What an interesting thought!

Can you you embrace difficult feelings?

There are many different ways of defining emotions. And many of us have been told the same thing, there are “good” feelings - like happiness, gratitude, excitement, pleased, relaxed, and there are “bad” feelings - like anger, sadness, frustration, fear.

But could it be possible to rethink our emotions as not so black and white, right and wrong, good and bad?

Robert Plutchik - psychologist, who became interested in the way animals (including humans) use emotions to help aid survival, invites us to look further than the emotions expression and consider the emotions help us survive and thrive.

Suggesting that when we experience an emotion our attention is focused on what’s important now and they motivate us to do something about it.

Anger, for example, is a signal that our pathway is blocked. We want it do be the BEST holiday that everyone remembers, we perceive someone is interfering with that, we are angry at the person. The anger serves to focus our attention on the threat and motivates a response of fighting or pushing through the obstacle.

The Chart below invites us to rethink, look deeper than the surface and explore what might be really going. Have fun taking a moment to pause and explore what your emotions and your reactions might be telling you.