Emotions are a part of human beings, which is key to understanding human behaviour. All our actions are triggered by some emotion that we are feeling at the time in the present or in the past.
For example: Greg has been working for his company for the past 10 years. He has been putting in so much extra time but when it came to rewards, he is always bypassed. Greg couldn’t believe it this time Stan got the rewards and accolades. Stan didn’t work half as much as Greg. He was so disappointed with this. He went home straight after he completed his shift. When he reached home, his wife started complaining that things were not done around the home. She kept dropping so many statements about things were not brought from the supermarket. Greg kept quiet for a long time but then after he kept hearing these statements from his wife, he just lost it and got angry. He started shouting and he got so angry he took the vase and threw it to the floor.
Let’s understand the situation a little further
Greg was feeling sad that his work had gone unnoticed.
Greg also felt upset that he was putting in all this extra time but he was still bypassed.
Greg felt under-appreciated for the extra work he had done.
His wife reminded him of the fact that he was not efficient at home. All these thoughts made him feel inefficient and unable to perform not just at work but also at home.
From this example we understand the importance of emotions. They are directly representative to the way we behave and the decisions that we make. Greg was feeling disappointed and upset over what had happened in the office, without making sense of what happened in the office, he proceeds to the house where he felt attacked again and his natural reaction was to release what emotions he felt. Greg’s wife feels that she always takes the brunt of all his anger.
Let’s see this in light of these four aspects:
Relationships,
Physical and mental health,
Daily functioning
Decision making.
In the example of Greg, there was a bearing of his emotions on his relationship with his wife. When he was angry or upset with what has transpired at work, he carried that to his home. He didn’t take time to deal with those emotions and therefore it resulted in him getting upset with his wife. His wife had to bear and witness the intensity of his angry. This can have an adverse effect on relationships.
Often people react in the spur of the moment, based on the emotion they are feeling at that particular time. After the rush of emotions have settled down and sometime has been given to thought, then the rational aspect of the situation will come up.
Physical and mental health
When the emotional health of a person is affected, it automatically affects the physical aspects of the person as well. For example: If a person gets up feeling sad, then the morning activities get affected with that sadness. Likewise, if the emotional health is not taken care of, then there will be ripple effect of that on the physical aspects.
Another aspect of physical part is the facial expressions. For some people, the emotions are evident on the face whereas for some people it is hard to understand what they are going through. They don’t express what they are going through. And as these emotions fester in the mind, it will affect the physical and mental being of the person.
We will cover two of the points in this article and the rest will follow in the 2nd part of this article: Why emotions matter, part 2
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