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Emotions exist for reasons bigger
than causing you to say “I love you” at inappropriate times, or sending
angry emails, or storming out of rooms. Their purpose is simple and
powerful: to help you navigate life.
Without emotions, we wouldn't
just live in a world without love songs and slow claps. We'd be lost, or
worst case scenario, dead.
That's because emotions are
essentially calls-to-action. They spring up to tell your body to “DO
SOMETHING!” when something—like running as fast as you can—needs to be
done.
Far from being subtle cues,
emotions actually prepare your body to act in emergency situations. When
you're angry, blood flows to your hands so you can more easily grab a
weapon or strike someone. When you're afraid, blood flows to your legs so
you can start running fast. And being disgusted makes your face wrinkle up,
causing your nostrils to close up so you can avoid a foul smell.
Though some of these
physiological reactions might seem a bit too much for the challenges of an
ordinary day, you can be glad for them on extraordinary days if you have to
escape the clutches of a serial killer or save someone from drowning. And
they were absolutely essential for survival in prehistoric times.
Back then, having the limbic
system as a brain (aka an “emotional brain”) meant that every emotion was a
command. Acting on impulse was appropriate for the harsh conditions our
prehistoric ancestors lived in, but since then, we developed a neocortex
(aka a “thinking brain”). The neocortex enables us to feel more and more
complicated emotions—the most sophisticated example of that being our
ability to have feelings about our feelings—and think before we act.
But if we have become so
emotionally sophisticated, why do we still behave occasionally like
cavemen, particularly in traffic? Because, in a way, we still are.
Though we gained a thinking
brain, evolution thought it would be wiser not to strip us of our
prehistoric, emotional brain. And it gave the emotional brain authority to
act in case of an emergency without consulting our thinking brain.
And that's where things get
tricky. Sometimes, our emotional brain helps save our lives. Other times,
it misreads situations, causing us to freak out and behave in inappropriate
ways. That's when we'll snap at our partner or flee the stage
mid-presentation. Later, we wonder, “What was I thinking?” when the truth
is...we weren't.
You can think of your emotional
brain as a loyal friend who sometimes blows things out of proportion,
embarrassing you and making you feel uncomfortable.
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