Meaning doesn't exist. You can't see a chunk of meaning in the fridge. Or trip over a piece of it on the floor.

We as humans though have the cognitive ability to give things meaning. A question that follows is: how do we register meaning then? Or expressed another way: does meaning have a feel to it? How do we know what meaning we have given to some thing or some event? We do so by feeling meaning through our emotions.

If that is the case, then emotions are very useful. They are our body's way of telling us about the meanings we are experiencing or not experiencing. How else would we know if something is an experience we want to repeat or not, if not through the emotions of happiness or sadness etc?

Dr Hall explains emotions as "an action tendency generated by the information in our cortex that activates our motor cortex and other brain structures (amaygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, adrenal gland, etc)". We experience them as inner urges that propel us to move or change. They are energy in motion: e-motion. Dr Hall further talks of seven key truths about emotions. These are:

1. Emotions measure the difference between our map and territory.
When there is a difference between what we expect (our perceptions, or mental maps) and what we actually got (reality), we experience an emotion that shows us there is a difference. (Read more about this in our previous issue on 'Elusive Happiness')

2. Emotions are processes
Like meaning, you cannot put a chunk of emotion in the fridge. The word 'emotion' describes a process, not a thing. Emotions are activities that go on within our mind and body. Thus they can be produced at any moment, and can change quickly.

3. Emotions are always right
A certain mental map and experience of the world will produce an emotion that is right for that map and experience- it is correct in that it is showing a difference between that map and that experience. Thus no emotion can be wrong (it is more how that emotion is expressed or dealt with that can be considered "wrong" to certain maps)

4. Emotions are just emotions
Emotions are just signals. Thus they are not commands on what to do. Nor are they actual indicators of external reality. All they can be are signals, and thus are completely fallible and not perfect.

5. Emotions are always relative, conditional and liable to error
When dealing with emotions, we need to keep in mind the map and experiences they relate to. They are references to information about how we have mapped things mentally about an experience, and how we sense that experience. Thus to the outside world the emotion can appear to be wrong, and may even show erroneous thinking or reasoning (maps), (yet to that person they are right).

6. Emotions are somatic registering of our meanings
We experience an emotion internally- in our body and can usually indicate where in our body we are experiencing this energy. The more uncomfortable the emotion, the more we try to avoid experiencing that emotion and thus we can see it as a signal to look at our meanings in that situation, to see if they need to be adjusted.

7. Emotions can be responded to in a variety of ways.
We can 'do' a lot with our emotions. We can act on them, or not. We can listen to them, even question them. We can express them, release them, hold onto them, ignore them. The choice is ours, as they are just our signals.


To you using your emotions as signals to navigate through life!
Telana

Reference: Dr Michael Hall. The Ultimate Self-Actualisation Workshop. 2007

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