Emotions

Something most of us wish we could shut off.

They’re intense feelings. They might result from something that happened. They could also be directed at someone…or something.

Anne is afraid of black cats. So fear is her emotion, and its directed at black cats.

Jason loves pizza with cheese-filled crust. His emotion is love, and it’s directed at cheese crust pizza.

Even though emotions tend to be directed at someone or something, they originate from within.

Let’s take a second look at the above examples:

Anne is afraid of black cats. It's because she was scratched by one as a child, then she tripped over another one while walking down the stairs and nearly broke her arm. She thinks they’re all out to get her.

Then we have Jason. He loves pizza with cheese-filled crust. When he was a child, his mother made homemade pizza, and she filled the crust with cheese to get him to eat it. So the cheese crust reminds him of his mother and his childhood. Now he’s an adult and pays a lot of bills, including a ridiculous student loan payment, so he looks back at those fond memories. They’re his comfort.

In both examples, the emotions are based on internal forces, but they’re triggered by external forces.