A table of feelings that will help you understand yourself

Emotions are speed. Verbs or adjectives

The speed at which we speak also conveys emotions. We can speak excitedly, with feeling, restlessly, loudly. Or we can - slowly, embarrassedly, sluggishly, shutting up on every word. How to convey this in text?

Adjectives slow down the text, so when conveying emotions using these parts of speech, the main thing is not to slow down the narrative.

Verbs speed up. We write on social networks, so speed is important. Readers rush through our texts at the speed of Formula 1 race leaders. If we are slow, we will fall behind them.

Of course, all this does not mean that you need to write only in verbs and forget about adjectives. Everything is good in moderation and, most importantly, understand where to correct when you feel that the text is marking time.

Fear

New things are not always of interest. Sometimes the appropriate emotion is fear. It occurs when you worry about your safety, do not have sufficient information about what is happening, and lose control of the situation.

If interest, joy, even sadness are forgotten quickly, then fear pierces the heart so strongly that you will remember your emotions and the events that caused them for a very long time.

Fear is often confused with phobia and anxiety, however, these are all different phenomena. Fear always has a specific object - you can be afraid of wild dogs or heights. Anxiety is a feeling that occurs when you sense an unknown danger, are in the unknown, for example, waiting for test results.

A phobia is associated with an uncontrollable state that prevents you from moving or behaving adequately. As a rule, the phobia is based on severe stress, and not on the immediate danger posed by the object.

Signs of fear:

• Chaotic movements or, on the contrary, inhibition, inability to move;
• The feeling that a person is shrinking, trying to become smaller;
• Dilated eyes;
• Wary look;
• Eyebrows raised;
• Pale skin;
• The appearance of wrinkles on the forehead.

How to convey emotions with certain words

1. If you do use adjectives , do not write them with the word “very”, for example, “very beautiful”. Use a stronger word immediately, in this case, “magnificent.” However, make sure that the word carries the desired meaning and paints a picture.

Very beautiful - magnificent

Very scary - terrible

2. Use synonyms. There are many more words than those that come to our minds at the first moment. You can find entire dictionaries on the Internet. Here is one of them that I use myself: https://synonymonline.ru.

Beautiful - elegant, graceful, charming, charming, spectacular, bright, good, picturesque, brilliant, prominent, artistic, etc.

Terrible - menacing, insidious, devilish, ugly, frightening, tragic, murderous, catastrophic, disastrous, dashing, unattractive, etc.

By the way, have you noticed that just reading these words, you already have certain feelings?

Well, to restore balance, read these lines:

Hope - prospect, expectation, faith, chance, hope, aspiration, presentiment, dream, perspective, illusion, anticipation, presentiment.

3. There are magic phrases with which you can reach the reader’s heart. Sasha Karepina figuratively writes about this in her book “We Write Convincingly.” I'll give you a few examples.

How can you make your readers feel the same way as your character?

Yesterday I analyzed the text of one of the readers of this blog, and we talked with her about how important it is for the author to depict, and not name, the feelings and actions of the characters. And also - to let the reader evaluate what is happening for himself.

For example, when describing a city chosen for action, a young author often wants to write “magnificent” or “beautiful.” This is okay in a draft because it helps you realize what impression you want to create. But if you write in a clean copy that the character, for example, lived in beautiful Kyiv, then the word beautiful will be empty. At best, it will not evoke emotions in the reader, and at worst, it will cause protest. Why should he take the author's assessment at his word?

Indeed, the author must depict this city in such a way (it is not necessary to devote paragraphs to its description, you can achieve this effect in a few phrases) so that the reader thinks, and most importantly, feels: “How beautiful!” This is what he expects from literature.

When can this rule be broken? When your narrator speaks not neutrally, but biasedly, for example, in a skaz . That is, when the narrative itself is emotionally charged.

But even then you can’t get by with just the word “beautiful.” It needs to be supported by evidence.

