Our Emotional Google Maps
When we want to go somewhere new, we tend to use Google maps or get a set of directions. But when it comes to finding happiness or peace of mind, most of us seem to take the hit-and-miss approach, and we don’t really know how to get there.
“A calm mind directly leads to peace of mind” — Dalai Lama
In a groundbreaking project, the Dalai Lama and a team of scientists and psychologists worked together to research and study emotion, in an attempt to provide a tool to help us better understand what emotions are, how they are triggered and what their effects are. Because our emotions shape not just our thoughts and behaviour, but our entire life.
Included in the team was Dr Paul Ekman, who played a key consultative role in Disney / Pixar's popular movie 'Inside Out'. (This film tells the story of an eleven-year-old girl who moves home and struggles to cope with her new life and her five core emotions, Fear, Anger, Joy, Disgust and Sadness.) The result of this collaboration created “The Atlas of Emotion”, which is a visual representation of what emotions are and how they function.
It was agreed that we all have Five Universal Emotions :
Anger - when something hinders us or when we think we’re being treated unfairly.
Sadness – as a response to loss .
Disgust - by what is toxic, to help us avoid being poisoned — both physically and emotionally / socially.
Fear- of danger, which helps us anticipate threats to our safety.
Joy – happy or good feelings that arise from experiences.
It was further found that our 5 fundamental emotions are an instant brain response, in other words they happen to us, we don’t choose them. These fundamental responses cloud our perception of a situation , since we filter people and events through our emotions.
These basic emotions were also found to distort our ability to think clearly - making it more difficult to choose an appropriate or considered response. After a basic emotion arises, we experience what is called a “refractory period”, a period of time during which our mind does not allow new information to enter. Instead, our mind keeps rehashing the basic emotion for some time.
Time and distance give clarity, and with time and distance we make better choices. By increasing self-awareness, and by learning to take “a pause”, we can also learn to take a moment before we respond, thereby allowing us to choose a constructive response instead of a reactive, knee-jerk response.
It is accepted wisdom in yoga circles that our experienced emotions have a corresponding felt sensation in the body, and that certain emotions sit or pool in the body in certain places. This study found that to be true. Anger, for instance, was found to sit in the stomach, and the chest is a major spot for the manifestation of sadness. Extreme sadness can cause distinctive physical sensations in the chest (tight muscles, a pounding heart, rapid breathing).
Furthermore, it was found that poorly-managed negative emotions are not good for our health. Recurring negative emotions can create long-term physical harm, manifesting as high blood pressure, upsetting the body's hormone balance, depleting the brain chemicals required for happiness, and damaging our immune system.
And, lastly, it may also not be a total surprise to you that the antidote to a destructive emotion is a constructive emotion. To fight anger, hatred, and fear, we must develop a mind filled with compassion, love, and patience.
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Metta
