Our Common Emotional Inheritance
What are our really important instinctive emotional responses. And why they are so important?
Here are the nine big human characteristics . And why they are so important and how at times they can get a little mixed up and confusing.
- Fear and anger – that move us away and back to safety or towards to protect and make safe. The fear response is typically very strong and will typically (but not always and not for everyone) overwhelm. And the anger response towards can be more powerful than the addictive, sexual and indeed pleasure responses that also move us towards.
- Addictive towards pleasure and the relief from pain – that becomes unstoppable.
- Living with dissatisfaction and disappointment – in order to survive. Or else how would we have experimented and invented so much?
- Always judging and innately hypocritical – and so either finding others or ourselves to blame or are better or worse. For most of us, it is others that are deficient as we appear to require having a too high opinion of ourselves.
- An incredible sensitivity to reciprocity and fairness – part of our protection that we may connect and co-operate. Best to moderate this in ourselves, so learn to find fault with yourself – and take pride in taking responsibility.
- Shame, guilt and jealousy -close cousins to reciprocity and will either work well or badly to deal with our absolute requirement for connection, co-operation and safety as part of the group, while at the same time balancing that against “self”.
- Capacity to separate from our feelings and thoughts – and so be open to being present in this moment and away from perennial feelings of regret of the past and trepidation of the future.
- Disgust – the powerful and over whelming feeling that protects us from physical contamination.
- Elevation and Awe – which is something we can all feel from time to time before beauty, love or God or even a story of compassion and sacrifice. You could say that it is recognition of the interdependence of life.