Hello!
Emotions are an integral part human consciousness.
The fact is that emotions and feelings have not one specific function, but several.
First of all, emotions and feelings, like all other mental processes, are a reflection of real reality, but only in the form of experience.
At the same time, the concepts of “emotions” and “feelings,” which “in everyday life” are often used as equivalent, actually designate various mental phenomena, which, of course, are closely related to each other.
Both emotions and feelings reflect a person’s needs, or rather, how these needs are satisfied. Emotional experiences reflect the vital significance of phenomena and situations affecting a person. In other words, emotions are a reflection in the form of biased experience life meaning phenomena and situations.
In general, we can say that everything that promotes or facilitates the satisfaction of needs causes positive emotional experiences, and, conversely, everything that interferes with this causes negative ones.
An important difference between feelings and emotions is that feelings are relatively stable and permanent, while emotions arise in response to a specific situation.
The deep connection between feelings and emotions is manifested, first of all, in the fact that the feeling is experienced and revealed precisely in specific emotions. Thus, a feeling of love for a loved one can be experienced, depending on the situation, as an emotion of joy for him, pleasure from communication, anxiety if something threatens him, annoyance if he did not live up to our hopes, pride for his successes, shame in if he has done something unworthy, etc.
The structure of a feeling includes not only emotion, direct experience, but also a more generalized attitude associated with knowledge, understanding, and concept.
One of the main functions of emotions is that they help to navigate the surrounding reality, evaluate objects and phenomena from the point of view of their desirability or undesirability, usefulness or harmfulness.
Emotion arises when there is a discrepancy between what needs to be known and in order to satisfy the need ( necessary information), and what is actually known.
It is important to understand what exactly is stopping you from expressing your emotions. It is necessary to be aware and give yourself an account of what exactly you feel at a certain moment.
Here are some tips on how to learn to express your emotions:
- If a person has done a good deed for you or said kind words to you, do not hesitate to thank him for it. Speak sincerely, express the feelings that arise in your soul. Let it not be a simple “Thank you,” but a more expanded expression: “How nice it is to receive this gift from you,” “You are a wonderful cook.”
- Support your words with actions - intonation, posture, facial expressions. If you say words of gratitude with a straight face, the person will have a not very flattering impression of you. And words spoken with a warm, sincere smile will leave nice mark on his soul. And in the future, he will be happy to provide you with another service.
- Express what you feel in a conversation with your partner. You are squeezed and feel very nervous, so say: “I’m worried, I don’t know how to start.” A normal interlocutor will always support you and give you the opportunity to calm down.
- Negative emotions also cannot be hidden, they must be expressed. If you don't like something in your partner's behavior, tell him about it. There is no need to be silent and offended. Maybe the person doesn’t understand what exactly doesn’t suit you.
- Do not put off clarifying the relationship until later, do not accumulate your grievances. This is fraught not only with the deterioration of relationships, but also affects physical condition. Keep in mind that the longer you accumulate aggression within yourself, the more it will later spill out onto your partner. Perhaps after such an explosion of accumulated emotions, you will not be able to restore normal relationships.
Good luck to you!
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Discuss with an expertExpressing your emotions and feelings is important and correct. But in some cases you may be mistaken for. For example, you say: “I’m so angry! - or, - This upsets me. In response, the interlocutor immediately corrects his behavior - which means you are manipulating, even if you don’t realize it. And if this happens again, a serious conflict may occur.
It is important to express our emotions in such a way as not to make it clear to the person that we want something from him. It's difficult and that's what this article is for. We have the right to feel angry, upset, guilty or discouraged, but we need to express these emotions in a constructive manner.
Psychologist Marshall Rosenberg identified four principles by which we can express our emotions without irritating the people we are addressing. It is necessary to adhere to these principles both with friends and loved ones, and with strangers. Don't think that just because a person is close to you or completely distant, it changes the rules of the game.
