What is Emotion? – Buddhist Psychology
What is Emotions?
Let's start with its etymology. Per Wikipedia, "the word "emotion" dates back to 1579 when it was adapted from the French word émouvoir, which means "to stir up." The term emotion was introduced into academic discussions as a catch-all term to passions, sentiments, and affections."
This is very close to what Emotion means in Buddhist psychology, where Emotion is referred to as Volition, psychological and physical energy to move toward, away, or neutral.
Imagine you are feeding a baby. When you feed broccoli, the baby may play with it for the first time, but once it determines it is unpleasant, it will spit out. If you bring broccoli again, they will push it away. On the other hand, if you feed ice cream, it perceives ice cream as pleasant. Next time when you bring ice cream, the baby will lean forward to get it. This Volition to move toward the pleasant and move away from the unpleasant is referred to as Emotion.
It is described as Five Skandhas (five mental aggregates) as shown below;
Ice cream (Form) > Taste (Sensation) > Pleasant (Perception) > Move toward (Volition) > Discerning "ice cream is good" (Discernment)
Why will ice cream create the sweetness of our Emotions? Because this body is designed to do two things: Survive and Procreate. Evolutionally, sugar is good for our survival; hence a baby knows it is good for them. Emotions urge us to act for our survival or procreation.
Where things all went wrong with Emotions?
Emotion is vital energy. When people don't know how to deal with it, they tend to fear the power, creating another emotion of avoidance at all costs. If you avoid negative feelings, positive feelings will also disappear. Since Western industrialization, it has gotten worse. Emotion has often regarded as inferior to our intellects. Rather than recognizing its functioning, people have been asked to keep emotions to themselves and act on the intellectual processing only.
It is like building a large dam on the river of Emotion. The Volition to flow is now blocked. It may feel like working at the beginning. However, rain continues, the dam is filled up. The stagnant water starts rotting. The downstream suffers from drought. With a round of heavy rain, the spoiled water overflows and floods the field. Once it is over, the drought continues, and nothing grows in the area. Flood or drought becomes the norm in the field of your life.
The river needs to flow, and you need to be more skillful.
The river of Emotion needs to flow to allow the field of your life to flourish. It is the beautiful energy of life when we learn how to use it. Anger is too a beautiful volition to get rid of or change the things you don't like. Every meaningful change starts with feeling angry at something. Using it properly will drive you to endure many challenges until the change is made. But, if you mishandle it, it can be destructive to all, like a flood.
To skillfully manage Emotion, you need to learn the key characteristics of it through mindfulness. You need to become aware of your emotions and the reactive patterns to build proper response systems to manage them.
3 Simple Tips to allow your emotions to flow safely
Validate your emotions by saying, "It is ok to feel this way.": It is imperative for you to recognize your own feeling. Often we ignore or block our own emotions. This should stop.
Express your feeling using "I" statement.: We often feel isolated, saying "no one understands me," while you haven't shared how you feel. Expressing your Emotion is ok, but it has to be in a non-violent way. The trick is "I" statement. For example, saying "I am very angry with this situation" is much better than "You stupid messed everything up." Share your feelings as your feelings, not as someone's fault.
Mindfully turn the energy into actions in a way that works.: If you fear or are angry at something, turn the energy into actions like developing plans and executing them to create meaningful changes in your life. Starting therapy is a good example as well.
When the river flows gently and skillfully, all the life in the field will flourish. Your life can too.