Types of negative emotions and their brief characteristics. The influence of positive and negative emotions on human health Techniques for reducing psychological involvement in the current emotional state

Negative emotions always seem to shout at you, while positive emotions are more like a whisper. This creates that very asymmetry between the positive and the negative, tilting our attention more towards the negative (and in some cases leading to a complete inability to experience positive emotions). And this is not an individual feature, this is how the human brain works: everything negative sounds louder to us, warning us of danger. This secret is well known to the media: the fastest, most reliable and, most importantly, cheapest way to attract our attention is a spark of fear (after all, all our “fearless” ancestors died out without ever evolving, right?).

Good news, friends!

"Friendship" with 10 positive emotions will help you cope with negative ones!

The person I consider my guide to positive psychology is Barbara Lee Fredrickson (Barbara Lee Fredrickson), she is the head of the Laboratory of Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology, president of the International Association of Positive Psychology. This outstanding woman was at the forefront of the study of positive emotions and remembers the time when these studies were considered meaningless, like positive emotions themselves and their meaning in human life. In her lectures on the types of positive emotions, Dr. Fredrickson deliberately forbade the use of the word "happiness", since, due to too frequent use, it has a rather generalized meaning and does not convey all possible emotional overflows.

1. Joy. That feeling when something works out really well for you, maybe even better than expected. We view the situation and the world as safe, familiar, and ever-improving. Feelings of joy trigger the need to be playful. But it is during the game that we learn. So in the case of feelings of joy, the outcome is often the acquisition of skills.
2. Gratitude. This is a calmer emotion that is more connected with society. It is perceived not just as something good that happened to you, but as if someone deliberately went out of their way to do this good deed for you. We experience it as an altruistic gift that we want to somehow compensate for. Therefore, gratitude leads to giving (while finding a creative way to give), and the result of gratitude is social connections and the skill of intimacy and love. A characteristic feature of gratitude, when it occurs normally, is the duration and cyclical nature of this feeling, when the exchange of good deeds between people continues.
3. Calm. It feels like your current circumstances in life are so right that you want to prolong this feeling. Many people believe that calmness leads to passivity and laziness. Yes, the state of serenity is accompanied by a feeling of security, confidence and low activity, but the main advantage of this feeling is the ability to enjoy, savor the moment and integrate the experience within oneself. The result of a feeling of calm is a change in one’s self, worldview and setting life priorities.
   
4. Interest. Yes, few people consider interest in positive emotions, and in emotions in general. But this is his rightful place. You feel that the people, objects, and circumstances around you are safe, but there is an element of novelty in them, something you don’t know yet, something mysterious. So interest provokes research activity and the result of this emotion is new knowledge and fullness of energy.
5. Hope. A unique positive emotion that is born in circumstances that cannot be called positive. You sense that the next emotion may well be despair; it is the fear of the worst and the desire for the best, which contributes to the development of our ingenuity, increasing resilience during and in the face of difficult times.
6. Pride. I can already hear the dissatisfied grumbling... In no case should it be confused with pride and immodesty! Pride is always associated with socially significant achievements. It's not just something you did well, but it's something good that is valued in your culture, that brings people together. You can be proud of your actions, as well as the actions of your family members, friends, colleagues, and fellow citizens. This is not bragging. It's a feeling that inspires you and makes you dream big. So the result of pride is new achievements (and new reasons for pride).
7. Fun. Doesn't pleasure begin from fun? It is associated with frivolity, slight social inappropriateness. Your mistake does not lead to self-flagellation and condemnation, but to shared fun, laughter, and strengthening connections. The outcome of the fun is not so insignificant - it is the creation of friendships, the development of creativity. Agree, for this you can allow yourself to commit a little stupidity!
8. Inspiration. This emotion awakens in us when we come into contact with human perfection. At the same time, the emotion of inspiration is more related to interpretation: when you see that people can do something very well, talentedly, you say to yourself, “This is great! I would like to be like this person, to do the same!” That is, it is a peculiar combination of the desire for one’s own perfection and the ability to see and positively evaluate the superiority of another person. What does inspiration lead to? Of course, to the acquisition of new skills, creativity and the development of one’s own morality.
9. Awe. This emotion is similar to inspiration, but it is more personal. You feel overwhelmed by the grandeur, you feel tiny compared to the incredible things that are happening next to you. Awe opens your heart and mind to new things, and the result of this emotion is the feeling of being part of a great whole.
10. Love. This is one of the most positive emotions. Its peculiarity is that it accumulates all other positive emotions: joy, serenity, gratitude, inspiration, pride for a loved one, etc. But this is also not an individual experience - it is a joint experience of two people. A positive sense of belonging that allows you to dream, explore, enjoy, and play. Love brings a feeling of strong connection, trust, community and overall health.

And finally, a few more words about the asymmetry between positive and negative: the bad is stronger than the good, since negative emotions must scream to save our lives. Therefore, we notice the negative more often than the positive. But: in fact, positive events are more frequent than negative ones! There is relevant scientific data to support this. There are many good things in our life. But whether we allow positive events to turn into positive emotions is a matter of choice and upbringing in the family. But whether you like it or not, you feel these mild positive emotions all the time throughout the day, although most often we call them average or neutral. Neutral emotions are positive emotions that we do not recognize or are not aware of at the moment. And if you recognize them, begin to notice them, you will strengthen them and provide them with a field for their magical inner work!

It’s difficult for me to understand my feelings - a phrase that each of us has encountered: in books, in movies, in life (someone else’s or our own). But it is very important to be able to understand your feelings.