Four Fundamental Principles of Nonviolent Communication
- Observation. To become a great communicator, you must learn to focus on facts before defining or judging a situation. If someone does not show up for a meeting at the agreed time, then this is the only information that is available to you. You should not lose your temper and call to show your dissatisfaction. You should not think that this is rude or that the person does not value the relationship. These are not facts. If you give in to these thoughts, you will begin to behave like an emotional manipulator, demanding explanations and expressing resentment and anger. There may be dozens of reasons why a person did not show up for a meeting or was late. By trying to make him feel guilty, you risk achieving the opposite result.
- Feelings. For you to express your feelings and emotions honestly and openly. When a manager denies you a promotion, you begin to think that this is dishonest, identifying this with the fact that the manager himself is dishonest. You can expect other concessions and that he himself will guess about them. You may even start to work worse and behave impolitely. This is all emotional manipulation. Express your feelings without offense: “I feel upset,” “I’m disappointed because...”.
- Needs. It is useful to understand that almost all feelings and emotions are needs. Therefore, it is important to talk about your needs in an appropriate manner, and not like a child. Imagine the situation. The wife tells her husband: “You spend too much time at work,” after which he takes the day off and goes fishing with friends. From the outside it’s funny, but it’s unlikely that it will be fun for the wife. When you approach someone with a request or advice, remember not to allow misinterpretations.
- Requests. Needs can take the form of requests. It is important that these are requests, not demands. Respect other people. You can achieve a lot from a person if he knows that he is respected. Do not forget that the request is your request and it is this person you need, and not vice versa.
Following these principles is a great start for almost any communication. Which, of course, does not negate the fact that your request may be rejected, your need may not be met, your feelings may not be accepted, and your observations may be inaccurate.
Feelings are a two-way street. Just because you feel something doesn't mean the other person will understand it. However, keeping these principles in mind, the likelihood of mutual understanding increases many times over.
How to express your feelings in a friendly way
Here are some tips:
- Be honest about your feelings. This advice seems banal and it is for this reason that rarely anyone listens to it. In addition, most people do not understand their feelings and emotions. Therefore, if you are experiencing such difficulties, increase your . The inability to express feelings hits where it hurts the most - relationships with other people.
- Take responsibility for your emotions and feelings. When certain people or situations affect our feelings and emotions, we must remember that we are the ones responsible for them. If someone or something annoys us, then it is our fault, our reaction. When someone disappoints us, we should also take responsibility for our emotion. No one and nothing can force us to experience an emotion unless we want it ourselves. What happens when we refuse to take responsibility for an emotion? That's right, we use this as an excuse for acceptance. bad decision and bad behavior. We immediately become an emotional manipulator.
- Communicate your needs without judgment.. Saying what you want without judging or blaming seems like an impossible task for most people.
- Make a specific request. The request must be precise, because if it can be misunderstood, it will happen. People understand words such as “many” and “little”, “love” and “betrayal” differently. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is be in the same coordinate system, speak the same language. It’s curious, but sometimes it’s useful to answer the questions “What do I understand by relationships?” and “What is freedom and happiness for me?”
- Remember that the interlocutor also has feelings and requests. begins where the needs and wants of one party are taken into account. Your interlocutor does not necessarily need to be given something material; sometimes food for respect is quite enough. Every person wants to be valued and their merits respected. So first, listen, try to understand and show that he has been listened to and understood. And under no circumstances show that your feelings are more important than his feelings, otherwise it will be much more difficult for you to come to a mutual agreement.
- Respect the other person when he says “no”. It is very easy to love and respect people who agree with you, indulge you, give you what you want. And how difficult it is to do the same when we don’t get what we want. This requires wisdom, respect, understanding. There are extremely few people with such qualities. Refusal may be painful for you, but keep in mind that it is not the person’s fault. It is in his interests to refuse you and that is completely normal. You must accept his decision and move on with your life.
We wish you good luck!
Question for a psychologist:
Good afternoon My name is Oksana, I'm 25 years old, I work. I am very reserved and uncommunicative, it is difficult for me to express my feelings to other people if their opinion of me is important to me.
