7 Everyday Emotions – And What They Mean!

Feelings mean the world. In any case, they circumscribe our world, which we may experience daily, through both suffering and joy. Our repertoire of emotions, while complex, can be categorized quite well. It’s also not a sign of instability when several emotional states occur together on one and the same day.

We humans are not machines; our feelings can neither be controlled nor suppressed in the long run. In the course of a day, you may encounter a colorful rainbow of emotions, mainly composed of the following seven feelings we present to you in this article.

1. Joy

It is the essence of success and our personal happiness. Some people have a real talent for recognizing the beautiful, the funny and the joyful in every moment. They can delight like little children in a beautiful butterfly flitting along or in having snatched the last organic avocado at the supermarket.

Some people need bigger events to be able to authentically rejoice. Others find this feeling very difficult, they are too focused on the negative and therefore also attract difficult events like a magnet.

2. Sadness

It happens to each and every one of us from time to time, it usually hits us unprepared and always when pain and loss afflict our lives. It is not a nice feeling, usually goes hand in hand with helplessness and despair, and steadfastly refuses to go away, at least until we have given it the space and acceptance it demands of us.

Grief must be lived, otherwise we carry it with us like a millstone until the end of our days. However, grief processing is highly subjective. It is probably the most idiosyncratic feeling of all. Relationships and entire families break down because some find it much easier to leave the sadness behind and look forward than others. How well we cope with this stressful feeling depends on many factors.

3. Stress

It seems to be something like the new de facto goal of our affluent society. Anyone who has no stress is not a value-added factor for society and definitely contributes too little to the national economy. This attitude is not only short-sighted and naive, it can also have serious health consequences for us.

Stress is a silent killer that first takes over our psyche, and then our body. Feeling stressed makes us irritable, often forgetting courtesy and consideration, and even such important things as eating, drinking, and sleeping come up short. Of course, we can't always choose what challenges the day has in store for us, but in principle it's up to us how much we let it overwhelm us.

Well-organized people who think and act with foresight have known for a long time that stress is really the inability to manage one's time. This is not always true, of course, but a large proportion of the activities we have to do need to be reckoned with, either immediately or on a more or less planned itinerary.

4. Anger

After grief, it's the strongest of our emotions and can drive the most patient and understanding of people up the wall. Some people have a frighteningly low inhibition threshold here, others let the anger inside them ferment and mature over a long period of time until they literally explode. Both are suboptimal in interpersonal relationships.

They can only be held in check to a limited extent. Analogous to grief, anger must also be lived out and consciously felt before it can retreat back into its snake pit. It's unfortunate when it overwhelms us in public, for example in morning traffic or at the checkout in the supermarket.

Those who manage it might scream into an innocent sofa cushion at home or go running until their lungs hurt. We should not take it out on other people. Once uttered, unfortunately, you can't take back an anger tirade.

5. Shame

It is an old-fashioned, antiquated feeling that most of us owe to a strictly regimented childhood and rigid social norms of behavior that had to be adhered to at all costs. Sexuality, a positive commitment to one's own body, but also the acceptance of one's own faults, weaknesses and shortcomings are demonized in many educational patterns.

On the other hand, there is plenty of room to feel shame looking at social media, which shows us every day how other people supposedly live and how we differ from them. Here, appearance, lifestyle, success and social status come up for discussion, as does voluntary commitment in the service of a good cause.

Shame is neither useful nor sensible. Most of the time it comes paired with beliefs from our childhood and can thus be debunked quite quickly.

6. Loneliness

It often feels like a cold hand on our shoulder that comes without warning and is difficult to shake off. To make matters worse, it can easily come over us even in the midst of people we know and like. This is because, f we lack a genuine sense of connection, the most intimate partnership and the most colorful extended families can't change how we feel.

Conversely, many single people and devoted singles hardly know this feeling; they are self-sufficient and clearly prefer no company to bad company. Loneliness can be a sign that we have not yet found our perfect place in life. It is worth trying out various new experiences to shed light on what’s going on with our own personal circumstances. Above all, it should not become a permanent condition. Anxiety and depression can be quick to come on its heels.

7. Emptiness

It is a diffuse feeling that is difficult to classify. We can feel it in the midst of a crowd, or when we are all alone; triggers can be the eternal routine at work or the perpetual daily grind at home. When you are stuck at work and at home, emptiness fills that well from which you should actually draw meaning and satisfaction from your actions.

If you regularly feel emptiness, you’ll have to break through this curse, otherwise you risk burnout or even depression. Again, simply trying something new can be an extremely effective first aid measure. Routine is the proverbial death of a fulfilled and active life.

Today’s Conclusion

A feeling is worth a thousand words. This is exactly what makes it so difficult for people to deal with them. Sometimes they are like a shadow that hangs over an intrinsically carefree moment. Some are gloomy premonitions that we are not balanced in that moment. Joy, on the other hand, is like an emotional adrenaline rush that we often can’t get enough of....However, a life of constant joy would not be a real life.

A real life consists of the full range of feelings of which we humans are capable. We can open our hearts and doors to joy, but it rarely comes alone; it needs sadness, emptiness and loneliness in order not to retain its value. Our emotional life is like a sophisticated recipe.

To taste the many ingredients individually would be a rather disorganized challenge for our palate. Mixed together, however, harmoniously and perfectly coordinated, they result in a real taste explosion. That's it for today.