The Wheel of Emotions by Robert Plutchik

Some people believe - and perhaps they are right - that the meaning of life is in feelings. And in fact, at the end of life, only our feelings, real or in memories, remain with us. And our experiences can also be a measure of what is happening: the richer, more varied, and brighter they are, the more fully we experience life.

What are feelings? The simplest definition: feelings are what we feel. This is our attitude towards certain things (objects). There is also a more scientific definition: feelings (higher emotions) are special mental states, manifested by socially conditioned experiences that express long-term and stable emotional relationships of a person to things.

How are feelings different from emotions?

Sensations are our experiences that we experience through our senses, and we have five of them. Sensations are visual, auditory, tactile, taste and smell (our sense of smell). With sensations everything is simple: stimulus - receptor - sensation.

Our consciousness interferes with emotions and feelings - our thoughts, attitudes, our thinking. Emotions are influenced by our thoughts. And vice versa - emotions influence our thoughts. We’ll definitely talk about these relationships in more detail a little later. But now let’s remember once again one of the criteria for psychological health, namely point 10: we are responsible for our feelings, it depends on us what they will be. It is important.

Fundamental Emotions

All human emotions can be distinguished by the quality of experience. This aspect of human emotional life is most clearly presented in the theory of differential emotions by the American psychologist K. Izard. He identified ten qualitatively different “fundamental” emotions: interest-excitement, joy, surprise, grief-suffering, anger-rage, disgust-disgust, contempt-disdain, fear-horror, shame-shyness, guilt-remorse. K. Izard classifies the first three emotions as positive, the remaining seven as negative. Each of the fundamental emotions underlies a whole spectrum of conditions that vary in degree of expression. For example, within the framework of such a unimodal emotion as joy, one can distinguish joy-satisfaction, joy-delight, joy-jubilation, joy-ecstasy and others. From the combination of fundamental emotions, all other, more complex, complex emotional states arise. For example, anxiety can combine fear, anger, guilt and interest.

1. Interest is a positive emotional state that promotes the development of skills and abilities and the acquisition of knowledge. Interest-excitement is a feeling of capture, curiosity.

2. Joy is a positive emotion associated with the opportunity to sufficiently fully satisfy an actual need, the probability of which was previously small or uncertain. Joy is accompanied by self-satisfaction and satisfaction with the world around us. Obstacles to self-realization are also obstacles to the emergence of joy.

3. Surprise - an emotional reaction to sudden circumstances that does not have a clearly defined positive or negative sign. Surprise inhibits all previous emotions, directing attention to a new object and can turn into interest.

4. Suffering (grief) is the most common negative emotional state associated with receiving reliable (or seeming) information about the impossibility of satisfying the most important needs, the achievement of which previously seemed more or less likely. Suffering has the character of an asthenic emotion and more often occurs in the form of emotional stress. The most severe form of suffering is grief associated with irretrievable loss.

5. Anger is a strong negative emotional state, often occurring in the form of affect; arises in response to an obstacle in achieving passionately desired goals. Anger has the character of a sthenic emotion.

6. Disgust is a negative emotional state caused by objects (objects, people, circumstances), contact with which (physical or communicative) comes into sharp conflict with the aesthetic, moral or ideological principles and attitudes of the subject. Disgust, when combined with anger, can motivate aggressive behavior in interpersonal relationships. Disgust, like anger, can be directed toward oneself, lowering self-esteem and causing self-judgment.

7. Contempt is a negative emotional state that arises in interpersonal relationships and is generated by a mismatch in the life positions, views and behavior of the subject with those of the object of feeling. The latter are presented to the subject as base, not corresponding to accepted moral standards and ethical criteria. A person is hostile to someone he despises.

8. Fear is a negative emotional state that appears when the subject receives information about possible damage to his life well-being, about a real or imaginary danger. In contrast to suffering caused by direct blocking of the most important needs, a person, experiencing the emotion of fear, has only a probabilistic forecast of possible trouble and acts on the basis of this forecast (often insufficiently reliable or exaggerated). The emotion of fear can be both sthenic and asthenic in nature and occur either in the form of stressful conditions, or in the form of a stable mood of depression and anxiety, or in the form of affect (horror).

9. Shame is a negative emotional state, expressed in the awareness of the inconsistency of one’s own thoughts, actions and appearance not only with the expectations of others, but also with one’s own ideas about appropriate behavior and appearance.

10. Guilt is a negative emotional state, expressed in the awareness of the unseemlyness of one’s own actions, thoughts or feelings and expressed in regret and repentance.

Table of human feelings and emotions

And I also want to show you a collection of feelings, emotions, states that a person experiences during his life - a generalized table that does not pretend to be scientific, but will help you better understand yourself. The table was taken from the website “Communities of Addicted and Codependent”, author - Mikhail.

All human feelings and emotions can be divided into four types. These are fear, anger, sadness and joy. You can find out what type a particular feeling belongs to from the table.

And for those who read the article to the end. The purpose of this article is to help you understand your feelings and what they are like. Our feelings largely depend on our thoughts. Irrational thinking is often at the root of negative emotions. By correcting these mistakes (working on our thinking), we can be happier and achieve more in life. There is interesting, but persistent and painstaking work to be done on oneself. You are ready?

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P.S. And remember, just by changing your consumption, we are changing the world together! © econet

During the day, a person experiences a lot of emotions, which, mixing with each other, create a bizarre bouquet. This bouquet colors a person’s perception, making a day “bad” or “good.”

