About Feelings
An "Emotions Cheat Sheet"
A widely-accepted theory of basic emotions suggests that we have six basic emotions that are universal across age and culture: sadness, happiness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. Complex emotions are made up of two or more basic emotions, and vary in appearances across people and cultures. For example, the complex emotion of hate is made up of the basic emotions fear, anger and disgust.
Another class of emotions are knowledge emotions, also known as “states of mind”. These are more cognitive states and are associated with learning, exploring, and reflecting. These have four main categories: surprise, interest, confusion, and awe. Other examples of states of mind are disappointed, bored, curious, and amazed.
For our purposes in therapy, you can categorize emotions into five simple groups of feelings: sad, mad, bad, glad, and scared. These categories can then help you further specify the intensity and nuance of your emotions to help choose the words that best describes what you are feeling. The following list includes common choices, but it is by no means all-inclusive:
Bad guilty, ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated, jealous
Glad joyful, happy, elated, proud, warm, loved, loving*, attracted
Mad angry, resentful, annoyed, irritated, frustrated, envious, enraged
Sad hurt, grieving, helpless, hopeless, regretful
Scared nervous, afraid, worried, horrified, terrified
It is also useful to keep in mind that we have emotions both within ourselves and emotions towards others. Feelings towards others typically have a direction after them, such as angry at, loving towards, jealous of, attracted to, etc.
Sources:
https://nobaproject.com/modules/knowledge-emotions-feelings-that-foster-learning-exploring-and-reflecting
A widely-accepted theory of basic emotions suggests that we have six basic emotions that are universal across age and culture: sadness, happiness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. Complex emotions are made up of two or more basic emotions, and vary in appearances across people and cultures. For example, the complex emotion of hate is made up of the basic emotions fear, anger and disgust.
Another class of emotions are knowledge emotions, also known as “states of mind”. These are more cognitive states and are associated with learning, exploring, and reflecting. These have four main categories: surprise, interest, confusion, and awe. Other examples of states of mind are disappointed, bored, curious, and amazed.
For our purposes in therapy, you can categorize emotions into five simple groups of feelings: sad, mad, bad, glad, and scared. These categories can then help you further specify the intensity and nuance of your emotions to help choose the words that best describes what you are feeling. The following list includes common choices, but it is by no means all-inclusive:
Bad guilty, ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated, jealous
Glad joyful, happy, elated, proud, warm, loved, loving*, attracted
Mad angry, resentful, annoyed, irritated, frustrated, envious, enraged
Sad hurt, grieving, helpless, hopeless, regretful
Scared nervous, afraid, worried, horrified, terrified
It is also useful to keep in mind that we have emotions both within ourselves and emotions towards others. Feelings towards others typically have a direction after them, such as angry at, loving towards, jealous of, attracted to, etc.
Sources:
https://nobaproject.com/modules/knowledge-emotions-feelings-that-foster-learning-exploring-and-reflecting