I have said it many times on My Brain’s Not Broken – I am not a mental health professional. I have life experience and have discussed the topic with many professionals over the years, but this isn’t my line of work. However, I love to do research and find out what the experts are saying. After sharing my own perspective on the importance of feeling, I decided to poke around the Internet and see what mental health professionals are saying about the importance of feelings and emotions. Here’s a little bit of what I found!
Part of the reason I’m fascinated by feelings and emotions is because there’s so much information to learn. The way that these things all connect in our minds and bodies can be hard to understand, but it’s worth it to try. For instance, have you ever thought about the connection between emotion and action? According to Very Well Mind, there are three components to emotions:
- Subjective component: How you experience the emotion
- Physiological component: How your body reacts to the emotion
- Expressive component: How you behave in response to the emotion
The article goes on to say that emotions can motivate you to act, help you avoid danger and help you make decisions (among other things). Emotions are connected to our actions but sometimes, it can feel difficult to notice.
Feeling our emotions can sometimes feel easier said than done, but this blog post offers helpful insight into its importance:
Aside from the fact that it’s not healthy to numb our feelings (we have them for a reason), suppressing feelings that are triggered by negative experiences can have a serious impact on our mental health. Risk of challenges such as anxiety and depression are known to increase with suppressed emotions, along with a litany of physiological changes, too.
TalkSpace
Not only are our emotions to connected to other aspects of who we are as people, but not feeling them can have a big impact on our wellness. And in a world that constantly asks for our best and can expect us to ‘power through’ no matter what, ignoring or pushing those feelings aside can add up.
To wrap things up, an article in Psych Central also weighed in on the importance of feelings and emotions. Whether we want to or not, we always feel emotions. Sometimes they’re confusing or frustrating. Sometimes we want to ignore them, or hope they go away. But, this article says, it helps when you address and accept your emotions:
Viñas says that people also often judge their own emotions: I shouldn’t be crying. I can’t believe this still bothers me.
“When you’re able to recognize your emotion for what it is — a piece of information at that moment in time in your life — then you can begin to move forward,” she explains.
Psych Central
These are just a few of the many insights that we’ve learned about feelings and emotions, but they’re a good place to start. At the end of the day, the more we acknowledge our feelings and emotions, the better off we are. And there is so much more to learn – about our feelings, our emotions and ourselves.
Now, over to you! What is something you’ve learned about feelings and emotions? Let me know in the comments!
My Brain's Not Broken 