Surely every person wants to wake up every morning with a smile and spend the day in a positive mood. Living every day happily, filling your life with joyful emotions - this task may turn out to be impossible until a person learns to manage his emotions.

We can change our mood as we want, we don’t have to be dependent on circumstances. In order to feel the emotion of joy, it is not necessary to wait for the right moment when someone or something makes us laugh.

In order to rejoice, you just need to rejoice. To be happy, you don’t have to look for a reason: money, health, a soulmate, recognition, and so on. You can be happy just like that. After all, all we need already is our emotions.

All that remains is to understand the art of managing your emotions. To do this, first of all, you need to know the types of human emotions in order to learn to distinguish and separate emotions from each other, because they rarely appear in their pure form.

Every person has four pure emotions:

• anger
• fear
• joy
• despondency

These types of emotions create a combination of other feelings and emotions that each of us may experience on a daily basis.

Watch this short video, it shows the faces of different people experiencing the same emotions: from joy to fear.

Conventionally, the types of human emotions can be divided into three main categories: negative, positive and neutral.

List of basic human emotions and feelings

Positive

1. Pleasure

2. Joy.

3. Rejoicing.

4. Delight.

5. Pride.

6. Confidence.

7. Trust.

8. Sympathy.

9. Admiration.

10. Love (sexual).

11. Love (affection).

12. Respect.

13. Tenderness.

14. Gratitude (appreciation).

15. Tenderness.

16. Complacency.

17. Bliss

18. Schadenfreude.

19. Feeling of satisfied revenge.

20. Peace of mind.

21. Feeling of relief.

22. Feeling satisfied with yourself.

23. Feeling of security.

24. Anticipation.

Neutral

25. Curiosity.

26. Surprise.

27. Amazement.

28. Indifference.

29. Calm and contemplative mood.

Negative

30. Displeasure.

31. Grief (sorrow).

33. Sadness (sadness).

34. Despair.

35. Chagrin.

36. Anxiety.

38. Fear.

41. Pity.

42. Sympathy (compassion).

43. Regret.

44. Annoyance.

46. ​​Feeling insulted.

47. Indignation (indignation).

48. Hatred.

49. Dislike.

50. Envy.

52. Anger.

53. Dejection.

55. Jealousy.

57. Uncertainty (doubt).

58. Mistrust.

60. Confusion.

61. Rage.

62. Contempt.

63. Disgust.

64. Disappointment.

65. Disgust.

66. Dissatisfaction with oneself.

67. Repentance.

68. Remorse.

69. Impatience.

70. Bitterness.

Perhaps some of the readers will not agree with this division of feelings. Feelings are divided not from the position of ethics, but from the position of pleasure or displeasure.

A person invests a colossal amount of energy in his emotions. In essence, this energy is neutral, only emotion can give it a positive or negative character, direct it towards creation or destruction.

Take a closer look at this list, determine for yourself in which emotions do you invest your strength more, in the emotions of destruction or creation?

© "Elatrium" is a space of harmony and prosperity.

As has probably become clear from our first lessons on the topic presented, acting is a very interesting and exciting creative activity. But at the same time, it is a very complex activity, because requires from any person who is involved in it, the maximum disclosure of their creative potential, which, in turn, implies the activation and mobilization of all mental resources, and in particular the ability to express and convey experienced emotions. Thus, we can conclude that the craft of an actor, to a great extent, is the ability to manage one’s emotions.

According to Stanislavsky, the craft is the actor’s use of ready-made acting cliches, by perceiving which the viewer can unambiguously determine what emotions the character is experiencing at a given moment in time. Moreover, the emphasis should be placed precisely on the external manifestations of internal experiences. The actor’s ability to reproduce emotions will be discussed in the lesson presented to your attention.

After studying this lesson, you will learn about what emotions are and how they are characterized, what basic emotions exist and how they manifest themselves externally. But the main thing is that you will get acquainted with various ways and methods of managing emotions, which the acting craft is so rich in. The lesson will describe in detail the basic emotions and feelings, present exercises and recommendations that will help train their recreation and manifestation (facial expressions, gestures, postures, etc.), and will also discuss several effective techniques for managing emotions, using which you will learn to quickly reproduce any emotional states at any moment. Actors' emotions are people's emotions, and this lesson will make you a true master of emotion management, allowing you to use this unique skill not only on stage, but also in your everyday life.

Emotional process

The emotional process is a psychophysical process that motivates and regulates human activity (thinking, perception, behavior) and reflects the subjective meaning of various situations and objects for a person, expressed in his consciousness in the form of experiences. Despite this definition, in scientific circles there are a huge number of different views on the very nature of emotional processes, and there is no one specific definition of this phenomenon, and understanding emotional processes always follows from the context in which they are considered.

The classification of emotional processes by different scientists also occurs in different ways. There are even theories that take as a basis the existence of only one emotion, which simply depends on certain factors and causes different experiences. Most researchers distinguish several basic ones among emotional processes - affects, emotions, feelings and moods. Let's look at each of them in a little more detail.

• Affects- are short-term intense emotional processes that are accompanied by changes at the physiological level. For example, sudden fear.
• Emotions- are longer lasting, but less intense than the first ones, and reflect the subjective meaning of situations (but not specific objects) for a person. For example, a feeling of anxiety.
• Feelings- are longer lasting, but less intense than affects, and reflect the subjective meaning of specific objects for a person. For example, love.
• Moods- are long-term emotional processes of low intensity. For example, boredom.

