Fear, joy, sadness, anger, frustration, wonder … Life is a succession of emotions. Some are unpleasant, others pleasant, we live them with more or less intensity (joy or anger manifests physically, depression, sadness or serenity leads us to the opposite sometimes away from any physical sensation) .

Omnipresent, they occupy an important part of our lives. They influence our decisions, our relationships, our successes and our failures.

Emotions are ORGANIC, they initiate and organize the responses of different systems (nervous, circulatory, cerebral, etc.) to enable us to respond more effectively to our survival and that of the species in the greatest number of situations.

For example, fear will freeze us for a moment, our senses will sharpen, so we can evaluate a potential danger and the appropriate reaction to adopt. Anger increases heart rate, build energy in the upper body to prepare to hit etc.

Thus, at the level of the individual, each emotion has the function of adapting to a type of situation, provoking a tendency to react in such or such a way, inhibiting some behaviors and facilitating others.

The emotion that manifests itself also informs us about the state of satisfaction of our basic needs, whether physical (drinking, eating, sleeping …) or psychosocial (the need to be loved, to be a good person/parent/child/student/teacher/friend/lover etc., recognition, respect, justice, security, belonging, etc.)

Emotions can therefore be used to take better care of yourself!

They are indeed functional, always carrying a message. What is sometimes dysfunctional, on the other hand, is the behavior we may adopt in response. This is why it is necessary to learn to regulate your emotions, not to remove them (you do not want to listen to the message?).

Socially, emotions inform us about the state of the environment, the relationship, the needs of our interlocutor, allowing us to adapt our social behavior.

Emotions are therefore adapted to the needs of the individual as well as those of the species. Let’s tame them !