The definition of emotion in my Webster’s dictionary is as follows: a strong feeling (such as wonder, love, sorrow, shame) often accompanied by a physical reaction (e.g. blushing or trembling). In my Dictionary of Emotions by Patrick Michael Ryan, he states, “Emotions are subjective. Emotions help define our internal and external condition and experience.”
Two rather interesting definitions of emotion that I found online at Urban Dictionary (a website where people upload their own definitions of words) was 1. by Mareena who stated “emotion: something that should be locked up in drawers, or simply kept in your pockets and 2. by RockandRollbabe who states “an inexplicable thing that makes you do stupid stuff that you will regret for the rest of your life.” Both appear to have originated from experience 🙂
And yet another definition is the Latin root word for emotion which is “to move.” The notion that no matter what you are feeling, there is an element of motion to it, a stirring up, a responsive sensation to an event or experience. Perhaps the idea we can take from this is in giving ourselves permission to allow for the flow of emotion, to simply accept our emotions as they come and go and not as a definition of who we are.
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