Today I would like to recommend a couple of videos about emotions.
Although it focuses on the history of human emotions, I think it actually captures the essential relationship between language and what we feel. It's often thought that all emotions are instinctive and arise in certain situations as if they were reflexes. But, as you might expect, Emotions are much more than an automatic response. There are also many more of them than we commonly think. Guilt, anxiety, falling in love, pride, jealousy, empathy, and a long list of other emotions are emotions. By understanding them as such, we can manage them in a better way.
The more studies on emotions advance, the more it can be seen that they are very complex and flexible cognitive phenomena.. They not only respond to our biology, but are also mediated by our cultural context, its values, and our thinking. Therefore, emotions are mediated by language. And language isn't just used for speaking. It's through language that we can think and interpret, and therefore, the words we use can affect how we feel about our emotions. In fact, being able to name what we feel is a fundamental part of emotional intelligence.
Emotions have been studied a lot. They have been defined and categorized. But I think it's worth reflecting on how different cultures articulate what they feel, because that is what allows us to understand the human experience… and perhaps it also allows us to know some words in which we recognize ourselves, and thus, name what we feel. As proposed in The School of Life:
Our feelings are often waiting for the right words to help us experience them properly.
To understand the close relationship between emotions and language I highly recommend Historian Tiffany Watt Smith's TED Talk, which in just under 15 minutes, tells us about the importance of understanding how The words and concepts we use to name or not our emotional experience change depending on, for example, cultural movements and discoveries.
My recommendations:
If you're interested in learning more about this topic, I invite you to watch the two videos mentioned above (both have Spanish subtitles available):
