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Home | Psychology of Wellness | Basic Emotions | Fleeting Emotions

Fleeting Emotions

Habitual Practices to Sooth Emotions

BY: T. Franklin Murphy | September 2018 (edited February 12, 2022)
Fleeting Emotions. A lady standing on the beach. A Flourishing Life Society article
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When emotionally flooded, cognitive functions shut down, limiting our ability to regulate the emotion. We need habitual practices to calm our emotions.
We struggle to imagine a different emotion than the one we currently swamping our system. When I am sad, I think sad thoughts. When I am happy, I think happy thoughts. Our current mood influence perceptions and our perceptions solidify the mood.  

When we feel down, it’s difficult to consider future joys. We get stuck in the current emotion. Dreary days lag on, inviting dreary futures. We feel the weight of hopelessness closing in and pulling us further into the abyss.  
"Our current mood influence perceptions and our perceptions solidify the mood."
​Much of the well-being advice is very antidotal, ignoring the dilemma of mood altering perceptions. Anxiety and fear flood the the brain, interfering with the balancing regulations of the pre-frontal cortex. Implementing advise, largely a function of the pre-frontal cortex, is strained when cognitions is blurred by overwhelming emotions.

Key Concept:

Powerful emotions impair cognitive thought processes and regulations. This is a built in, evolutionary shut-off valve to direct attention to serious threats to survival and wellbeing.

Feelings are Fleeting

Feeling affects are fleeting. Jumping to work to alert the system of danger. Once they warn and the threat subsides they can resume normal functions. However, as the arousal settles, cognitive functions begin, ruminating on the event, keeping the moment alive.

Itai Ivtzan Ph.D. explains we experience a fleeting nature of happiness when it is associated with feeling affects rather than a more eudaimonic picture of joy. He wrote that,  "hedonic happiness, in its essence, is a brief experience of joy and pleasure which quickly fades away" (2016).

We must breath in and enjoy passing joyful moments while We calming more distressing arousal. A healthy practice is to have several emotional soothing techniques available. Activities that we automatic employ without much cognitive coaxing. Even in moderate states of arousal, implementing a new regulation practice is difficult. 

Key Concept:

Emotional regulation techniques are more likely to be employed when they are practiced and planned during low states of arousal.

Be Patient; Let the Fleeting Emotion Pass

Once our system has settled, if the problem still exists, such as a dispute with a partner, we can re-approach with our cognitive functions back on-line to find a creative solution or properly consider the problem against other priorities.

​Bessel van der Kolk explains, "Successfully working through stressful and overwhelming emotions requires a conscious combining of top-down approaches with bottom-up methods"  (2015).

Key Definitions:  Top-down; Bottom-up

Top-down and bottom-up are psychological terms referring to differentiated brain functions influencing other areas of the brain. 
  • Top-down refers to the cortex applying techniques that calm the nervous system.
  • Bottom-up refers to emotional centers (amygdala, brainstem) influencing cognitive functions.
​There are many top-down practices that calm emotions. We must explore different avenues to find the best practice for us.  Albert Bandura wrote, “having a serviceable coping skill at one’s disposal undoubtedly contributes to one’s sense of personal efficacy” (1977).  We need serviceable tools to calm our system, establish safety, and open our mind to address vexing problems.

Key Concept:

Techniques for Soothing Arousal:
  • ​Slow, deep breathing exercises
  • Yoga
  • Exercise (a jog, walk, or fitness training)
  • Activities demanding focused attention
  • Meditation
  • Mindfulness
  • Nature
Life’s full of ups and downs, successes and failures, pleasure and sorrows, happy beginnings and sad endings. It’s the nature of the rich experience of living. Hold on with patience when life’s not going so well, calm your mind, and implement change. Even sadness, we can maintain hope of a better future—even though we can’t envision exactly how the future will be.
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T. Franklin Murphy
T. Franklin Murphy
Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
​T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He tirelessly researches scientific findings that contribute to wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.

Resources:

Bandura, A. (1977) Self Efficacy: Towards a unifying theory of Behavior change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215.

Ivtzan, I. (2016) Why Is Happiness Fleeting? Psychology Today. Published 3-25-2016. Accessed 12-4-2021.
​
Van Der Kolk, B. (2015). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin Books; Illustrated edition.

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External Links:
External Link: Big Feels and How to Talk About Them
External Link: 6 Types of Basic Emotions
External Link: Emotional Fitness Is A Thing -- Here Are 7 Key Mental Muscles
External Link: The Beauty of Self-Awareness
External Link. The Psychology of Color: How to Use Colors to Boost Well Being
External Link:  This Emotional Intelligence Test Was So Accurate It Was Creepy

​Other Flourishing Life Society articles of interest on this topic:

Emotional Patterns. When Emotional Reactions Hurt. A Flourishing Life Society article link
We are pulled into harmful routines by emotion. We feel and then we react. Unfortunately, our reaction isn't always helpful. We need space to think and then act more appropriately.
A Flourishing Life Society article link. Moods
FLS link-- Emotional Regulation: Emotions energize and push for action. Healthy regulation capitalizes on the richness of emotion and directs the energy towards life objectives.
Our amazing mind assigns meaning to felt experience, creating emotion. Sometimes this process misdiagnosis the environment and leads us astray.
We unwittingly promote unhealthy defense mechanisms on line. There are plenty pf social media participants willing to support life limiting adaptations.
We live blind and deaf to the primary motivating force of action. Feelings unnoticed nudge us to act. We gain a deeper appreciation for life and measured control when we develop our relationship with emotion through focusing.
A flourishing Life Society article link. Emotional Overload
Flourishing Life Society Link: Emotional Intelligence
Flourishing Life Society link to Inner Peace. Creating Inner Peace with Reflection.
FLS link. Passionate Purpose. We need passionate purpose to energize our flat lives, giving fire to existence and joy to routines.
We worry. Thinking about the future is an adaptive response to complex problems; we prepare and we avoid. But too much worry interferes with constructive action. We even worry about our worrying.

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FLS Link. The Fleeting Emotions. When emotionally flooded, it is difficult to cognitively inject thoughts to escape the moment. We need habitual practices that we automatically integrate into these moments that calm the system first, then we can cognitively join adapt, thinking of the future.
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