Our personal history is also written with the ink of every emotion experienced, every overcome fear and every happy moment that has left an indelible mark on the mind and heart. After all, life is not marked by the years lived, but by the emotions experienced.
Written and verified by the psychologist GetPersonalGrowth.
Last update: 15 November 2021
Time is measured in hours, life in emotions. And it is precisely these psychophysiological reactions that give meaning to our existence. Joy, happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, wonder, nostalgia… All of them, regardless of their positive or negative value, define who we are, mark our behavior and, at the same time, give meaning to our actions.
Writer and activist Helen Keller rightly stated that “the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. You have to feel them with your heart ”. She knew it well, because being deaf-blind, she learned to move and understand her reality of her through that latent and invisible universe that we often don't appreciate as we should: sensations, relationships, feelings ...
We often hear that humans are social beings and that our brain is a rational organ, a set of interconnected cells and tissues that shape thoughts, choices and behaviors. But the truth is different: we humans are emotional creatures and the only language our brain understands is that of emotions.
All of this makes us wonderful, but also tremendously complex. Interpreting life from this point of view can help us have greater control over them and live them with greater intensity. Because it is true that time is measured in hours, but life in emotions.
Time is measured in hours, life in emotions: moments of joy, days of calm and moments of sadness
Emotions regulate our daily life in various ways. Such biological realities don't just affect how we feel physically, with our heart racing when we fall in love or the stomach ache we feel when we fidget. They also affect the way we think and act in some moments.
Life is measured in emotions because they are the soundtrack of our every moment. Having a clear understanding of the importance of this psychophysiological dimension is fundamental for our well-being. It is as it allows us to understand that greater understanding and control over emotions can affect our happiness or, on the contrary, on the suffering that is likely to crystallize.
Emotions speak about us and our personal history
Our existence is not woven exclusively with the threads of happiness. In this canvas, unique for each of us, there are also the colors of pain, loss and sadness. And it is precisely in this game of nuances and contrasts that the authentic beauty (and resilience) of life resides.
Well, emotions define our history and our person. To better understand this concept, we will give an example. The end of a relationship can cause a permanent wound, an emptiness that can absorb all hope and feeling; a pain that can become chronic to the point of preventing us from having new relationships.
Similar situations are quite common. In reverse, some people's emotional fabric is woven with resilience, which gives a great capacity for healing, to go beyond, the desire to live, try, experience ... Life is measured in emotions and, although some are painful, suffering does not have to be the only color of our existence.
Feeling good means feeling the right emotion at all times and knowing how to manage it
Les Greenberg is a Canadian psychologist who became famous for developing emotion-focused therapy. What he says in works such as Emotion-focused Therapy is that when it comes to emotions we are all a little unprepared. We repress them, we mislead them, we don't know how to give you a name and we often get carried away by them without thinking about the consequences.
It is good to understand that feeling good means feeling the right emotion at all times and knowing how to manage it. What does it mean? It means, for example, that when someone offends us, we have every right to be angry. But anger must not lead us to react with violence, but in an assertive and reasoned way.
It also means that in the face of uncertain situations that lead to change, it is perfectly normal to feel fear and anxiety. These emotions must be accepted and experienced as legitimate and normal. Fully understanding these fundamentals of psychological health allows us to better manage every situation and personal circumstance.
Time is measured in hours, life in emotions: keep learning
Life is measured in emotions, even in moments of unhappiness, melancholy, hope, disappointment and sadness. We are the result of what we have lived and, above all, of what we have felt in every experience. And this is precisely what makes us unique.
Each of us is defined by overcoming fears, healed sadness, anger transformed with forgiveness and disappointment won by success and happiness.
It is certainly true that we have left behind many things, but the future always holds new horizons and opportunities that are still able to excite us. Because that's what it is all about, living every day with emotion.
