Emotions are given to us from the moment we are born. The smallest babies from birth have an emotion with which he expresses his desires and needs – crying.
Over time, our sensory “vocabulary” expands and our body expresses our feelings automatically in a split second. There is a very dense information field around us and we react to almost every event. Laughter, smile, suspicion, glance – we have a large arsenal of emotions.
What are emotions
The definition of emotions is associated with the Latin word emoveo, which means shake, excite. That is, these are human reactions to certain actions, subjective perception of certain external and internal stimuli. They include physiological changes, individual perception and feeling of events occurring.
It is safe to say that emotions are an indicator of the quality of life. With their help, we communicate with other people, communicate, maintain relationships, express our state and attitude to a particular situation.
They express our feelings, mood, experiences. Only a person is able to consciously control feelings and experiences, because they are inextricably linked with mental balance and the health of the nervous system.
How emotions appear
To understand emotions and their influence, let’s look at the mechanics of their appearance.
Let’s imagine such a situation. Let’s say you see a story on TV about a child in need of help and a charitable foundation has organized a fundraiser.
The words of an announcer or a parent about a child’s severe diagnosis set off a “chain reaction” in your brain. You instantly feel pity, and your body “forces” you to react – your expression becomes sad, your shoulders droop, you may involuntarily cry.
Or here’s another example. You were calmly walking in the park and suddenly an aggressive dog runs at you. The momentary feeling that arises is fear.
The body reacts as follows: the hormone adrenaline is released, the pulse quickens, the sweat glands are activated, the blood vessels constrict, the pressure rises and the body “prepares” for the fact that you will defend or run away.
Historically, our reactions govern our behavior – in order to survive in the harsh “cave” conditions, we had to perform certain related actions in order to keep ourselves alive.
For example, when attacked by a predator, the brain gives a signal to the body: “Run” and in a matter of seconds it activates the “danger mode”, which increases the chance of survival and procreation.
In the modern world, there are much fewer truly dangerous situations – no one attacks us, we do not need to constantly be on the alert and prepare for a fight.
But a person is still in constant tension, the release of hormones actively “expends” the body’s reserves. As a result of such prolonged stress, physical and moral exhaustion occurs, you feel a breakdown, sleep poorly, headaches and muscle pain occur, and various diseases can develop.
What emotions need to be controlled
It is necessary to control negative feelings, because it is negative emotions that affect human health in a destructive way.
Prolonged exposure to negative emotions leads to colds (due to reduced immunity), depression (due to prolonged apathy and feelings of tension and anxiety), exacerbation of chronic and infectious diseases of various organs and systems.
Here is a small list of negative feelings as an example. But in fact there are many more:
- Anger
- Irritation
- Resentment
- Anger
- Envy
- Jealousy
- sadness
- Sadness
- Fear
- Anxiety
- Horror
- Shame
- Guilt
How mood affects health
Body and mind are one system. Accordingly, unexpressed or unprocessed sensations (negative manifestations are most often attributed to them) are reflected in the work of the whole organism.
In addition to chronic, inflammatory and other diseases, somatic disorders can occur that occur after severe stress (divorce, loss, trauma, etc.).
It is worth mentioning the positive impact of negative emotions. This also happens, but less often. Thanks to negative feelings, we can “pump” our character traits.
Research confirms the positive relationship between positive feelings and health. So people with difficult diagnoses, such as diabetes, oncology, thyroid disease, received a more stable effect from therapy if they were in a good mood, they experienced positive feelings (joy, laughter, delight, tenderness, sympathy, etc.), had cheerful beliefs did not give up.
Summing up
The expression “all diseases are from the nerves” is 100% correct and expresses the relationship of negative and negative experiences on health.
From the point of view of psychology, protracted experiences, unprocessed traumas, resentment and anger are especially dangerous – such feelings have a negative effect on the body and can lead to dangerous diseases.
The influence of emotions on human health has been proven by the science of psychosomatics.