This is how Bulgakov does it in “The White Guard”:

“Like a multi-tiered honeycomb, the City smoked and made noise and lived. Beautiful in the frost and fog on the mountains, above the Dnieper. For days on end, smoke spiraled upward from countless chimneys into the sky. The streets were smoking with haze, and the downed giant snow creaked. The houses were piled high on five, six, and seven floors. During the day their windows were black, and at night they burned in rows in the dark blue heights. Electric balls shone in chains as far as the eye could see, like precious stones, suspended high on the squiggles of long gray poles. During the day, trams with plump yellow straw seats, similar to those made abroad, ran with a pleasant, even hum. The cab drivers rode from slope to slope, shouting, and dark collars - silver and black fur - made the women's faces mysterious and beautiful...”

As you can see, the word beautiful is supported by the description, and we remember the yellow straw seats of the trams and fur collars rather than this assessment.

The same rule works for describing the feelings of characters. Most often, the text looks unconvincing if the author simply reports what feeling has taken possession of the hero. Don’t write “she felt sad” or “he was embarrassed.” Find how sad or shy this particular person is. How does this show up in his actions? Words? Imagine that you are making a movie (because that is what you are actually doing). In a movie, you can’t say for an actor “he was excited.” But you can express it in his behavior. Mother and daughter, getting ready for bed, quarrel, but one of them tries to restrain her emotions - and rubs the cream into her face with double force. Should I write that she is holding back her irritation? Better describe how she rubs the cream.

“Don’t say: “The woman screamed.” Bring her to her and let her scream herself,” Mark Twain insisted.

How much would the story “When Will It Snow” have lost if Dina Rubina had written about the condition of her heroine: “I was embarrassed and seemed ugly to myself in a hospital gown.” But instead, she writes: “We walked on both sides of the fence, and I painfully, with my whole body, felt a terrible robe on me. In it I had neither breasts nor waist, but everything was only implied.”

In these two sentences, the heroine’s voice is heard, her character and attitude towards her companion are felt. We ourselves begin to feel uncomfortable and worry that this is - oh no! - last meeting.

(Chuck Palahniuk gave similar advice to young writers - I wrote about him in the article “Literature is cinema” ).

When reading, we want to live someone's life, to be in the shoes of another person. So write truthfully: depicting, not retelling, the story. And they will believe you. And they will want to re-read it. More precisely, to relive it again.

How to convey emotions by drawing a picture

Yes, we can convey emotions using various adjectives, but if they are not filled with a meaning that is understandable to the reader, they will be empty. For example,

A gourmet breakfast awaits each guest. We offer high-quality European cuisine with a delicate taste and unique aroma.

And if so?

When you wake up, you can come down to our restaurant. We will prepare for you a cup of coffee, a freshly baked baguette and soft butter. If desired, instead of butter you can order jam or chocolate spread. For an additional fee, we will prepare for you scrambled eggs and bacon or oatmeal with milk. Butter, eggs and milk are supplied to our kitchen every morning from our own farm.

The picture is filled with feelings; while reading, we imagine the smell of coffee and fried bacon, and crispy bread with butter is already melting in our mouth.

How are feelings different from emotions?

Sensations are our experiences that we experience through our senses, and we have five of them.
Sensations are visual, auditory, tactile, taste and smell (our sense of smell). With sensations everything is simple: stimulus - receptor - sensation. Our consciousness interferes with emotions and feelings - our thoughts, attitudes, our thinking. Emotions are influenced by our thoughts. And vice versa - emotions influence our thoughts. We’ll definitely talk about these relationships in more detail a little later. But now let’s remember once again one of the criteria for psychological health, namely point 10: we are responsible for our feelings, it depends on us what they will be. It is important.

Where can you use emotional descriptions?

Believe me - everywhere. After all, we already realized that we are not talking about sentences screaming with three exclamation marks and CAPITAL letters:

BUY!!!

Get UNMATCHED results and a UNIQUE ATMOSPHERE IN YOUR HOUSE!!!

Emotional, and therefore human, descriptions can be used even when talking about the terms of payment and delivery or the rules of the group. After all, is it important to you how the person reading your lines feels? That communicating with you is simple and pleasant, or difficult and dreary.

Compare the two options. Which one do you like better?

“Payment for goods can be made using payment terminals, electronic payment systems or via bank transfer.”

“You can pay for the goods with electronic money, use your bank card and make an online payment, or transfer money at the nearest payment terminal.”