The reasons for the emergence of various emotional processes, as is easy to see, can be anything: events, situations, phenomena, objects, people, animals, thoughts, etc. If we talk about acting, we can say that emotional processes serve as the basis for all the emotions that arise in an actor, and only the ability to control these processes makes it possible for a master to truly believably experience, interpret and represent any images and roles.

Considering that our lesson is dedicated specifically to managing emotions, we should talk a little about what emotions are and list the basic emotions of a person.

Emotions and basic emotions

Emotion is an emotional process characterized by an average duration and reflecting a person’s subjective assessment of existing or possible situations. Like most other psychic phenomena, they have been little studied and are understood differently by different specialists. It follows that this definition is not comprehensive and generally accepted.

Emotions are characterized by a number of signs:

• Valence- positive or negative coloring. By the way, it has been scientifically confirmed that negative emotions prevail in humans over positive ones, and their number is several times greater.
• Intensity- the strength with which emotions are experienced.
• Sthenicity- emotions can be stimulating to activity (asthenic), for example, joy, or relaxing, paralyzing (asthenic), for example, melancholy.
• Content- emotions can reflect different aspects of the meanings of the situations that cause them.
• Physiology- a factor that reflects the impact of emotions on a person at the physiological level and causes a certain reaction in the body.
• Facial feedback- emotions can cause involuntary manifestations at the level of facial expressions. However, facial expressions can also evoke certain emotions, i.e. communication is two-way.

It should be noted here that scientists have identified a strong connection between emotions and stress, which means that the strongest emotions, regardless of valence, have a tiring effect on the human body and lead to a state of stress, which, with prolonged exposure, can even cause problems on the body. mental, physiological and other levels.

What are basic emotions?

Basic emotions are the basic set of emotions present in every person. Today there is no generally accepted classification of emotions, and some scientists are inclined to believe that basic emotions exist, while others deny the fact of their existence. But most experts are still inclined to believe that they exist, and in order to determine whether an emotion is basic, there are several defining parameters:

• Basic emotions have a basis at the neural level
• Basic emotions are manifested at the level of facial expressions
• Basic emotions are recognized by a person and clearly experienced by him
• Basic emotions are the result of evolutionary biological processes
• Basic emotions have an organizing and motivating effect on a person

There are other characteristics that should be considered when defining basic emotions, but they are secondary.

Many researchers have tried and are trying to identify basic emotions, but no single list has yet been created. But despite this, there are several main classifications, the most popular of which is Carroll Izard’s classification. This is exactly what we will consider.

Izard's classification of basic emotions

According to Carroll Izard, there are eleven basic emotions, and any others are a combination and modification of them, and arise from them. Below is a list of basic emotions. Basic emotions according to Izard:

1. Joy
2. Astonishment
3. Sadness
4. Disgust
5. Contempt
6. Grief-suffering
7. Interest-excitement
8. Embarrassment

Joy

Joy is one of the main positive human emotions. Characterized by feelings of satisfaction, happiness and pleasure, and is also considered positive intrinsic motivation.

A smile, a desire to engage in active activities, pronounced gestures, rapid heartbeat, a desire to communicate, a good mood.

How to bring joy: in order to evoke joy in yourself, you can think about something pleasant (about some joyful event), reproduce pleasant memories in your memory, communicate with a person who is in a good mood, buy something you have long dreamed of, in general, to do something that caused, causes or can cause pleasant emotions in you.

Astonishment

Surprise is an emotion that appears when an unexpected situation occurs. In more scientific terms, surprise can be called an adequate reaction to a deviation from the norm. Depending on the specifics of the situation, surprise can turn into fear, interest or joy.

Physiological and external manifestations: raised eyebrows, rounded eyes, parted lips, in another case - knitted eyebrows, head tilted forward, and in case of strong surprise - wrinkles crossing the forehead.

How to surprise: The main way to create surprise is to reproduce physiological manifestations. To simplify your task, you can mentally imagine something that could surprise you: some object, person, situation. Simply put, to be surprised, you need to pretend that you are surprised.

Sadness

Sadness is an emotion that occupies an intermediate position between melancholy, sadness and despondency, and can incline first to one, then to the other, then to the third. Occurs when any circumstances upsetting a person arise.

Physiological and external manifestations: knitted eyebrows and their raised inner part, tense corners of the upper eyelids, drooping corners of the lips, vertical wrinkles between the eyebrows, horizontal wrinkles in the center of the forehead, sometimes tears, passive behavior, the desire to be alone with oneself.

How to induce sadness: You can evoke sadness in yourself quite simply: to do this, you need to think about some sad, sad, tragic event in your life, try to feel what you felt when this event happened, and try to stay in this state, feel it as as deep as possible so that the emotion of sadness shows its external signs.

Anger

Anger is an emotion with a strong negative valence. Most often, anger is caused by injustice towards a person and the desire to immediately eliminate this injustice.

Physiological and external manifestations: contracted and lowered eyebrows, if anger reaches the limit, then the outer side of the eyebrows shoots up, narrowed or, conversely, bulging eyes, tense eyelids, tense and closed lips, in other cases a grin is possible, tense muscles of the neck and chin, huge motivation to be active actions, sometimes inappropriate, the desire to influence the object of anger physically.

How to provoke anger: You can evoke the emotion of anger in yourself very simply: you need to think about something that causes you an overt feeling of protest and injustice, remember a conflict situation or a person (if there is one, of course), whose actions cause negative emotions in you. In the case of anger, reproducing physiological manifestations helps very well.