Now I have a boyfriend, and I have a hard time understanding the relationship between us. To me it looks like we just sometimes have intimacy when we meet and that’s it. At first we just talked, mainly about work issues. At some point, he wrote that he was interested in me and he would like me to be more open with him, it was clear that he was showing sympathy and, in general, I liked him. I began to pay more attention to him, but still didn’t tell him anything personal, I just can’t imagine how you can just start telling a person about your experiences. If he asked me anything now, I would answer, but I can’t start on my own. After the first intimacy It began to seem to me that our relationship was already strained, that he was not interested in me. I think this is because I did not answer him with sincerity, did not say what I felt. I never complimented him or how much I enjoyed being with him. One day I got ready and made up my mind, but I just couldn’t utter a word. It was as if my mouth went numb and all thoughts evaporated from my head, except the one that I couldn’t do this. Sometimes I try to write something to him to show interest, but in reality I don't know what to write. I can write something like “how are you?” and after his rather dry answer, I have nothing more to say, I have no ideas, no assumptions, and nothing interesting is happening in my life for me to talk about myself.
And recently I noticed that in general I have nothing to write to anyone, I can’t think of a happy birthday greeting, even for a good friend. Sometimes I find it very difficult to listen to stories that a colleague tells me. And even more so, I’m not interested in looking at other people’s vacation photos. I showed mine from vacation to a couple of people with reluctance, it seems to me that no one needs it. I’m not at all interested in other people’s lives and I have nothing to say about my own. I was not very sociable and sociable before, and it was difficult for me to meet people and make contact with people, especially with people I didn’t know well. And for me to feel at ease with a person or company, it takes me a couple of months. But even before I wasn’t so indifferent. It has developed over the last year or so.
My parents divorced when I was seven. After moving and moving to a new school, it became very difficult for me to establish contacts with other children. At first school I was quite sociable and was not afraid to talk to anyone. I could easily meet someone in the yard. In the new city, I made my first girlfriends only because they were our neighbors and my parents gently forced us to communicate. I made my normal friends in the 8th grade.
In the first year after the divorce, my father came to see me a couple of times. Then he was supposed to come one summer, but he didn’t come and didn’t get in touch to say why. At least no one said anything to me, I was waiting for him, but he still wasn’t there. I was very worried, cried, walked around with his photo. But my relatives (my grandmother for sure) said that I was foolish and acting like a fool, and that was quite harsh. Perhaps after that I did not share my feelings with my family. I cried a lot, it seemed to me that no one in the family loved me, and that no one cared about me and my thoughts and experiences. After this incident, my mother decided to find out what was happening to me and why I behaved the way I behaved when I was 12. I had many problems that seemed huge to me then: they mainly related to my complexes (I considered myself ugly , especially in comparison with the neighbor) and the inability to communicate with anyone at all - neither with classmates, nor with teachers, as well as the lack of funds for entertainment and beautiful things, and in general our family often had financial problems. I envied my neighbor because it seemed to me that she was beautiful, and her life was good, she had a complete family, her own room, girlfriends, various things, a game console. Then my mother was quite harsh and said that I should be strong, I should work on myself, and if I only whine and feel sorry for myself, then I will remain on the margins of life and a failure. I cried the whole conversation and wanted her to hug me and console me, it seemed to me that it was already hard for me, I just wanted a little support, but she only accused me of crying. Since then, of course, I have become a better person to some extent. I no longer feel sorry for myself and don’t think how poor and unhappy I am, I don’t consider myself ugly and a failure. But it seems to me that since then it has been unthinkable for me to share my feelings and experiences, to open up to other people. I have a good relationship with my mother now, but I don’t like telling her about my difficulties.
In fact, I may still be unsure of myself and have low self-esteem(I guess it seems to me that I have a normal assessment of myself and especially my ability to interact with other people).
I have absolutely no idea how I could express my feelings to the people I care about. I just can't find the words and don't know what to say. I have nothing to say. But I would really like to be able to be more open. I would like to be able to express feelings, know what to say and not be afraid to do it. Please tell me what I can do to achieve this.
Psychologist Alexander Evgenievich Zhuravlev answers the question.
Hello, Oksana.
Your mother basically said it all:
you need to work on yourself.
Regarding “feeling sorry for yourself” and “whining” - I also agree. Exactly in your case.
