Love, happiness, loneliness, anxiety.... What feelings do many people today experience?

"I was never afraid in the woods at night, although I had always been scared living in the city". (M. Haushofer, The Wall)

Nina Karlström - 27.09.2019 @ 16:19

This is my article about the world of emotions.

Johanna Holaubek - 11.11.2019 @ 19:36

The world of emotions

by Johanna Holaubek, BG-BRG Kufstein/Austria

Every one of us has emotions which influence them. There are many ways to express them, but most people show them in a kind of similar way, like laughing or crying. Usually it isn’t that difficult to see if a person is happy, sad or angry.

But what influences our feelings, and which meanings do they have to us?

Every decision we make is guided by a certain feeling. Mostly they are based on interpersonal relationships or events which bother as emotionally. Vulnerable people are often more likely to change their mind because of their feelings and the influence of others than people with a higher self-esteem.

However, we can also cause misunderstandings with our feelings. If we don’t take care of the emotions of others, because we try so hard to express our own ones, we might overlook their feelings and hurt or annoy them.

Feelings can change our personality very hard, as is shown in the book “The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum”. Katharina is emotionally pressurized by her surroundings until she loses all of her determination. Overwhelmed by her feelings she changes from a strong, confident woman to a cautious, insecure person.

There are feelings which are shared by many people nowadays. One of them is fear. There are many kinds of fear, but mostly the fear of failing, the fear of not meeting the expectations of others shapes many people. The desire to make your family and friends proud of you or to impress them is shared by many children, teenagers and adults. We always try our best, in order to fail none of all the expectations people have.

Another feeling is loneliness. Some people feel lonely even if they have many people around them. Anyhow, they feel like something or someone is missing in their life. That feeling can stay for a longer time, but it can also be taken away in a second if we meet the right people who mean a lot to us.

One of the most diverse emotions is love. It appears in many different forms. One can feel love for friends, family, a partner or even pets. Love is a very passionate feeling. People show their love in the most different ways. Some like to share it a lot, but some want it to be a very private thing.

In the end, all kinds of feelings belong to our life and make us what we are. Through them we have the opportunity to understand each other better and to develop empathy.

photo: Johanna Holaubek

Hello Johanna,  thank you for interesting article. I'm agree with you that common feeling in modern world is fear. I think it could be caused by need for acceptance and belonging.

Other feeling which many people experience today is anxiety. One of the most common reasons for that is using social media. More and more often young people suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out). FOMO is the feeling that you are missing out on something fundamentally important that others are experiencing right now. I think is very big problem in young society.

Teenagers are focusing too much on social media than real life. They are constantly comparing themselves to people in media. We have to remember that photographs of celebrities are often retouched.

To sum up, how to avoid falling into a FOMO trap? In my opinion to overcome this anxiety we should spend time with friends and focus on what we do and what makes us happy.

Joanna Stolarska - 05.01.2020 @ 15:40

Hi Johanna,

You’re so right, feelings are everywhere and super important for us. It is such a wide ranged topic, we can only touch the surface. Personally, I’m very interested in how our body (hormones, structural change, etc.) influences our feelings. The inference is that if our body has a huge impact on our emotional condition, we can use that to cheat a little bit. For example, if I’m not feeling super well, I eat a little bit of chocolate, that almost always helps me. But it’s not only food, sport boosts our mood, too! These are things everybody knows, but if we think further, what else can influence our body and therefore our emotions? How could we use this knowledge to our advantage? In my opinion that’s extremely fascinating!

In terms of FOMO. I don’t have any social media except What’s App because I feel like I don’t need it to be happier, I don’t benefit from it. Sure, it sometimes is difficult when your friends make a joke referring to something on Instagram, but compared the negative sides of social media, it’s not worth it. All in all, I also think we should be prouder of who we are and more self-confident, because we are all beautiful and not everyone of us has a super fancy life, but that’s fine because it is our life, isn’t it? This question leads me to a book I’m currently reading called “Sammlerin der Seelen” by Cornelia Zogg. The main character killed herself and is now in a world between living and paradise. She doesn’t feel anything. But suddenly she does and from then on, she wants the feelings to disappear again. Personally, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have no emotions anymore. I don’t think this would be something I would like, even though handling our own feelings sometimes can be very hard.

