Understanding emotions both self and of others is the gateway to deal with stress.
This magnanimous thought to heal the world & self from stress led me to read about emotions. To my utmost surprise, there are emotions beyond SAD, MAD, GLAD and BAD. The jury is still out on a final number be it basic, core, discrete or positive. Often quoted numbers are 4,12, 13, 27 and a few multiples here and there. Its quite possible that the number varies by language, gender, age and so on.
Emotions, moods and feelings are different yet connected. “Feelings” are the most seen tags on social media. Extensive research has indicated that humans are capable of 34,000 unique feelings. Whether this research was gender specific is unknown.
Humbled by our emotional prowess, I continued my mission to alleviate stress. There are 3 research samples in my “locked down” home. I excluded the minors to avoid any run-in’s with the law. That reduced sample size to a delicate number 1.
Emotional labeling or identifying and expressing with words is a powerful skill towards alleviating or amplifying them. I approach subject 1, armed with a vocabulary of emotions and a few pictures of colorful spirals spinning from basic to advanced emotions.
Subject 1 is a person of few words. So his responses to all my research attempts came in pictures. Pictures in all shapes, sizes and colors. Unlike emotions that evolve over a long period of time within the limbic system in our brain, these pictures can be instantly created by just about anybody. So as usual subject 1 throws me off balance.
Emojis bring in a rich vocabulary but has wide gaps between intent and interpretation.
While my intent is to alleviate world stress, dealing with emoji's shatters peace.
I express this feeling on social media
and subject 1 replies with an emoji.😇.
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