Martin Tidén

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Emotions of life

Emotions of life is a book about emotions: what they are, how they play a central role in our lives and the extent to which they influence our behavior and decisions.

Emotions are in essence an expression of the human organisms basic life process. Emotions are autonomous physical response processes that we are unable to consciously control, such as the anger that activates when our physical boundaries are violated or the happiness we feel when we meet an old friend. Feelings are

our experience of emotions and other affective responses. We experience these processes inside our bodies and in this way feeling connects body and mind.

The first part of the book contains a detailed description of the physiology, function and dynamics of emotion and feeling. This includes descriptions of our basic emotions: fear, anger, sadness, happiness and love, as well as processes similar to emotions such as pain, sexuality, shame and guilt.

The second part of the book focuses on personality and the extensive influence the emotional system has on its development. We learn at an early age which emotions may be expressed and which are not accepted. As a result we hold back unaccepted emotions, creating a fertile soil for psychological problems and

conflicts later in life. Engaging in a process of emotional regulation, we can heal old emotional wounds and experience self-acceptance and a growing self-love.