In order for things to get off the ground, you need to start! Start acting, start doing at least something in the right direction, make at least some effort and demonstrate the will.
I will outline my concept to you, and you will “work” it for yourself.
Nothing particularly terrible happened in your life. Moreover, you even know which direction you should go. Thus, there is no talk of any depressive moments. If only... If only in the area that concerns the future. The future (your own) is completely inaccessible to you yet. You just don’t see him, that’s all! This is already bad.
But that’s not about that now. You need to understand what to do NOW and how exactly to work on yourself.
First, take a piece of paper and clearly divide it into two columns: “my strengths" and "my weaknesses"I understand that there will be more weak ones and they will be brighter. Why - don’t ask!
Your task: BRING EVERYTHING TO EQUALITY. There should be an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses. If it doesn’t work out, don’t be afraid - this is not a task for one day!
First of all, you need to analyze your strengths! They must be clearly marked, correctly formulated, understandable and intelligible.
Think about how to use them for your benefit!
Review your weaknesses. The goal is to think, what if there are hidden strong ones among them???
For example! You can write to yourself “closed, uncommunicative.” It's not particularly good. But! Closed means enigmatic, mysterious, cautious. Lack of communication can be “reformulated” into caution and restraint. Etc.
That is, if a weak quality can be interpreted as strong, then it is not weak at all)))).
Do you understand me?
If there remain weak qualities that cannot be reframed, then you need to think about how to turn them into strong ones, or how to make them less noticeable.
Difficulty expressing emotions? - You just need to practice in front of the mirror. There are several of the most vivid emotional states: anger, anger, irritation, pleasure, joy, delight, surprise, thoughtfulness, sadness, curiosity, etc. You can add to this list as much as you like. The more words there are, the better. Then you depict the desired emotion in front of the mirror. Try to use as many muscles as possible in the “exercise”. Let your whole body work! You can add laughter, crying - whatever you want!
Then, when you “get” the essence of the matter, you will include words. Just say the words that suit your given emotional and psychological state. You can read poetry, sing songs or come up with something completely your own. You can just talk numbers! But with the necessary and appropriate intonation.
These “studies” will help you relieve internal tension, called “clamp.” And students of theater universities make such sketches.
Secondly! You need to find something to do that would give you a feeling of relevance, comfort and success. At least, again, sing songs! If it brings you joy and people like it, then for God’s sake!
Guy... But you shouldn’t say anything to him about his exclusivity! Just try to remember the exercises in front of the mirror and express your emotions without words! If you need it, of course!
Don't set any special tasks. People will “go” to you and be drawn to you if they see you as a confident, SELF-SUFFICIENT person. Every day you must...
Thirdly, you need to learn to DO SOMETHING USEFUL FOR YOURSELF AND FOR PEOPLE EVERY DAY. I'm not talking about charity. Here you just need to be able to help correctly, naturally and to the point.
And you need to praise yourself! Do not criticize, do not regret, do not forget, but PRAISE. Praise and encourage.
If you did something right, strong, uncharacteristic for yourself, for your weakness - praise yourself, encourage yourself. At least with chocolate, at least with a kind word. Praise and move on!
Do it FOR YOURSELF! Only for yourself!
Get used to the pronoun "I". And to the fact that after it they follow strong words: strong, effective, doing!
You need to talk to mom. Don’t dump your problems and dissatisfaction on her, but talk. You need to ask questions, ask, show interest in her, and not demand attention to yourself.
There will be attention and help, but the vector must come from you!
Train yourself to think about tomorrow while living today. Forgive father. forgive yourself, forgive everyone who offended you. And - boldly hit the road.
I ask you to write to us!
This is just the beginning of a long conversation. Good luck. A. Zhuravlev
4.75 Rating 4.75 (4 Votes)
adminFrom childhood we are taught to control our emotions. You cannot cry, be upset, express your opinion or dissatisfaction with what is happening. As a result, a person grows up unable to control feelings and express emotions. And this is a heavy load that results in mental and physiological problems. To prevent this from happening, you need to learn to express your feelings.
Why is it necessary to express feelings?
