Sister Embree
Comm150
12 Feb 2010
Recognizing Your Emotions
This was a really interesting activity to keep an emotional journal for a few days, and I was surprised at how emotional I really am. I was really surprised as I documented my emotions every day how quickly they could change from one extreme to another. I recognized my emotions through cognitive processes (at least I think this is what this question is asking). A lot of times I didn’t recognize what I was feeling till later on when I’d have to think about it and write it down.
Surprisingly I did have trouble sometimes identifying what emotions I was having. I didn’t think it would be that hard but I can be pretty indecisive at times, and so just deciding on what emotion I was actually feeling was a little difficult. Stronger emotions were easier to identify, like anger or happiness. Of course I maybe just need to expand my emotional vocabulary like the chapter tells us which may help with identifying them.
The emotions I felt the most were annoyance, impatience, and happiness, and probably in that order. I didn’t realize I get annoyed as often as I do, and usually annoyance is closely followed by impatience or the other way around. I was even annoyed at myself for getting annoyed as often as I did while I wrote in my emotion journal and realized this! But it’s okay, I actually felt happy quite a bit, which I was happy about (not as often as I was annoyed tho).
It was strange to find that as I wrote down the emotions I had during the day I would find myself reliving and again feeling those same emotions as I remembered the moment I felt them, particularly with the stronger emotions. I had an embarrassing moment one of the days, and as I remembered the moment I felt myself getting a little flushed and having almost the same physical reactions as I had in the moment when it happened. I find it interesting that just the memory of an emotional moment can have almost the same effect as the actual moment.
When I’m in public settings I tend to not show as much emotion, and if I do it’s very toned down, such as in class, at the gym, etc, especially when I’m by myself. When I’m with people I want to make a good impression on (such as a boy) I don’t show as much emotion either, or at least not to the extent I normally would around people I was more comfortable with. I found I show the most emotion around my roommates and good friends, even on the phone with people I’m comfortable with like my family. The exception to the public places thing is when I go public places with my roommates or friends and comfortable people, I do show more emotion in public. Perhaps it’s emotional contagions causing it, but I can act pretty ridiculous in public with my friends. When emotions have to do with boys I tend to not show those as much. I have a roommate who flirts like crazy with every boy, except the ones she actually likes. Why is that? Why do we hide the way we really feel when it would probably be okay to show it in the first place? Although then again, there are times when it's better not to show these emotions. Again, with boys, it seems I almost tend to avoid the guys I like when I’m with them, because I don’t want them to know I like them. Ridiculous, I know, but it just ends up happening that way for some reason. I also really don’t like showing when I’m upset in front of people, I hate crying in public, so when I’m watching a sad movie by myself I can bawl my eyes out. But when watching a sad movie with other people I don’t cry as much, if at all, maybe one glistening tear and that’s it. Maybe I just feel embarrassed when I cry in front of people. Along with that, when I’m annoyed (which as I stated earlier, happens a lot more than I realized) I don’t like showing it to the people I’m annoyed with (probably a good thing). I feel like I put on a face to hide the way I feel because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or be seen as someone who just gets annoyed all the time. Then I go home and vent to my roommates and let all my emotions out to them. It’s difficult when it’s one of my roommates who is the stimulus of my emotional annoyance because it limits my ability to express my emotions.
The consequences of me acting the way I do and hiding my emotions more often then not, is that most of the time no one really knows how I’m feeling, including me. I don’t think I’m satisfied with that, because that usually means my feelings aren’t ever validated. I don’t exactly know what to do to be more satisfied , I guess just being more open with my emotions. I don’t like feeling embarrassed which is why I think I don’t show show emotion as much as I could, why I feel shy around people I don’t know or too shy to comment in classes sometimes. I think I just need to not care what other people think about me, get over my fear of men more than fear of God, and say and do what I want to when I want. I think I would be more satisfied in my relationships with everyone, including strangers, teachers, or classmates if I would do this.
