The Purpose of 3 Common Emotions
Did you know that all of our emotions serve a specific purpose? Well, today I want to talk about the purpose of 3 common emotions.
The Purpose of 3 Common Emotions
First of all, I used to suppress my emotions as much as I could. Honestly, I was never taught how to deal with them, so I just pushed them away.
If you think you might have emotional baggage, I wrote a blog post about that here.
Eventually, that stopped working. Since I felt so disconnected from myself, I wanted to find ways to feel better. So, I started learning more about emotions and why I even had them to begin with!
Surprisingly to me, our emotions all have a unique purpose.
Also, our emotions were the first part of our brains to form. So, that means our emotions haven’t really changed that much from ancient times.
Sure, our lives are completely different than when we lived in caves. But, all of our emotions are linked to old survival purposes.
So, today I want to share what I learned with you! Here is the purpose behind three of our most common emotions.
#1 The Purpose of Anger
First of all, let’s talk about the purpose of anger.
When you feel angry, your heart rate increases and your body is flooded with adrenaline. Also, you might even feel blood rushing to your hands.
This was because historically, anger made it easier to grab weapons and strike at an enemy.
Personally, I’ve found that when I feel angry it’s because something has happened that is NOT ok with me.
So, I take anger as a sign that it’s time to make a change.
Ultimately, anger gives you energy to take action and make change.
#2 The Purpose of Fear
Next up is fear!
When your body feels fear, your blood travels to your larger skeletal muscles, like your legs. This makes it easier to run away in the face of danger. Or, your body might freeze entirely.
Sometimes, in fear the blood will run from your face. Maybe you’ve seen someone’s face completely lose its color in fear? I know I have.
Also, your brain has a flood of hormones that put you on high alert. When this happens, it helps prepare you to take action.
Personally, I have specific memories of when I’ve been in deep fear and my body had these reactions. Since I knew what those fear reactions meant, it helped me reassure and validate myself afterward.
While fear is an important emotion, it shows you where you might be freezing. If you can get yourself unfrozen, then you can move forward.
I have a blog post here that can help you process your fear.
#3 The Purpose of Sadness
Finally, let’s talk about the purpose of sadness.
So, the main purpose of sadness is to help you adjust to a significant loss in your life.
When you feel sadness, the energy actually decreases in your body so you can process and mourn the loss.
If you’re deep in sadness, you might even experience a decreased metabolism.
After that, your energy will slowly return to create new beginnings.
Honestly, this was my favorite emotion to learn about. Since I tend to feel a lot of sadness, I was curious about the purpose behind it.
Also, I find it reassuring that sadness will eventually help you create a new beginning.
Emotions Are There for a Reason
The more you know about the emotions you feel, the more you can understand yourself. And that’s the first step in becoming emotionally intelligent!
Hopefully, now you know a bit more about the purposes of anger, fear and sadness. If you want to know more about some other emotions, I have a blog post about that here.
Are there any other emotions you’d like to learn more about? Tell me in the comments!
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