Emotions — what do they mean? All the basic emotions that we live:
- Aggression
- Offense
- Fear
- Shame
- Sadness
- Joy
Life cycle of emotions:
- Birth — an emotion is “born”, like a bubble in the depths, very subtly.
- Rise — the emotion “rises”, gains strength, the bubble rises to the surface growing. Emotion is already visible, albeit from afar.
- Manifestation — the emotion “manifests”, rises, manifests itself, is felt and lived in the body, in full force.
- Understanding — the emotion is “understood”, the message from the emotion is deciphered by consciousness, appropriate actions are taken. (below are the transcripts of the messages of emotions)
- Transformation — the energy of emotion, through awareness (understanding 4 point), changes its quality.
- Release — the emotion is “released”. The transformed energy of the emotion returns to the person in a new quality, nourishing him. Acceptance and integration of the new. The emotion fades.
- Death — the emotion “dies”, making room in the subconscious for something new.
The nature of emotion is fluidity. Living emotions move through their cycle without getting stuck, freely beginning and ending. They don’t have a problem.
Problems begin when we stop at one of the stages, usually at the third (manifestation of emotion), before the fourth (understanding emotion).
When we do not understand the message of an emotion, it continues to manifest itself, remains on the surface, stops flowing. Continuing to signal us about the current situation.
An emotion that has not been understood for a long time loses the focus of our attention, it interferes with us, we do not want to hear it and decide to get rid of it (to forget, not to pay attention). Emotions pushed back into the subconscious continue their lives there, although in the outside world the situation that gave birth to this emotion no longer exists. Any similar situation in the outside world, according to the resonant (associative) principle, raises a suppressed emotion in us. And even more ..
Emotions are our signaling devices, an impeccable notification system (feedback about our actions) and as a result, the most important learning system!
Types of emotions and the messages they carry: (the message is the key to deciphering the 4th stage of the life of an emotion, to understand it)
- Aggression is when it’s time to start or finish something.
- Resentment is when we shift responsibility from ourselves to the outside.
- Fear is when we do not understand what is happening.
- Shame — comes from a ban on who you are, a ban on your manifestation.
- Sadness is when the old leaves and we look back.
- Joy is when we relax after suppressing ourselves.
Let these decodings be always with you, enter the understanding of your emotions into automatism.
Bottom line: no emotions are good or bad. Allowing ourselves to live them, understanding the messages from them, using the keys, and as a result, transforming their energy and learning through this, we gradually unblock the emotional sphere, sort out emotional blockages, regaining awareness. As one of the many outcomes of this process, it is the stopping of the internal dialogue. The onset of emotional maturity. The onset of human maturity in principle.
Comments by Gestalt therapist Maria Letucheva: Most of us, hearing that we should allow ourselves to emotions, believe that we are talking only about expressing them, presenting them outside. This is an important part, but when they “get stuck” on this, the energy of the emotion is spent on reacting, and the situation does not change, the need remains unsatisfied. Meanwhile, the meaning of emotions is not only communicative (to inform others about one’s condition), but, first of all, signal and resource: when an emotional signal about a need has reached consciousness, use the energy charge (resource) of emotion to achieve the need.