Unable to express and show emotions, a person hides behind shyness and uncertainty. They lead to conflicts at work and quarrels in the family. - This is the first step towards a deterioration in well-being. Why is it necessary to express feelings? Having learned to show emotions, a person becomes confident. The number of conflict situations decreases, relationships are preserved.
It is important to understand that no matter how much you hold back, a breakthrough will happen. At this moment you will start shouting and make yourself look bad. better light. Negative emotions hide a person’s true feelings:
Uncertainty. Leads to escape from problems. Conflict situations they are not resolved in the family, but the insecure person continues to think about them. Over time, uncertainty leads to irreversible processes. A loved one asserts that you are indifferent to their relationship, provokes scandals. As a result, the couple breaks up.
Aggression. There is a lightning-fast reaction to words spoken to loved ones. An offended person speaks loudly and rudely. In some situations, the conflict turns violent. The partner fulfills the demands, but not voluntarily, but under pressure or fights back. The relationship flows into mutual demands on each other, expressed by shouting. They end in a loud scandal and breakup.
If you value your relationships, replace insecurity, irritability, and anger with open conversation. The interlocutor or partner will not guess about your feelings if you do not tell about them.
Trying to be a pleasant conversationalist and good friend, many people hold back their emotions. It’s interesting to communicate with such personalities; they are the life of the party. But behind the smile and friendliness lies indignation, irritation and anger. If these emotions are not released in time, an explosion or scandal will occur. After an outburst of aggression, a person will blame himself for not restraining himself. In order not to feel guilty, a person decides not to show emotions. Constant voltage leads to health problems.
How to learn to express negative feelings?
Speak out without witnesses. Left alone with yourself, give free rein to your feelings. Say your grievances out loud. If necessary, scream, cry, break dishes. Destructive actions help to pour out negativity and bring a feeling of relief. This method is good for relieving negative emotions that arise during relationships with unfamiliar people.
. Misunderstandings arise between close people due to the secrecy of partners. If the words or actions of your loved one are unpleasant to you, then do not hide your feelings. Tell me what you didn’t like, what words offended you. If you are an unrestrained person and immediately start screaming, then give yourself 10-15 minutes to calm down. Then start a conversation.
Choose your words. Learn to speak not in the context of “you did wrong”, “you did bad”. Use the pronoun “I”, “the actions and words were unpleasant to me.” At the same time, do not generalize by using the phrases “you always”, “you did it again”, “you never give flowers”. Talk about a specific event that happened.
Use words for feelings. Tell us what you experienced at that moment that caused negative emotions. For example, you felt loneliness, resentment, aggression, fear.
Speak factually. When making complaints to your partner, do not remember past grievances. Build a proposal based on the current situation. For example, “I was upset because I waited until late at night for your call. Please notify me if you are late at work.” In this sentence there is no hint of the partner’s previous sins. When sharing your emotions, do not use swear words or insult your interlocutor.
Let me speak. Your complaints will definitely receive a response. If you want to end the conflict and not return to it again, then listen to your interlocutor. Next, formulate your wishes for the situation that happened, but taking into account what your partner said. 
Unpleasant situations on the street, at work, in transport cause negative emotions. This is normal, there is no need to be ashamed, much less hide such feelings. Conflicts with a loved one, accumulation of grievances, the list of complaints is growing. By expressing your feelings, you resolve the conflict on the same day, listen to your partner’s opinion and draw a conclusion on what to do in the future in similar situations. The most important thing is that you face the next day with ease.
It turns out that many people find it more difficult to express pleasant emotions. Everyone knows how to shout and swear, but to praise loved one it doesn't work. Why do we suppress our feelings? The reason lies in upbringing and experience. Perhaps restraint and closeness reigned in your family, and good attitude to the children ended with them sitting on your head. From this, conclusions are drawn: one must be strict, self-possessed, cold and not praise anyone. Actually give a smile and good mood nice and simple.
How to learn to express positive feelings?
Bring emotions to the surface. Consider a typical day. If the husband does not come home from work on time, then a scandal is brewing. If your loved one arrived on time, and even managed to drop into the store, then this is taken for granted. See the positive in what happened. Express your joy at having dinner with your family.
