipolar are considered two mood disorders, where depression is known as low mood while bipolar is a rotation between low mood and very high mood.
Interestingly, to facilitate a greater understanding of emotions, researchers and psychologists have attempted to classify different types of emotions and excitement. Nevertheless, besides looking at multiple theories of emotion, facial expressions are ways that we unconsciously try to direct social interaction. That is, when we smile, we feel joy or happiness and when we frown, we feel sad. Many studies on the effect of facial expressions and muscle movements on individual emotions and feelings support this theory. One of the studies has found that people who have to smile in line with their job or social standing in a specific situation will spend a more enjoyable time or better than those who never had to smile! Generally speaking, face can create many different expressions, so it may not be surprising that the same expressions are repeated in unrelated cultures. However, the actual meaning of this expression may change depending on the context.
Imagine that you are walking and quite unexpectedly meet an old friend you have not seen for years. You would be surprised (emotion) and then you would chat for some time renewing your friendship, which might keep you happy and energetic all day long (that’s high mood). However, you will feel that life is full of pleasant surprises with some sadness, as you never know when to meet him again (that’s feelings).
I would conclude that emotions do not exist in a vacuum, but it’s still somewhat inaccessible. It might be better to read a person’s face about what he wants to happen next, and not to guess his inner life.
Dr Yousuf Ali al Mulla, MD, Ministry of Health, is a medical innovator and educator. For any queries regarding the content of the column he can be contacted at: dryusufalmulla@gmail.com
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