An emotional state may best be construed as a mental feeling, an often unconscious interior response that can also lead to physiological change. Emotions are designed to move you along a certain course of action, given circumstances. Each emotional state acts as an intrinsic compass, calibrated to a framework of personal cognition constructed from beliefs, thoughts and values. Emotions begin with perception- recognition and interpretation. Each feeling is, in fact, based on a process of internal reasoning. It is only because this reasoning occurs at the subconscious level, that emotions often seem to occur unsolicited. It is argued that any emotion falls within one of two classes. There are those known as negative emotions, such as anger, guilt, fear and hate. Others are derived from love or compassion, such as kindness, pity and admiration.
Fear
The purpose of fear is to protect you from danger. The anticipated threat can be either physical or emotional, real or perceived. Fear motivates you to decide on whether to fight, escape or remain stationary. For example, if you are confronted by an overly aggressive person, fear might encourage you to choose between challenging him, moving away from the individual or topic or simply remaining silent. Fear always pertains to the future. It is the perception that some harm is likely to come your way. Fear thrives on the unknown. When you are unaware of when danger will strike, how intense it will become or how long it will last, fear can easily escalate into terror.
Anger
Anger comes from the drive to repel an intrusion of personal boundaries. This emotion often emerges from the perception that your self-esteem or worth has somehow been diminished or damaged by another person or group. An angry person is temporarily imbued with an overwhelming sense of strength, designed to press him beyond insecurities that may hinder him from "making things right." The fundamental intent of anger is to re-balance the situation, to restore personal space to a measure that is comfortable for the individual.
Kindness
Kindness impels you to assist someone in need. While true kindness seems to elicit no apparent reward, this emotion may be motivated by a wish for admiration, gratitude, affection, status or connection. Kindness may also be inspired by your desire to feel good about yourself, to place your name within the class of those you admire.
Admiration
Admiration stems from the motivation to enhance yourself or your abilities. It is an emotion that emerges when you perceive another person to possess some personally valued quality or skill. The ironic thing about admiration is that within each human is the emotional and perceptual capacity of all others. Barring physical disability, any person who holds admiration for another human being already, on some level, has that same characteristic which he admires.