Don't put it off until later. Talk about pleasant emotions right away, connect words that indicate feelings. If the reason for your good mood is not the actions of a loved one, but events that happened at work, then share your pleasant emotions with him. Tell us how your day went, what brought you joy. 
Connect gestures. Expressing positive emotions, smile, hug your interlocutor, touch him. Laughter attracts pleasant events and creates a positive environment.
Praise yourself. Compliments and pleasant words make a person feel embarrassed and dismissive. At the same time, the person is looking for excuses. For example, while preparing for a week for a birthday, choosing a dress and doing makeup, a girl then brushes off the compliments of others. In fact, she enjoys the attention, the girl is glad that she looks good. Why deny it? It is impossible to express positive feelings towards others without learning to pamper, praise and delight yourself.
Sincerity is important when expressing emotions. A fake smile is more like a grin and does not convey feelings. Don't go to extremes. Excessive emotionality alarms others and leads to misunderstanding.
How to learn to express feelings?
Emotional stress leads to drug or alcohol abuse. Without understanding oneself, a person begins to look for simple and alternative methods. Unfortunately, this leads to addiction, plus the results are short-lived. The sensations return again. How to learn to express feelings? Start by getting to know yourself privately.
Find a quiet place where you can relax, without noise. Apply the technique for beginners - breathing exercises. As you exercise, think about the feelings that arose. Meditation will also help feelings of anxiety and tell you how to act in a specific situation.
Record your emotions. Keep a notebook in which you describe the events that happened during the day. This method helps to understand true feelings and makes them tangible. Keep a diary every day, completely unloading your head. When recording events, do not focus on the logic of the presentation or errors. Connect your feelings to music, colors, weather.
Play sports. If you feel that you are ready to throw out negative emotions, then come up with physical activity. Sports will help you distract yourself, relieve stress and improve your mood. Choose activities that you enjoy.
Reward yourself. Maintain a good mood, a positive attitude. Make an appointment with friends, go shopping, visit an exhibition. Fill your work with positive things, do only what you like. This way you train yourself to have positive emotions. The brain remembers that a good mood is accompanied by pleasant events.
Visualize. Model various situations and play out two possible reactions. Express negative feelings and positive emotions. So you understand yourself and react correctly.
A person’s experiences can be judged both by a person’s self-report of the state he is experiencing, and by the nature of changes in psychomotor activity and physiological parameters: facial expressions, pantomime (posture), motor reactions, voice and autonomic reactions (heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate). The human face has the greatest ability to express various emotional shades.
G.N. Lange, one of the major experts in the study of emotions, described the physiological and behavioral characteristics of joy, sadness and anger. Joy is accompanied by excitation of motor centers, which results in characteristic movements (gesticulation, jumping, clapping), increased blood flow in small vessels (capillaries), as a result of which the skin of the body turns red and becomes warmer, and inner fabrics and the organs begin to be better supplied with oxygen and the metabolism in them begins to occur more intensely.
With sadness, reverse changes occur: inhibition of motor skills, narrowing of blood vessels. This causes a feeling of cold and chills. The narrowing of the small vessels of the lungs leads to the outflow of blood from them, as a result, the supply of oxygen to the body deteriorates and the person begins to feel a lack of air, tightness and heaviness in the chest and, trying to alleviate this condition, begins to take long and deep breaths. Appearance also gives out sad man. His movements are slow, his arms and head are lowered, his voice is weak, and his speech is drawn out. Anger is accompanied by sharp redness or paleness of the face, tension in the muscles of the neck, face and hands (clenching of fingers into a fist).
U different people the manifestation of emotions is different, and therefore they talk about such a personal characteristic as expressiveness. The more strongly a person expresses his emotions through facial expressions, gestures, voice, and motor reactions, the more expressive he is. The absence of external manifestations of emotions does not indicate their absence; a person can hide his experiences, push them deeper, which can cause prolonged mental stress that negatively affects his health.
People also differ in their emotional excitability: some react emotionally to the weakest stimuli, others only to very strong ones.
