As human beings naturally, we have a lot of emotions like sadness, happiness, fear, envy, disgust, surprise, worry, pity, anger, guilt, shame, hatred, love, gratitude, jealousy, compassion, resentment and so many others built in within us. These emotions can be triggered by an action or circumstance which may be either positive, negative, or even neutral.
Human emotions can be cunning to an extent that one barely recognizes and understand them. Typical example is when experiencing feelings of love for the first time. A lot of people tend to find it difficult to understand what exactly they are experiencing because their emotions may fluctuate, disguise itself, or just simply appear naturally as it is. This is why people in love do all sort of things from caring, supporting, helping and defending their loved ones, to manipulating, punishing and hurting them.
At times, our emotions take control and rule over us, forcing us to react in a certain way which may not be suitable for the situation therefore, understanding your emotions is a key step towards learning how to handle and keep them in check. We all should understand that emotions need to be recognized and acknowledged, not just suppressed and ignored. While emotion like anger is seen as negative, it is advisable to acknowledge and understand it in a constructive way because it is very important to express your anger sometimes. Letting out your anger would help relieve buildup of frustrations and also motivate you to take action on things that bother you.
In essence, all our emotions are equally important and it is necessary to recognize and acknowledge them when they occur. It’s very normal and natural to feel sad, embarrassed, hatred, disgust, guilt or resentment over something that happened however, you must not let them threaten and control you or your decisions. Always have this at the back of your mind that you are the one in charge, and you are the one who control and rule over your emotions not them controlling you. If you master this technique very well, you will be able to maintain all your emotions in a constructive manner rather than miserably suppressing or bashing yourself over it.
Penned 12/11/19 (Karima Shehu)
