Emotion; everyone has it, whether they like to acknowledge it or not. Even an emotionless person has emotion. There will just always be something that has an effect on you. Your emotion can also be transferred to someone else as well. This process is called emotional contagion. An excerpt that I was reading form a book called Emotional Contagion by three university professors, two of which were from the university of Hawaii and one from the university of Ohio, talked about how emotions can be transferable. Many people don't pay attention to this, but after reading the excerpt, I realized that it was true. For example, One day, not too long ago, I was so happy because I had just received news that I was hired for a job. So in my glory, I'm telling everyone how much of a great thing this was until I came to a good friend of mine. After I told her about my GREAT news, I noticed that she was very sad. I asked her what was wrong and she told me her story. Before I could make it to the next person to tell them about my great news, I was sad and had no idea why. It made no sense to me then and although I'm still not exactly sure how it works, I know it does and trust me, I've learned my lesson.
If you haven't noticed, many people are biased to emotions. You may be reading this like, Ok what the heck is she talking about, but seriously, people really are biased to emotions. Come on, think about it, Which emotion is you favorite? Ok, now which emotion do you hate? Now let me guess the answers, your favorite was happiness or being surprised and your least favorite was anger or sadness. Anger and sadness display a feeling of negativity as to where as happiness and being surprised gives you a good positive feeling. The reason why we have become so biased to our emotions, which allows us to pick and choose which emotion to show, is due to society. Society's input dates back to centuries before us. It was expected for a woman to be happy and submissive, but for her to express anger and rage was unacceptable. In today's society, it is very rare for a man to cry and sometimes they are considered weak. Being emotional strikes as a negative word. My mother usually uses that phrase when I explain to her that she has hurt my feelings about something. "Oh stop, you're being emotional", "That's a dumb way to feel" and many other sayings are part of the reason why being "emotional" whether good or bad is so taboo.
Sometimes your emotions can get the best of you. One topic that always gets my blood boiling is that of racism, whether it's targeted to blacks, whites, homosexuals, or young people, it has always been a touchy topic for me. Recently I had to "check" my emotions so to speak. An email was sent on facebook containing racial comments targeting the Latin culture and also a group on campus. Previous to this, racial comments were left on a few doors in one of the dormitory halls regarding the African American culture. Whether I belonged to any of these groups or not I would feel angry, but the fact that I belong to all three makes it worse. I can honestly say that my emotions almost got the best of me. One thing that we are not taught is how to deal when we have many emotions racing at once. I definitely could have used that lesson then. I was angry, shocked, hurt, saddened and even confused. All the while not knowing how to deal with these emotions all at once, I just felt drained.
Emotion has an effect on our day to day lives, and its not as easy as turning the light switch on and off, your emotions never go away. You can try your hardest to hide them, but they'll seep out eventually, they always do. Laugh now Cry later is the perfect example of two emotions at the extreme.
If you haven't noticed, many people are biased to emotions. You may be reading this like, Ok what the heck is she talking about, but seriously, people really are biased to emotions. Come on, think about it, Which emotion is you favorite? Ok, now which emotion do you hate? Now let me guess the answers, your favorite was happiness or being surprised and your least favorite was anger or sadness. Anger and sadness display a feeling of negativity as to where as happiness and being surprised gives you a good positive feeling. The reason why we have become so biased to our emotions, which allows us to pick and choose which emotion to show, is due to society. Society's input dates back to centuries before us. It was expected for a woman to be happy and submissive, but for her to express anger and rage was unacceptable. In today's society, it is very rare for a man to cry and sometimes they are considered weak. Being emotional strikes as a negative word. My mother usually uses that phrase when I explain to her that she has hurt my feelings about something. "Oh stop, you're being emotional", "That's a dumb way to feel" and many other sayings are part of the reason why being "emotional" whether good or bad is so taboo.
Sometimes your emotions can get the best of you. One topic that always gets my blood boiling is that of racism, whether it's targeted to blacks, whites, homosexuals, or young people, it has always been a touchy topic for me. Recently I had to "check" my emotions so to speak. An email was sent on facebook containing racial comments targeting the Latin culture and also a group on campus. Previous to this, racial comments were left on a few doors in one of the dormitory halls regarding the African American culture. Whether I belonged to any of these groups or not I would feel angry, but the fact that I belong to all three makes it worse. I can honestly say that my emotions almost got the best of me. One thing that we are not taught is how to deal when we have many emotions racing at once. I definitely could have used that lesson then. I was angry, shocked, hurt, saddened and even confused. All the while not knowing how to deal with these emotions all at once, I just felt drained.
Emotion has an effect on our day to day lives, and its not as easy as turning the light switch on and off, your emotions never go away. You can try your hardest to hide them, but they'll seep out eventually, they always do. Laugh now Cry later is the perfect example of two emotions at the extreme.
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