This document discusses different emotions including happiness, sadness, love, empathy, fear, guilt, and anger. It explains what each emotion is, how it feels physically and mentally, and what typically causes each emotion. The document also provides strategies for interpreting and responding to emotions in a healthy way, such as looking below the surface of what you are reacting to and considering the potential consequences before taking action. Finally, it discusses defense mechanisms that people commonly use to protect themselves from strong emotions, such as suppression, repression, rationalization, regression, denial, compensation, projection, and idealization.

1. Our Emotions
Miss. Hattendorf

2. Understanding our
Emotions
• Emotions: Signals that tell your mind and body how to
react.
• Referred to as feelings—responses to certain thoughts
and events
• Emotions affect all sides of your healthy triangle

3. Identifying Your Emotions
• Hormone: Chemical secreted by your glands that
regulates the activities of different body cells
• Hormones may cause a swing between extreme
emotions
• Being able to identify your feelings is the first
step in knowing how to respond in a healthy way

4. Happiness
• Being satisfied or feeling positive
• You usually feel energetic, creative, and sociable

5. Sadness
• Normal, healthy reaction to difficult events
• It can range from being disappointed or rejected to
experiencing the loss of a loved one
• You may feel easily discouraged and have less energy

6. Love
• Strong affection, deep concern, and respect
• Supporting the growth and individual needs of another
person and respecting that person’s boundaries and values
• Can be expressed through words or actions

7. Empathy
• Ability to imagine and understand how someone else
feels
• You feel connected to another person’s emotions

8. Fear
• When you are startled by someone or something
• Feelings of fear can increase your alertness and help you
escape from potentially harmful situations

9. Guilt
• Acting against one’s values or from failing to act when
action might have brought about a better outcome
• Guilt can eat at you, or your conscience can motivate you
to make positive changes in your behavior

10. Anger
• Common reaction to being emotionally hurt or physically
harmed
• When not handled in a constructive way it can result in
violence

11. Responding to Your
Emotions
• Pick an emotion that you have had to deal with in the past.
• Use the following strategies for interpreting and responding to
this emotion
• 1. Look below the surface of your emotion. Ask yourself:
What am I really reacting to?
• 2. Consider whether or not the situation to which you are
reacting with matter?
• 3. Don’t take action on a strong feeling until you have
considered the consequences. What could the consequences
entail?

12. Managing Difficult
Emotions
• Defense Mechanisms: Mental processes that protect
individuals from strong or stressful emotions and
situations
• Common Defense Mechanisms
• Suppression: Holding back or restraining
• Repression: involuntary pushing
• Rationalization: making excuses

13. Common Defense
Mechanisms
• Regression: Reverting to behaviors that are more early
stage of development instead of being mature
• Denial: Unconscious lack of acknowledgment
• Compensation: Gift-giving
• Projection: Own feelings or faults to another person
• Idealization: Seeing someone else as perfect

14. Cartoon Book
The emotional cartoon booklet.