What Your Emotions Tell You

October 29, 2012

Interview with Mary Lamia, PhD, author of the book Emotions!: Making Sense of Your Feelings

________________

Mike Carruthers:
Do you ever find that your emotions can get you in trouble?

Mary Lamia, PhD:
Well they do but not if you understand them you know the best example maybe is one of sadness because sadness is something that many of us have experienced.
 

Clinical psychologist Mary Lamia author of the book, Emotions!

So let’s say a significant relationship in your life ends and you feel sad. Sadness tells you to except reality it motivates your behavior in some way to realign your goals. That person isn’t there for you anymore so you have to realign your goals and figure out what else you’re going to do. And it also protects you by making you a little more cautious.

Anger is another useful emotion if you realize what it’s telling you.

Anger is designed to protect us and it gives us a greater willingness to take risks. And so when we’re angry it’s a response to goals that are blocked. Now that doesn’t mean we need to take some action that hurts people or hurts us. Because revenge or venting anger doesn’t help us it only stirs up the emotional brain it doesn’t calm it down.  But anger tells you to protect yourself.

So you see emotions are there to help.

Because emotions direct our attention they have an evolutionary purpose like everything else in our brain. And they give us information, they motivate us, they protect us and they do help us reach goals.