Anahi Diaz

Mrs. OKeefe & Mr. Crain-Davis

English IV

May 22 2017

What are feelings? Why do We Feel them?

Why I Ask this Question

Don't you ever think why we feel the way we do? I at least do. I wonder why do we feel hurt,

why do we feel love, and why do we get mad. What controls all of this? When you feel that ache

in your heart when you have had a heartbreak. That adrenaline in your body you get when you

feel the joy of seeing a loved one or even jumping out of a plane. I have so many different

emotions in just one day, so I ask myself why?

What I Knew Before

I wasn't really sure why we feel. I didn't know how our feelings really worked in our body. All I

knew was that something in your brain caused these emotions/ reactions. That is what an

emotion is, a reaction to a certain situation. Every emotion, and every feeling is different. I know

that everyone feels a different way for certain situations but yet at times can relate to them in

specific ways in which can be described as love or pain. That the way I feel pain is different from

the way you feel pain but there is that similar characteristic of hurt.

The Search

Throughout my search different sources described some specific emotions and how the body

reacts to these specific emotions. They also talked about how you should view your emotions. In

the text Why Do We Have Emotions Gagnon states, So each emotion has a series of words that
describe the intensity of the emotion, it communicates specific information to us which are

thoughts, perceptions or beliefs about an event. Gagnon speaks about why we have emotions.

This is statement shows how Gagnon views the definition of emotions. He says they are just our

thoughts which is was different than how a philosopher views the definition.

During my research one of the first thing I read was of an interview with a well known

philosopher Antonio Damasio. On scientificamerican.com it stated that Damasio had said during

his interview, But for neuroscience, emotions are more or less the complex reactions the body

has to certain stimuli. When we are afraid of something, our hearts begin to race, our mouths

become dry, our skin turns pale and our muscles contract. This emotional reaction occurs

automatically and unconsciously. Feelings occur after we become aware in our brain of such

physical changes; only then do we experience the feeling of fear. Here he speaks about how

feelings play such a great role in our lives that it is a necessity. He speaks upon how are emotions

happen unconsciously, how something is triggered and bam you feel happy or sad or even

perhaps mad. He says how feelings occur only after we realize there is a change of something. In

a different interview, How Our Brains affect emotion Damasio also said, And an emotion

consists of a very well orchestrated set of alterations in the body that has, as a general purpose,

making life more survivable by taking care of a danger, of taking care of an opportunity,

either/or, or something in between. And its something that is set in our genome and that we all

have with a certain programmed nature that is modified by our experience so individually we

have variations on the pattern. This is an interview of Damasio with David Hirschman. Here

Damasio explains how the body reacts to emotions. Referencing to the endocrine system.
Back pain, Change in appetite, Chest pain, Constipation or diarrhea, Dry mouth, Extreme

tiredness, General aches and pains, Headaches, High blood pressure, Insomnia (trouble sleeping),

Lightheadedness, Palpitations (the feeling that your heart is racing), Sexual problems, Shortness

of breath, Stiff neck, Sweating, Upset stomach, Weight gain or loss., stated familydoctor.org.

These were all used to describe what occurs to the body with these emotional distresses. This

second section/ portion of the website spoke about how emotions can affect someone's health. It

spoke about some symptoms someone may experience while in a bad emotional state. This

shows how emotions can affect the body in a physical negative manner.

Another text I evaluated spoke upon how emotions are separated into three different categories.It

speaks about the amygdala a little part of the brain which controls your response or reaction. It

said how the brain intakes information and how it goes through various glands such as the

pituitary and the adrenal gland before actually reacting to the situation. Emotions as they are

experienced can be broken into three categories: primary emotions, secondary emotions, and

background emotions. Primary emotions are experienced as a byproduct of a stimulus-response

chain of events; these emotional responses have, to some degree, been hardwired in our brains

over the course of evolution...Secondary and background emotions are the product of an internal

feedback loop.While the emotions involved in primary emotional reactions can also play a part

in secondary and even as background emotions, nonprimary emotions are more likely to be some

dues-paying subsidiary of a primary emotion. in chapter 8 Motivation and Emotion it begins

to speak about the nature of emotion on page 305. It spoke about the thought process, action

tendency, passions, and the responses First, it appears that activity in the limbic system,

especially in the amygdala, is a central to various aspects of emotion...Disruptions in the

amygdala appear to contribute to the emotional problems associated with certain kinds of brain

damage A second aspect of the brain's involvement in emotion is seen in its control over

emotional and nonemotional facial expressions...A third aspect of the brain's role in emotion is

revealed by research on the differing contributions of its two cerebral hemispheres to the

perception, experience, and expression of emotion. (307) Here he described the different

aspects of the brain and how emotions pass through all of these aspects.

What I Learned

I learned that the body is the main source from where you're feeling come from. I didn't know

how much they actually affect oneself. I also learned how it physically can affect your body, I

believed it was just mentally. These emotions can cause your body to change and even be

physically hurt. Everyone intakes the views of emotion differently but they all have the general

idea of that these emotions are processed through the body and are basically a reaction. In my

day to day experiences I always feel different after something crosses my mind or somethings

happens that is negative or positive.

What I Still Want to Know

I still want to know if

I want to know if there is a deeper meaning to feelings than just your body reacting to these

situations.. I want to know if there is any superstitions and if there is where did they root from.
 Works Cited

Why Do We Have Emotions. N/A, n.d. Web. 7 May 2017.

<http://www.montrealcbtpsychologist.com/userfiles/373150/file/Why_Do_We_Have_Emotions.

pdf>.

"Feeling Our Emotions." Scientific American. N.p., 17 Mar. 2005. Web. 08 May 2017.

<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/feeling-our-emotions/>.

Staff, Familydoctor.org Editorial. "Mind/Body Connection: How Your Emotions Affect Your

Health." Familydoctor.org. N.p., 21 Oct. 2016. Web. 20 May 2017.

<https://familydoctor.org/mindbody-connection-how-your-emotions-affect-your-health/>

"The Emotional Brain." Brain Connection. N.p., 14 Dec. 2016. Web. 22 May 2017.

<http://brainconnection.brainhq.com/2000/05/26/the-emotional-brain/>.

Berstein, Douglas A. "Motivation and Emotion." Essentials of Psychology. S.l.: Wadsworth,

2013. 305-17. Print."

Damasio, Antonio. "How Our Brains Feel Emotion - Video." Big Think. N.p., 19 Oct. 2010.

Web. 08 May 2017. <http://bigthink.com/videos/how-our-brains-feel-emotion>.