Disgust

Disgust is a strong form of rejection, a negatively colored feeling. It occurs in cases when a person is faced with something that is very unpleasant to him from a moral, physical, or aesthetic point of view.

Physiological and external manifestations: a strongly raised upper lip, a raised or lowered but bulging lower lip, raised cheeks, narrowed eyes and slightly lowered eyebrows, wrinkles at the bridge of the nose, a desire to turn away, brush it off, move away.

How to create disgust: It is very easy to cause disgust in yourself if you try to imagine in all details something very unpleasant in your imagination: any objects, situations, manifestations and behavior of people, smells, tastes, pictures, etc. It is easy to express the emotion of disgust simply by reproducing its external manifestations. Most likely, the necessary internal experiences will arise on your own.

Contempt

Contempt is a negative feeling that arises in relation to any object that exhibits behavior or qualities that the disgusted person himself does not allow himself to demonstrate and which seems extremely unacceptable to him. Often, disgust is associated with a feeling of superiority of one person over another and can turn into anger and even hatred.

Physiological and external manifestations: the signs are similar to the signs of disgust, but they most often lack symmetry, tense corners of the lips, closed lips, a forward and/or raised chin, a desire to express one’s negative attitude, or to point out what is wrong.

How to cause contempt: evoking contempt is a little more difficult than the above emotions, but of course it is possible. To do this, it is best, just as before, to recreate in your imagination the image of a person whose behavior or qualities cause negative emotions in you, and which you do not allow yourself to express. Images of people committing base, deceitful acts are perfect for this.

Grief-suffering

Grief is a negative emotion associated with a sense of loss. Sorrow and sadness are often synonymous with grief. Suffering, in turn, is a set of very unpleasant and painful physical or emotional sensations.

Raised inner eyebrows, knitted eyebrows, drooping corners of the lips, wrinkles on the forehead, in other cases - closed jaws, grin, thrown back or lowered head, clenched fists, tense body, tears.

How to induce grief: because this emotion is very strong, it is quite simple to cause it: firstly, you can reproduce external manifestations, secondly, imagine some kind of physical pain, thirdly, you can recreate in your imagination a very tragic situation from your life (the life of another person ) and immerse yourself in the experiences experienced in connection with this.

Shame

Shame is an emotion with a negative connotation associated with some unacceptable hidden or overt act or quality of the person who feels shame, or with another person for whom he feels ashamed.

Physiological and external signs: numbness, desire to be alone, constrained movements, passivity or desire to run away, guilt, tense breathing, drooping eyes, wrinkles on the forehead, pursed lips, redness of the face as a result of the abundant flow of blood to it.

How to induce shame: To evoke the emotion of shame, it is enough to imagine that you have done something very bad or obscene and everyone who is nearby knows about it. A very good way to feel shame is to imagine yourself naked in front of a large number of people who laugh at you. It is also easy to reproduce this emotion if you reflect its physiological signs.

Interest-excitement

Interest is an emotion with a positive connotation. Interest is associated primarily with the need to learn something new about an object and increased attention to it. Excitement in this context can be called a set of internal experiences associated with something.

Physiological and external signs: a slightly wrinkled forehead and slightly knitted eyebrows, often a rapid heartbeat and breathing, closed or, conversely, slightly parted lips, a desire to possess, a desire for physical contact, a gaze, increased concentration on an object of interest, in case of strong excitement - increased sweating, trembling limbs, stuttering, shortness of breath.

How to generate interest and excitement: It’s quite simple to evoke an emotion of interest: you can imagine that you really want to learn more about the person you are with, or about some object, situation, event, phenomenon, reproduce physiological signs of interest, think about what is interesting , talk about it, collect the necessary information, etc. If you need to cause excitement, then you can think about some important upcoming event, or about one that has already happened, but imagine it in the state in which you were even before that.

Guilt

Guilt is an emotion with a negative connotation that arises as a result of committing an act that seems to a person to have negative consequences for himself or for others. Most often it appears in a person in relation to something done specifically by him, which distinguishes the emotion of guilt from the emotion of shame.

Physiological and external signs: lowered or darting eyes, lowered head, deep breathing, a desire to be alone with oneself, the appearance of a blush on the face, a trembling voice, sometimes a raised chin and a contemptuous look, but a reluctance to meet the eyes of others.

How to induce guilt: a person can create a feeling of guilt in himself, firstly, if he imagines that he has committed some act that will cause the suffering of other people or himself. Secondly, if it accurately reproduces the physiological signs of the emotion of guilt. You can also remember something from the past for which you felt guilty: some actions, words spoken, deeds committed. The emotion of guilt is closely related to the emotion of shame, therefore, you can resort to methods that allow you to evoke this particular emotion.

As is easy to see, emotions are closely interrelated with each other and, in the vast majority of cases, allow one person to understand what another person is feeling at the moment. But if an actor on stage shows only those emotions that he actually feels at a given moment in time, this can have an extremely negative impact on the quality of his performance. In order to avoid unpleasant situations (related to the expression of emotions) during rehearsals, performances, filming, and in life in general, it is useful to learn some techniques for managing emotions. But first you need to learn about these techniques. This is exactly what we devote to the final section of our lesson.

15 techniques for managing emotions

1. Anchoring

The "" technique originates in neurolinguistic programming and is therefore one of the most effective when it comes to managing emotions. It has an amazing power to influence a person, both on those around him and on himself. For this reason, we will look at it in a little more detail than everything below.

The meaning of this technique is that in the process of simple but regularly performed actions, a person evokes a certain emotional state and consolidates (anchoring) it through the so-called ritual action. To put it simply, a conditioned reflex is created that allows one to enter the desired state through performing a certain action. With the help of anchoring you can evoke any emotion.

