Welcome to Gaia! ::

To be incredibly brief, I want peoples opinions on the emotions/feelings listed above. What do you think the effect physically, mentally, and spiritually would be for each? Which do you feel most? How do you personally influence your own emotions?

Got any good tips on how to get a cathartic release?

Well, sorrow can affect one's health greatly, not only mental health, but physical, too. Depression has the same effect, although depression and sorrow are often closely related. When I get depressed, I get sick, and then I get more depressed, and then I get sicker. It's no fun.

Anger and hatred are closely related, and something I deal with a lot, personally. I don't deal with sorrow well, so I usually turn it into anger. It's probably not the healthiest thing to do, especially since the anger is usually turned toward myself, but it works better than just dealing with it. For me, at least. Anger is a very powerful emotion, capable of changing the body's hormonal levels to a great degree. Ever been so pissed off you get an adrenaline rush and want to kill something? Probably. Or maybe that's just me. I don't know.

Joy and love are something I don't really feel often. I mean, I was happy when I got into the colleges I applied to, but it wasn't really...joy. It was just...short-term happiness. And love...well, other than the family-sort-of love, there's none of that here. So neither of these really affect me much.

As for a cathartic release, I'd try a laxative.

Ha. I'm glad everyone got that. But seriously, if I knew any, I'd be much happier.

Too me, the nastiest emotion that can truly hold you back is depression. It makes you question yourself, your goals, and your dreams (which can sometimes be a good thing but depression doesn't do it the productive way). I've seen a lot of people mess up their lives due to depression, they were once smart, well driven people but one nasty bout with D can make it all go downhil. Depression leads to a decline in productivity and just drive. That and it can sour other people's moods rather quickly.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the purpose of emotions like sadness and I don't condone sadness, but depression is the prolonged feeling of an emotion that is physically and psychological damaging. Lingering on one emotion too long can do that.

Now, an emotion that seems to get a bad rap is anger. I happen to like anger. I don't like it to get the best of me, but it can be a powerful source of energy. I can't tell you how many projects I've done due to anger. Songs written, papers finished, etc.
The trick with anger is to not let it overcome you. If temporarily give into to it and harness its anger, you can find that its not so bad. Eitherway, anger is an emotion you can't get rid of, so you might as well find a use for it, no?

Kaena Wraithson, sorry about your friends...

On Anger, Hatred, Sadness, Joy, Love -

Anger - useful. I find it has the power to overcome me, and I 'black out' sometimes because of it, but darn, it gives off the best energy I've come across, aside from pure love. On top of that, there's different types of anger. The more 'positive' ones, like righteous anger, help motivate us to fight against something we see as wrong. The more 'negative' ones, like anger caused by jealousy, those are the kinds you have to watch out for, because they can be very damaging - to everyone, including yourself. Before I learned how to somewhat-manage my bi-polar, any and all anger I felt quickly sent me into a tailspin... I'd go quickly from anger, to sadness, to despair... and stay there until I got angry at myself for being 'stupid' and did it all over again.

Hatred - now this is like anger, only more specific. This one is almost always damaging, because you're often thinking about harming another person or thing while you're feeling it. Even if you have a good control over it and don't actually hurt someone, that impulse is still there.

Sadness - *sighs* I try *really* hard not to feel this in excess, anymore. It's just too... draining. Oftentimes I'll have to set a 'timer' on how long I'm allowed to feel this, then switch it off mentally, otherwise I'll never stop feeling it.

Joy - this is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Pure, unadultered, spontaneous joy is the cure for everything, I'm convinced. I've felt it as strongly as I feel despair maybe a handful of times, but during those times, I was radiant, blessed... lol

Love - This is, simultaneously, the best and the worst feeling in the world. Yeah, it's great and can heal anything, but it leaves you vulnerable, and if anything happens to you by the person you're in love with (note: LOVE, not LUST or LIKE!), then you can become the most cynical, untrusting person on the face of the earth... I love it (no pun intended) and hate it at the same time.

Just my two cents.

Anger: Motivation, leads to change.
Hatred: Ambition, leads to goals.
Sadness: Burden. Essential for growth.
Joy: Freedom.
Love: Chaos. But unlike Chaos, it probably doesn't exist.

Haven't been on Gaia in a while...World of Warcraft addiction.