Victoria Zawadil - 05.01.2020 @ 17:03

Hi Johanna! I really liked your article. I agree with you that ‘feelings belong to our life and make us what we are’. I think that they make us special. It is amazing that no-one else can feel something in the exact same way as we do. And yet, even though feelings make us different, they can also bring us closer together. Sometimes we all need a confirmation that our feelings aren’t odd. That someone feels just the same. It connects with a natural need of being accepted and understood. Even if no-one can feel something the same as you it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t feel it at all. Pain is pain. Love is love. And loneliness is the same feeling of being lonely. We all go through the same things. We just do it in different ways and feel them differently. Feelings sometimes make us do crazy, uncontrolled things. The crime that Katharina committed might be an example of that. They have a massive influence on our life and relationships with other people. Although some of us are more emotional and other more rational, we can all agree that feelings also affect our decisions. Sometimes we don’t want to feel anything. We do not want our emotions to make us vulnerable and weak. Sometimes we feel like we cannot feel anymore and we would do everything to be able to feel. The truth is that our feelings are always with us. As long as we live, we feel. It is like that because there are so many kinds of feelings. So many types of pain, love, hatred and joy that will always accompany us. Most of us think that they have experienced all imaginable emotions and feelings. However our imagination is limited and because of that we will never be able to feel everything. But who said you can’t try? That is why we should take care of our feelings, talk about them and listen to what others can say about their feelings. Who knows? Maybe we can discover new ones, which we had no idea of.

Monika Pociecha - 11.01.2020 @ 19:49

Hi Johanna

Thank you for your article! It really touched me and made me think more about feelings I have. I’m a very emotional, sensitive person. Feelings play a huge role in my life, I can’t even imagine anything without sympathising with the world around me. They help me to see good in people, in nature, pretty much in everything that surrounds me every day. It’s easier to help my friends because of my empathy. What I can do is to sit with them and listen to whatever they need to tell me. Emotions are what makes life beautiful, joyful and interesting. Of course, it’s not wise to let them take control over your actions, but there are times when it’s better to just give in to the moment.

Whenever I think about feelings and how they can influence people’s lives a series of books about “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery comes in mind. Anne is a very sensitive girl and has an amazing imagination. Her problem is, she can easily get carried away. This is the part where it becomes dangerous. Her untamed emotions make her vulnerable, easier to hurt.

I know I have a similar problem, so that’s why I really have to come down to earth every time my emotions get the better of me.  It’s really important to me to talk and discuss this topic. I think it’s significant to tell people what’s inside you, especially nowadays, when we face a lot of depression and pressure.

Dominika Gwóźdź - 14.01.2020 @ 21:11

Hello Johanna

I totaly agree with you, I think emotions are really important and your thoughts about fear and pressure were really insightfull. I belive a lot of people in todays society - mostly students - are really scared of failing, almost terrified. We want to make people proud but we also want to make ourselves proud and that can sometimes be even harder. We want to create something we can be proud of and treasure, we want to be smart, intellectual, creative, good looking etc. I belive that we can sometimes be our worst critics.

Kind regards,

Smilla

Smilla Pettersson - 17.01.2020 @ 12:57

Hey Johanna,

I really enjoyed reading your article! You are absolutly right feelings and emotions are around us and influence us all the time. We truly live in a world of emotions ;) and I personally think that is a great way of living. When I read articles or post online about how people put everything aside to help strangers because they sympathise and empathise with them, I am always really proud of what a great place our world can be sometimes. But as you said they also can cause a lot of misunderstandings, especially in the way we express our feelings. Although many of us express them in a similar way we do alternate a little bit. Recently I read about an pre school teacher that talked about how parents are often sad or dissapointed when their kids don't hug them, therefore, they think their child doesn't love them as much. But some kids express their love differntly for example by clashing their hips at yours or rubbing their chin at your chin and as the parents they can't pressure their kids in expressing their feelings the same way it is known to them. So when, the parents but also we as society have sometimes to step back a little and try to understand those dear to us a bit better I think we can learn a lot and help to minimeze the misunderstandings.

Magdalena Dessl - 18.01.2020 @ 16:09