The body and mind are closely connected, and negative emotions can significantly impact your physical health. Depending on the emotion, the body releases various chemicals and hormones as it reacts. When we’re stressed, Cortisol and Norepinephrine are released, but when we’re happy, Oxytocin, Dopamine, and Serotonin are released. Consequently, one can suffer immediate physical symptoms due to these distinct chemical concentrations, and it’s no wonder some people experience shaky hands and headaches when they’re anxious.
You must understand that feelings and emotions are two different things. Although they’re interconnected and share many similarities, they have a few things that set them apart. Physical cues like body language, facial expressions, brain activity, heart rate, and blood flow can be used to measure emotions objectively, whereas feelings have a weaker physical grounding. Emotions help us respond quickly to diverse environmental threats. They’re coded into our DNA, they first occur in the subcortical areas of the brain, and they’re regarded as ‘lower level’ responses.
Feelings can’t be measured the way emotions can be because they’re so subjective. Feelings occur in the neocortical regions of the brain. Our personal experiences and interpretations influence them, and they’re not specific to humans, like emotions.
There are six identified initial basic emotions according to Eckman (1999), and they include:
- Surprise
- Sadness
- Happiness
- Fear
- Disgust
- Anger
There are eleven basic emotions he later expanded on:
- Shame
- Sensory Pleasure
- Satisfaction
- Relief
- Pride
- Guilt
- Excitement
- Embarrassment
- Contentment
- Contempt
- Amusement
Eight Examples of Negative Emotions
Unlike what you may have ever thought or heard, negative emotions aren’t that bad. They’re pretty valuable because they help us appreciate the positive ones, and they’re completely normal. There are 8 common negative emotions, and they’re highlighted below.
Anger
Has there been something on your mind that you’ve always wanted to tell someone? Whenever you think of this, does it make you boil? Does it make you feel like you want to explode or your temperature is rising? This is a common way of describing anger. Your body is trying to rectify something it isn’t cool with, and it’s reacting. However, you may want to consider coming up with more positive strategies if you often respond by feeling the urge to throw things around (which you’re more likely to do), by vehemently registering your anger on your face, or by shouting at the top of your voice.
Annoyance
Annoyance is more like the weaker form of anger. There are probably some people in your life that you love a lot, but they do some things that displease you, and you get annoyed by these behaviors. It may be that your spouse is always watching TV whenever you’ve got your hands full with chores, without trying to assist you, and it could be that he or she is snoring loudly or talking too much, even loudly. It could be annoying, right?
Fear
Fear warns us about failures, unexpected obstacles, and dangerous situations, and it’s an evolved response. Immensely connected with our sense of self-preservation, it’s usually regarded as one of the core basic emotions. The essence of fear in our lives is to help us see through potential danger, and it’s actually not intended to make us feel distressed. Nevertheless, you can proactively brace yourself to tackle challenges by taking your time to explore why fear arises and by embracing the emotion of fear.
Anxiety
It’s perceived and believed that our ability to act and judge gets impaired when we have an anxious disposition and this explains why anxiety is always seen as a negative emotion. Seeking to alert us about possible dangers and threats, anxiety is pretty much like fear.
Sadness
The behavior of someone else around us, our low achievements, or our dissatisfaction with ourselves are some of the things that can bring about sadness. You’ll probably feel sad if you didn’t get that job you’ve been hoping for, had a bad grade, or couldn’t meet a deadline. The good side of sadness is that it can be a powerful catalyst for change and an indication of our passion for something.
Guilt
Guilt tends to encourage us to make changes in our lives, and it’s another strong catalyst on its own. Often referred to as a ‘moral emotion’, guilt connects to how our behavior impacts those around us and to our wishes that things had been different, compared to how we handled them in the past. Guilt is a complex emotion.
Apathy
Apathy, at times, can make us resort to a more passive-aggressive expression of rebellion when we lose control of a situation. Apathy is when you’re no longer excited or moved by the things you used to enjoy – loss of interest, motivation, or enthusiasm. Apathy can be a complex emotion, just as guilt is.
Despair
Have you been trying to get things done, only to feel like you’re never going to achieve that specific goal or task? Do you feel like just quitting after you’ve tried several methods to work something out, but it still isn’t working? That is despair, and it helps us to see reasons why we should quit on our desired goals. Despair shows up when we’re having difficulty getting the results we crave.