First of all, you need to create reinforcements, i.e. evoke the desired emotional state by remembering any past life experience corresponding to it. Then, at the moment of the highest intensity of this state, you need to perform a certain action, invented in advance. This could be crossing fingers, biting the lip, pinching the skin, etc. It is important that only you know about this action. Having done this procedure several times, you create an anchor, which in the future will instantly evoke the desired emotion. This process is very simple, but requires regular and systematic reinforcement.

So, the anchoring technique is as follows:

• You evoke the desired state by accessing your memory. Imagine it in all details, visualize it, feel it, be imbued with this feeling completely, trying to reach the peak point.
• At the moment you reach the peak point, you perform a pre-conceived action. Try to come up with something that you will never confuse with anything else and probably won’t do spontaneously. Repeat this sequence several times, taking short breaks between each “approach” until you are “at the peak”.
• After this, distract yourself to enter a normal emotional state. Pause for a while (half an hour/hour) and let the condition subside. Then repeat the first two points and get distracted again.
• Repeat the procedure regularly (10, 20, 30...100 times) so that the anchor is firmly secured. The result will be the ability to evoke any emotion you need with a specific action.

2. Opposite action technique

This method is used to manage high-intensity emotions. It is based on replacing experienced emotions with actions that are opposite in meaning. Moreover, the actions performed should not suppress or inhibit the experienced state, but should simply express something else.

As an example, we can use a state of increased emotional arousal, when a person, for whatever reason, experiences an emotional outburst, which is expressed in excessive mental activity. To suppress this surge, using the opposite action technique, you need to sit more comfortably on a chair or sofa, relax, slow down your breathing, and think about something calm and pleasant. Some time later, you will notice that your state has changed from emotional arousal to calm and tranquility.

3. Muscle release technique

This technique helps to get rid of tension and the emotions associated with it. It is very convenient to use it when you feel a surge of any negatively charged emotions, such as anger, malice, etc.

It is very simple to use: as soon as you feel that negative (or positive) emotions are beginning to take over you, you need to sharply and quickly tense all the muscles of the body (or a specific group of muscles) and stay in this state until you feel that there is no more strength to be in tension. After this, the muscles will begin to relax spontaneously, and the escaping tension will take with it the energy potential of the emotions that have begun to develop.

4. Technique for identifying and labeling emotional reactions

The proposed technique is a basic method for managing emotions, namely recognizing and identifying current emotional states. But this method is complicated in its own way, because... requires a person to maximize their ability to introspect and describe their mental manifestations.

The technique of applying this method consists of several steps:

1. Definition and description of the event that gave rise to the emotion
2. Definition and description of the meaning attached to an event
3. Defining and describing the sensations associated with an emotion
4. Definition and description of movements caused by emotion
5. Identifying and describing the impact an emotion has on you

Step-by-step implementation of these instructions, firstly, in itself will relieve most of the emotional stress, and secondly, will allow you to adequately and rationally assess your behavior and take the necessary actions to eliminate the emotion. By the way, this same method can also be used to evoke any emotion in yourself. But for this you need to have a clear understanding of the basic emotions of a person so that it is possible to reproduce the necessary elements.

5. Technique for applying the method of allowing suffering

There is an opinion that sometimes a person, in order to cope with a negative emotion, needs to allow the actions that it causes to manifest themselves. This method is based on the fact that those experiences that accompany negative emotions can and should simply be endured.

For example, you feel angry or angry and want to scream, break something, hit someone. Under no circumstances should you do this. You just need to accept this emotion as it is, let it be. Over time, you will notice that this emotion will begin to fade, and later disappear completely. And knowing what mental suffering a negative emotional charge can cause, you can intentionally reproduce a particular emotion if necessary, for example, when you need to reproduce the behavior of an angry person.

6. Technique for identifying barriers that prevent you from changing emotions

In many cases, certain barriers prevent a person from changing emotions. They may be related to habitual behavior, self-indulgence, protecting one's ego, maintaining status in society, etc. The technique of identifying barriers makes it possible to identify these barriers, evaluate them, come to an understanding of what motivates you and draw appropriate conclusions based on all this, which will allow you to influence your emotional state through volitional efforts.

As soon as you feel that somewhere in the depths of your being a negative emotion begins to arise, and you cannot overcome it, try to switch your attention to determining its true causes: why it arises in you, what prevents you from changing it, what factors influence it influences. Such an analysis will allow you not only to learn to identify barriers, but also to better know yourself and the characteristics of your personality. Subsequently, this will be useful to you in the practice of acting, because... It will help, for example, to free oneself from stage pressures, any complexes, etc. obstacles that prevent you from revealing your acting talent.

7. Technique for simply identifying emotions

Another basic technique. Its goal is to master the skill of facing one’s emotions, rather than seeking salvation from them. When a person is aware of his emotional states, he always has a choice of how to react to a given situation and how to feel.

You need to master this technique by simply recording events that cause you various experiences, the manifestations of these experiences, the features of their impact on you and your behavior. By doing this, you will learn to identify your typical reactions to certain emotions. Knowing such information about yourself, you will be able at any appropriate moment not only to neutralize states that you would not like to experience, but also to produce those that you need at the present moment in time. Just imagine what impact the ability to reproduce or extinguish emotional states will have on your acting skills!