Anger

A person often feels anger when he is disappointed, cannot achieve a goal, or encounters obstacles along the way. Emotion is associated with awareness of injustice, deception, hatred, humiliation, limitations. Few people can control anger. Having taken possession of you, it forces you to commit rash acts, enter into conflicts, and show aggression. Due to the huge number of negative consequences, the anger of a child or teenager in the process of upbringing is trying to calm down and redirect the energy in a calmer direction.

However, in some cases, anger can play a positive role - it mobilizes strength, forces you to move forward, helps you gather yourself, protect yourself and your loved ones.

The fact that a person is angry can be easily detected by non-verbal signs:

• Narrowed eyes, fire burning in them;
• The eyebrows hang over the eyes, sometimes connected at one point;
• A thickening appears on the bridge of the nose;
• The body is tense;
• The palms are often clenched into a fist;
• Noisy breathing;
• The man starts screaming;
• The voice is poorly controlled, broken, filled with anger.

A person experiences a variety of emotions every day. Joy is associated with success, a feeling of happiness. When it is impossible to achieve a goal, disappointment appears, anger and sadness appear. Novelty causes interest, and loss of security causes fear.

Classification of feelings

To understand what feelings are, you need to understand by what criteria they can be assessed. Criteria are another basis for classification.

Criteria serve so that experiences can be measured, characterized and called into words, that is, defined.

There are three criteria of feelings:

1. valence (tone);
2. intensity (strength);
3. sthenicity (activity or passivity).

Feelings table No. 1 allows you to characterize any difficult experience:

For example, a person may experience a positive, strong sthenic experience. It could be love. If the intensity of the sensations is weak, it is just sympathy.

The table of feelings, characterizing experiences, does not allow us to name them in words. The name can only be guessed. A person does not always have enough knowledge and experience to decide how to correctly name the emotional excitement he is experiencing. This is not surprising, since there are a lot of them. However, some people cannot name even ten feelings, but this is how many, on average, a person experiences every day.

The third basis for classifying socially determined experiences is depending on the basic emotion.

American psychologist Paul Ekman identified seven basic emotions:

• joy;
• sadness;
• anger;
• fear;
• astonishment;
• disgust;
• contempt.

Table of feelings No. 2 involves searching for the name of the emotional experience being experienced, starting from the first four basic emotions:

The second table of feelings complements the first. By using both of them, you can understand what kind of power has taken over the mind and heart, how to describe and name it. And this is the first right step towards awareness.

List of moral, intellectual, aesthetic feelings

To the question: “what are the feelings,” each person can give his own answer. Some people often experience strong and deep experiences, while others experience them mildly and short-lived. The ability to feel depends on the temperament, character, principles, priorities and life experience of the individual.

Most often, feelings are classified depending on the sphere in which the object of experience is located:

• Moral

These are sympathy and antipathy, respect and contempt, affection and alienation, love and hatred, as well as feelings of gratitude, collectivism, friendship and conscience. They arise in relation to the actions of other people or their own.

They are determined by the moral norms accepted in society and acquired by the individual in the process of socialization, as well as his views, beliefs, and worldview. If other people's or one's own actions correspond to moral standards, satisfaction arises; if not, indignation arises.

• Intelligent

A person also has experiences that arise in the process of mental activity or in connection with its result: joy, satisfaction from the process and result of work, discovery, invention. It is also inspiration and bitterness from failure.

• Aesthetic

Emotional excitement arises when perceiving or creating something beautiful. A person experiences incredible sensations when he sees the beauty of the Earth or the power of natural phenomena.

A person feels a sense of beauty when looking at a small child or an adult, harmoniously built person. Beautiful works of art and other human creations can evoke delight and elation.

Since this classification does not reveal the entire palette of feelings, they are usually classified on several other grounds.

Recognizing Negative Experiences

Many psychological attitudes originate in childhood and adolescence. One of the most unpleasant, but at the same time widespread: “Why should I express my feelings, no one takes them seriously.” Most often this is started by parents, but it can also “grow up” at school.

Another belief is often instilled among children: “If I behave sincerely, everyone will laugh at me.”

Giphy

These psychological traps can haunt you throughout your life. There is a certainty that emotions are dangerous. But, if you look around, it becomes clear: such thoughts are no longer relevant.