Tony Ennis's Blog Posts about Emotions

Emotions are not hard-wired. They are constructed by the brain as concepts to make sense of the world around you.
"The body is just another part of the external world that it must explain."
"Your muscles running low on energy might feel like “exhaustion.” Too little sleep might be interpreted as “overwhelm.” A lack of positive social interaction might be experienced as “loneliness.” These are concepts built by the mind out of pieces of sensory data, cultural knowledge, and a history of social interactions."
"The range of emotions a person can experience is limited by their emotional granularity – the ability to construct and identify more precise emotional experiences."
"When you experience an emotion without knowing the precise cause, you are more likely to treat that emotion as information about the world, rather than your experience of the world"
"Once you understand body budgets and how they impact our emotions, it becomes apparent how much of modern culture seems engineered to disrupt them."
"Depression can be thought of as a relentless feedback loop of negative thoughts and feelings. Each feeling drives the next thought, and vice versa. Since the body budget is chronically in debt, the body tries to cut spending. The easiest way to do that is to stop moving around and stop paying attention to the world."
"The Theory of Constructed Emotion argues that every aspect of our emotions is malleable and flexible. You are not at the mercy of mythical emotion circuits buried deep inside some ancient part of your brain. You have more control over your emotions than you think."
Things you can do:
- Try on new perspectives
- Recategorize what you're feeling
- Move your body
- Improve your vocabulary
- Write about your experiences.