Prior question:
Some say our emotions cloud our judgement in some way, but how might a better understanding of our emotions lead to personal and professional growth?
Sample Introduction
A president once said, “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” That was Frank D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. Fear is one of those first emotions a human animal first experienced at the very start of our exitance; it alerted the humans from danger, it kept us away from predators and it helped from making a mistake twice. In this day and age, fear plays a big role in our everyday lives that at times it clouds our decisions and judgment, preventing us from taking more risks in our lives. I believe that in identifying fear and understanding it, we can begin to take more risks and become successful not only in our professional lives but also in our personal lives.
Sample Documented Essay (A Grade), by Lismar Castellanos, March 26, 2021
How do we manage our emotions and how they affect our behavior? Do we know how to recognize them? We live in a constant active life, desperate to achieve our goals, trying to be productive every day and wanting to become efficient people in our workplace and in our personal lives. However, we do not stop to analyze our emotions, those that reveal our inner world and play a fundamental role in our behavior and in our thinking. Emotions are intensified feelings or complex patterns of feelings which is caused by an external situation that we witness around us. Therefore, it is important to recognize and inquire about them and know how to manage them, so that they are adaptable to any event in our life. In the same way, a better understanding of our emotions can lead to a better quality of our personal and professional life because when we experience positive emotions such as gratitude, we tend to be happier and value the simplicity of life, we become emotionally healthy people, and we recognize that negative emotions can lead us to lose the focus of our goals.
Gratitude as a positive emotion has the power to provide us happiness and satisfaction in our life. From watching David Steindl-Rast’s Ted Talk “Want to be happy? Be grateful” we learn that by valuing things in our lives and giving thanks for what we have, makes us happy. He states that “A grateful world is a happy world, and we all have the opportunity by the simple stop, look, go, to transform the world, to make it a happy place”. (David Steindl-Rast’s “Want to be happy?”). Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue but the key to happiness. Grateful people are more likely to increase their resilience, broad their awareness, know to improve their relationships, face different situations, and tend to be happier. If we stop, look at our environment and appreciate simple things such as the awakening of a new day, the change of seasons, the colors and intense flowers smell or simply all the free pleasures that is given to us, we experience this important positive emotion which provides us satisfaction in all areas of our life. Overall, as human beings it is important to know, understand and feel positive emotions, as well as gratitude which has the power to motivate us to transform the world and make us happy people.
On the other hand, by recognizing negative emotions, we could continue following our goals. At some point in our life, we have all confronted negative emotions through unpleasant events, and it is important to know how to manage them so that they do not make us lose our focus. From the article “Negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems'' by N Garnefki, V Kraaij, and P Spinhoven, gives me the understanding that the regulation of emotions is a very broad and important factor that can evaluate and modify the emotional reactions of human beings through cognitive processes. The authors state that “Cognitive processes may help us to manage or regulate emotions or feelings, and to keep control over our emotions and/or not getting overwhelmed by them”. (N Garnefki, V Kraaij, and P Spinhoven “Negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems''). Cognitive processes are skills that allow human beings to learn and achieve any activity in their daily life, in order to establish as a final result an adequate people's behavior. In the same way, as rational individuals we are able to recognize emotions, identify them and have a better manipulation of them. Then, negative emotions produce us an unpleasant sensation or negative feelings. For instance, negative emotions at the workplace lead to stress and are overwhelming, which can cause problems to intensify and diminish our focus. Therefore, we must be aware of every action taken, learn to manage negative emotions, feel them, control them, and not let that cloud our judgment and impede us to continue following our goals. If people become aware of how to control their emotions, they are able to become emotionally healthy people.
Emotionally healthy people show emotions in appropriate ways. These people are willing to experience and convey suitable emotions. They are described by their emotional wellness, self-esteem, good relationships, self-control, and emotional intelligence. In the textbook “Access to Health” by Rebecca J. Donatelle, we learn that proper management of emotions and feelings is a fundamental part of emotional health. She emphasizes "Emotionally healthy people respond appropriately to upsetting events. Rather than reacting in an extreme fashion or behaving inconsistently or offensively, they can express their feelings and communicate with others”. (Rebecca J. Donatelle “Access to Health). For our psychological well-being, an emotionally healthy person is not guided by emotions and does not allow to be overcome by adversity. This person is responsible for evaluating their individual emotional responses, their causes, and the appropriateness of actions. Therefore, these people feel good about themselves, they feel comfortable with other people, they maintain a positive outlook and they appreciate and respect the world around them. Overall, emotionally healthy people possess emotional, mental, social resilience which help them to overcome life obstacles they often face.
To conclude, we must be aware that emotions are constantly present in our lives and through them we have access to our inner world. A better understanding of them will contribute to our emotional well-being: self-control, personal self-knowledge, and better relationships with others. Besides, our environment will always have the opportunity to awaken our emotions. As a result of this, we could enjoy good things and put the bad ones away. And if it is the case, facing anger with laughter, sadness with joy, boredom with fun, and loneliness with company. In a broader sense, looking for our happiness and adapting our emotions to any circumstance.
Works cited
Donatelle, Rebecca J. Access to Health. San Francisco, CA, Pearson Education, 2018. Accessed on 22 Mar. 2021
Garnefki N, V Kraaij, and P Spinhoven. “Negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems.” Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 30, no. 8, June. 2001, pp. 1311-1327. ScienceDirect, doi:10.1016/SO191-8869(00)00113-6. Accessed on 21 Mar. 2021.
Steindl-Rast, David. “Want to be happy? Be grateful.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, June 2013, https://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful?language=en. Accessed on 20 Mar. 2021.