Have you ever stopped to give some thought about what emotions are?  If you were asked to name an emotion that is something you probably could do.  But where does this emotion come from?  What is its purpose?  Are there negative and positive emotions?  

A resource that I have found useful is the Atlas of Emotion website (www.atlasofemotion.org).

“The Dalai Lama imagined a map of our emotions to develop a calm mind. He asked his longtime friend and renowned emotion scientist Dr. Paul Ekman to realize his idea. Ekman took on the creation of the Atlas alongside his daughter, Eve Ekman, a second-generation emotion researcher and trainer. The Atlas represents what researchers have learned from the psychological study of emotion.”

According to Dr. Ekman’s theory there are 5 universal emotions that everyone on this earth has regardless of their background and upbringing: Enjoyment, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Anger. 

There are many other theories about emotions.  I particularly like the ones that show the range of emotions in each category as this can give you an understanding or way point of sorts on what you are experiencing.

Plutchik’s wheel of emotions is another way to represent emotions. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13285286
 
“Psychologist Robert Plutchik created the Plutchik Model shown above. It shows there are 8 basic emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust. Plutchik’s wheel of emotions organizes these 8 basic emotions based on the physiological purpose of each. The model is actually the little “ice cream cone” which unfolds to the emotions wheel.”

You can look at this interactive model here:
www.6seconds.org/2020/08/11/plutchik-wheel-emotions/
 
This is just a beginning into the world of emotions.  These two references can shed a lot of light as you explore their interactive models.

One more interactive wheel I would like to share today brings in a passion of mine, essential oils.  Essential oils have a way of impacting our emotions.  That will be the topic of another blog post.  This wheel created by Rebecca Hintze can help us while we are in different emotional states using essential oils and affirmations.  It can also be used to see where we may be “storing” emotions physically in our bodies.

“Essential oils are pattern interrupters. As we inhale them, their all-natural aromatic compounds literally interact with our olfactory nerve and contribute to breaking up our routine pathways of thought. If we position positive thinking with using an essential oil, we can support our mind in reversing the neurochemistry of negative thoughts (which affect our health in negative ways), and inspire a positive thought that can help rewire our brain in positive ways. The Emotions Mentor® Wheel is a simple tool that you can use on your own to identify an emotion, reorganize your thinking and include an essential oil in the process to help the healing process speed up”

https://www.rebeccahintze.com/emotions-mentor-wheel/

 
I do not believe that we can ever explain everything about emotions.  In a way I like that some part of the origins of emotions remain a mystery.  Just as there are many mysteries found in nature that we could never recreate.  I believe that emotions are a part of the richness of living a joyful life. 

I have decided to write. 

Write the thoughts that come into my mind… and there are a lot of them! 

Write about life, sadness, joy, happiness, anger, grief… about human emotion. 

It has been suggested to me to start a blog – that my words may make a difference for others and for myself too. So here goes! 

The Sun Will Rise Again in the Morning, Day by Day, Minute by Minute, Second by Second… I have said this to myself at times in my life.  Sometimes thinking anywhere past the next second would be too difficult so I would tell myself that all I have to do is make it to the next second, minute, hour, day and that the sun will rise again. There always was the constant of the sunrise that I could depend on.

This is why I am calling my blog “The Sun Will Rise Again”.

I feel very vulnerable doing this but that is okay. I have realized that being vulnerable is the way to live a joyful life. I just finished a certification process to be an Emotions Mentor. Such a powerful process that has allowed me lots of time to reflect, learn and evolve. During this process there was a discussion that stood out. I do not remember the exact words but the message was that it is not always necessary to share your life story if you want to get out of patterns that no longer serve you. We were told to not over identify with our “stories”.  These words stood out for me. 

Don’t take what I am going to say next the wrong way as many have shared what has happened to them in their life and this is what they were called to do and was exactly what they needed to do and it has made a difference for so many. For me, I never felt inclined to share everything that has happened to me. We all have our past, our life experiences, that have shaped us to be the person we are today. Some people do not want to share their past because it is too painful and not healing for them to relive it over and over again. Some don’t want to because in sharing, people they care about would be affected and have their life shared whether they wanted to or not. Some simply do not want to. There could be many reasons. 

I am sure there are others that feel like me, right? There has to be. The reality for me is that we all have “stuff” that happen to us and what may seem small to one person is huge for the person who experienced it. Or what seems huge to one person seems small to the person who experienced it. You never know what left an imprint in your brain as you grew up. It could be the simplest of words that you heard someone say that have left a belief in your brain that you still live by that does not serve you.  

So this is to all of you who do not feel called to speak up about what has happened to you. No matter what it is just know that you are never alone.  This is for the quiet, silent person that sits in the back. This is for the person who feels misunderstood or not good enough. This is for the person that does not love themself or believes that they are not worthy or not good enough. This is for the person who knows there is a better way to experience life and needs that little nudge to move forward.

Remember that the sun will always rise again.