8. Technique for reducing sensitivity to the level of “emotional intelligence”

In cases where a person is exposed to stressful situations and negative emotions, his emotional reactivity also increases, i.e. a person begins to react to everything very quickly, sometimes without realizing what he is doing. The fundamental factor here is the ability to maintain emotional balance in any life situations. This is “emotional intelligence”, which prevents overstrain of any kind.

To make it possible to control your emotional balance always and everywhere, you need to not only try to constantly be in a state of awareness, but also take into account such factors as proper nutrition, healthy sleep, morning exercises, abstinence from alcohol and drugs, etc. Collectively, this will have an amazing effect on you. Create an optimal “life regimen” for yourself. If you adhere to special rules that help improve your lifestyle, this will certainly affect both your emotional state in general and your ability to control it, which, in turn, will be an advantage for you in your acting role and in life.

9. Technique for increasing the number of events that cause positive emotions

The ability to manage emotions is based, among other things, on the fact that negative emotions contribute to a person’s poor health and vice versa. Of course, you can change the perception of emotions, but emotions will remain in any case. This technique involves mastering the skill of controlling what causes negative emotions.

The main and main technique of this technique is to increase the positive events that occur in a person’s life. This can be done by purposefully performing any actions or organizing events that bring joyful experiences. Practicing this systematically may even result in your lifestyle changing radically. But the initial result will be that you will begin to notice more good things happening in your life. This means that your general attitude towards any activity will be positive, and all your undertakings will be crowned with success, because In everything you will be accompanied by enthusiasm and the release of creative potential.

10. Technique for non-judgmental perception of emotions

This technique is designed to reduce the intensity of emotions by perceiving them non-judgmentally. The fundamental principle here is that when a person does not make any judgments regarding his emotions, he thereby does not allow their psychic energy to take over his consciousness.

This technique is used quite simply: at the moment a strong emotion arises, do not succumb to its influence, do not give it either a good or bad assessment, concentrate on breathing, look at your emotions from the outside. Just notice all the changes, thoughts, judgments about these emotions, remember that you are observing yourself. You can even try to predict possible changes that could happen if you succumbed to your experiences. This skill can be successfully applied both in real everyday life and in the one you lead while in character, playing, for example, in a play or in a movie, because allows you to enter any emotional state by reproducing their details.

11. Technique for reducing psychological involvement in the current emotional state

The presented technique is based on the assertion that even greater experience of the emerging negative emotion only aggravates the situation, because by beginning to empathize with oneself, a person induces the appearance of secondary emotions associated with the basic one, which increase the potential of the first one, bringing even greater suffering. It follows from this that any negative emotion must and can be inhibited, reducing one’s psychological involvement in it.

Just as in many previous techniques, the first task here is the ability to notice the emergence of emotion in time. As soon as you feel that an emotion has arisen, do not let yourself build the usual chain of subsequent reactions. For example, if you feel guilty, then it will certainly be followed by sadness, disappointment, self-flagellation, etc. To prevent this from happening, “slow down” your emotion, do not indulge in further thoughts, do not make judgments, do not evaluate. Just accept the situation as it is. Think about something abstract, pleasant, bringing the opposite - positive emotions, etc. If you do not engage in a negative state, its intensity will begin to fade over time and come to nothing. This skill will be useful to you both in life and on stage.

12. Technique for reducing physical sensitivity as a way to deal with emotions

This technique is similar to the sensitivity reduction technique discussed above. The most important thing here is the ability to recognize physical conditions that make a person more or less predisposed to the effects of emotional states.

To determine how physical conditions affect your emotions, you need to ask yourself a few important questions:

1. How does the way I eat affect how I feel?
2. What are the short-term and long-term consequences of overeating and undereating?
3. What are the short-term and long-term effects of my use of alcohol, medications, etc.?
4. How does my sleep affect my well-being?

The answers to these questions should show you the real state of affairs, namely: how the above factors, in general, affect your emotional state, and how these states change, depending on changes in the indicators of these factors. Based on this, you can determine the lifestyle that best suits you, including sleep, diet, drinking or not drinking alcohol, etc. A properly designed regimen will certainly contribute to the emergence of predominantly positive emotions and an improvement in life, and will also have an impact on your productivity, both in everyday life and in acting.

13. “Second pair of eyes” technique

Using this technique, you will be able, so to speak, to be divided in two and master the skill of looking at yourself from the outside, which will allow you to more critically evaluate yourself, your actions and emotional experiences, see their essence and change at your discretion.

Using this technique means that you allow everything that happens to take its course. At the same time, the main part of your attention should be directed to yourself. You need to observe your reactions, manifestations, actions, etc. Cultivate an inner observer within yourself who should be as critical and impartial as possible. Observing yourself will allow you, if necessary, to make adjustments to your mental manifestations, which means that in any situation you will keep yourself and your emotions under control, which is a huge advantage not only in the state of being in a stage image, but also in life in general.

14. Deep breathing technique

The technique under consideration is based on breathing because... it is closely related to the human nervous system. Breathing is the basis of life, and the way a person breathes has a direct impact on any conditions and emotions he experiences.

The practice of this technique is the practice of breathing exercises, which are regulators of states. Today, there are a lot of breathing exercises in which people mainly take deep breaths and exhales. Here is one such exercise:

• You need to sit up straight and take a deep breath through your nose for a count of four, then exhale through your mouth for a count of four.
• As you inhale, the left leg first rises, and as you exhale, it lowers. After that - the right leg. And so on in turn.
• You need to do four approaches for each leg.

Using this technique will allow you to reduce the intensity of any emotion and enter a state of balance and tranquility. It is very effective because... it can be used almost always and everywhere.

