Emotions as states of matter

Introducing the four food groups of emotions

Yesterday I told you all about my teacher Joanne Greenham.

She was fundamental in my understanding of shame.

I wrote about how her impish light touch turned shame into embarrassment.

This is somewhat akin to turning ice into water then into steam. We identify them as different things.

And they are all states of matter. They are all fundamentally the same thing: H2O

Shame, guilt, embarrassment and humiliation on a physical level are similar.

The same can be said for anger. Anger, annoyance, irritation, rage - they are all anger, just in a different state of matter.

Joyful, happy, amused, pleased? Feelings that have the same impact on the body as well.

Sad, disappointed, grief stricken, devastated, depressed?

All the same too.

Excited, aroused, attracted, compelled? Same.

People have come up with hundreds of different emotions. It’s wonderful how precise we can be in defining how we feel through language.

And?

Language is an approximation and is, like the experience of shame, highly subjective.

On …