Emotions have the property of being contagious. This means that one person can unwittingly convey his mood and experience to other people communicating with him. As a result, both general joy and boredom or even panic can arise. Another property of emotions is their ability for a long time stored in memory. In this regard, a special type of memory is distinguished - emotional memory.
External expressions of emotions. The emergence of an emotional process leads to the formation of new forms of response. Sometimes emotional phenomena are violent and sudden, occurring almost immediately after the action of the stimulating agent. This emotion takes the form of affect.
But emotions can also form gradually, without manifesting themselves and leaving no traces in consciousness. All that remains is an increased readiness for an emotional reaction. Sometimes emotions are not reflected in consciousness at all.
An emotion that has gained sufficient strength and organization can have a great influence on the functional state of various mental mechanisms. It manifests itself:
- in the form of expressive movements;
- in the form of emotional actions;
- in the form of statements about the emotional states experienced;
- in the form of a certain attitude towards the environment.
Why are expressive emotional movements needed? According to Charles Darwin, these are relics of previously expedient actions. Tensing muscles, clenching fists, grinding teeth when angry - all this is the heritage of our distant ancestors, who resolved controversial issues with the help of fists and jaws. “To give an example,” writes Darwin, “it is enough to think of such a movement as the inclined position of the eyebrows in a person who is suffering from grief or anxiety ... Or such movements as the subtle lowering of the corners of the mouth must be considered as the last traces or remains of movements that were more clearly expressed in the past and had a clear meaning.”
Expressive movements today serve as an involuntary accompaniment of emotions: they play a huge communicative role, help communication between people, and provide emotional contact between them. It is thanks to facial expressions (expressive facial movements), pantomimes (expressive movements of the whole body), emotional components of speech, etc. we learn about the experiences of another person, we ourselves become imbued with these experiences, and build our relationships with others in accordance with them. Understanding the language of emotions helps us find the right tone in communicating with others. Emotions are most fully and vividly expressed by changes in the human face. It is on the face of another person that we “read” joy and sadness, thoughtfulness and anger, love and hatred. In the same way, various shades of feelings and emotions are “read” on our face.
What elements make up the “language of emotions”, how is it acquired by a person? Numerous studies have been devoted to these issues. It turned out that highest value They have eyes and a mouth to express emotions.
But usually, when reading an emotion in a face, we take into account the entire situation, which suggests the nature of the emotional experience. Joy and fun are guessed faster than fear and suffering.
The accuracy of determining an emotion by external manifestations is influenced by the state of the one who evaluates; people tend to attribute to others those experiences that they themselves are gripped by.
Principle " physical actions", i.e. recreating an emotion based on its exact external expression, suggested K.S. Stanislavsky for a truthful portrayal of the emotional life of the characters on stage. Here we mean, of course, not only facial expressions, but also other ways of externally expressing emotions: gestures, movements, postures, etc. One of the most powerful ways to express emotions and feelings is speech. Intonation, sound strength, rhythm - all this always, on the one hand, depends on our emotional state and, on the other, serves as a means of expressing it.
The language of emotions is a universal set of expressive signs, similar for all people, expressing certain emotional states. We can correctly understand the emotions of people of other cultures and nationalities. But this universality is not absolute. There are certain national differences that are determined by traditions and customs. For example, in some parts of Africa, laughter is an indicator of amazement and even confusion and is not necessarily a sign of amusement. In some Asian countries, a guest is expected to burp after eating as a sign that he is completely satisfied. The same gesture in American society is unlikely to entail a repeat invitation to visit.
Forms of expression of emotions depend on accepted rules decency. In our country, for example, it is not customary to laugh loudly in public places, or generally to attract everyone’s attention by showing one’s emotions. There are also individual characteristics in the manifestation of emotions, which depend on a person’s temperament, his upbringing, and habits. Sometimes the emotions familiar to a person leave a peculiar imprint on the expression of his face. It’s not for nothing that they talk about faces that are concerned, cheerful, surprised, etc. However, such a “psychologization” of appearance may be the result of a not entirely correct “reading” natural features faces.