15. Technique for conscious management of emotions

This is the last technique we will look at. Its main principle is the conscious and intentional management of one’s emotional states, allowing a person to keep under control all emerging emotions and their subsequent manifestations.

In any situation when you feel any strong emotion arise, take a short break. This means that you need to say to yourself: “I need to think,” “I want to move this conversation,” “It’s time to take a break,” or something similar, which will allow you to abstract from the experienced state for a while and “decompose it into Everything’s in order in my head.” Determine for yourself a time limit during which you can realize your condition and evaluate it. This will stimulate you to enter states of heightened awareness, during which you will be able to calm down and draw the necessary conclusions. It is very convenient to use this method to study emotions, which in the future will allow you to neutralize them or, conversely, intentionally evoke them.

Based on the techniques we have given in this lesson, we can conclude that there are many ways to influence your emotions. From all the techniques considered, you can choose the one that is most suitable for you, develop it, study its features and apply it in everyday life. It is important to remember one important rule: a person himself chooses whether to be a slave to his emotions or their master.

As for managing emotions in general, it should be noted that this skill is necessary for a person not only if he is an actor, but also in general in everyday life. The ability to manage emotions can be useful for public speaking and for negotiating, and for influencing people, and for running a successful business, and for building friendships or love relationships, and even for such things as sound recording, photo shoots, interviews, etc. .

Train, learn to manage your emotions and get to know yourself! We wish you success in life and in acting!

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on the topic of this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. For each question, only 1 option can be correct. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on completion. Please note that the questions are different each time and the options are mixed.

1. Suffering– associated with receiving information about the impossibility of satisfying important life needs, often occurs in the form of stress.

2. Anger– is caused by the appearance of unexpected obstacles to the satisfaction of a need that is extremely important for a person. Usually this emotion occurs in the form of an effect that does not last very long.

3. Disgust- caused by circumstances, objects, people, contact with which causes a sharp contradiction with the moral, aesthetic, ideological principles of man. When combined with anger in interpersonal relationships, it can provoke aggression.

4. Contempt– is generated by a disagreement in a person’s life attitudes with the behavior and life position of another person.

5. Fear– appears when receiving information about a possible threat to well-being. It can be caused not by a real danger, but by an imaginary one, and this differs from the emotion of suffering.

6. Shame– appears when one realizes the inconsistency of one’s actions and thoughts with the norms of generally accepted morality or with one’s own attitudes.

Passion is another type of complex, qualitatively unique and unique emotional state found only in humans. Passion is a fusion of emotions, motives and feelings concentrated around a specific activity or subject. A person can become the object of passion. S.L. Rubinstein wrote that “passion is always expressed in concentration, concentration of thoughts and forces, their focus on a single goal... Passion means impulse, passion, orientation of all aspirations and forces of the individual in a single direction, concentrating them on a single goal.”
34. James-Lange theory of the emergence of emotions.

T. e. J.-L. immediately after its publication in James’s work “Principles of psychology” became the subject of numerous scientific discussions. Some provisions of James's theory were formulated by the Danish psychologist Carl Georg Lange in 1885. James combined his ideas with Lange's ideas, which served as the basis for introducing the term T.E.J.-L into scientific circulation. This theory is proposed by a physiologist. an explanation of the mechanism of emergence, organization and maintenance at a certain level of such clearly manifested emotions as sadness, fear, anger and love, as well as more subtle emotions, which include moral, intellectual and aesthetic feelings.

The authors proceed from the fact that the common causes of emotions are not mental. (mental) or psychological, but internal, physiological, nervous processes. Emotions are the result of organic changes that occur in a person’s body in response to a stimulating object or fact that he encounters.

The sequence of occurrence of emotional experience consists of three phases: a) perception of an exciting object or fact; b) external manifestations of emotions, for example, crying, attacking or running away; d) mental. impact, or actual emotion, for example, a feeling of fear or anger. Many theories of emotions (common sense suggests the same thing) assume that external manifestations of emotions (crying, attacking or running away) follow the emergence of emotions such as fear or anger. James and Lange changed this sequence, placing the stage of external manifestations between the perception of the exciting stimulus and the emotion itself.

In the discussions caused by the James-Lange theory, the question of the role of the central nervous system and social systems was discussed. environment in the emergence of emotions. "Centralists" (including James and Lange) argued that each emotion corresponds to a specific physiologist. changes. Their opponents, the “peripheralists,” denying this possibility, insisted that we can only talk about a general state of arousal, modified by social influence. environmental factors. Experiment. The data do not allow us to draw a clear conclusion.

Jean Paul Sartre, having critically approached the James-Lange theory from the position of phenomenology, rejected it for subsequent reasons. First, behavior, physiologist. or expressive, is not an emotion, just as awareness of such behavior is not an emotion. Secondly, the body does not “reveal” its own interpretations, the latter are given in the mind of the individual. Thirdly, physical manifestations of emotions represent the most ordinary violations of the normal functioning of the body and cannot be the causes of emotions. Through them, the individual receives confirmation of the existence of an emotion; they give the emotions credibility, but are not their causes. Fourth, take into account only the biologist. the body - in isolation from the life it has lived (lived body) - and the individual's awareness of the body as a source of emotions means viewing the body as a thing and localizing emotions in disorders of the body.

T. e. J.-L. has not lost its meaning even today. The phases of emotional experience identified by its creators are not questioned. However, discussions continue regarding their sequence and about the great importance that this theory attaches to physiology to the detriment of social and psychological. factors and processes.