Chapter 4 - Sharing Emotions

 Sharing Emotions  

We often share the majority of our emotional experiences with others. It can help reduce stress and calm us down by having someone to share it with. It can even uplift or cause us to catch others' emotions. Emotion-sharing is defined in Reflect & Relate as a way of communicating our emotions by talking about our emotional experiences with others. We share our emotions in many ways when communicating, such as body language, hand gestures, and facial expressions.  

I share my emotions almost every day with my significant other, coworkers, or even a friend. At work, I often express my emotions with my go to coworker when something is bothering me, or I just feel the need to share. I often tend to regret when I emotion-share because I am wary about individuals using my sharing negatively, whether that's leverage or just to gossip about. I often have a bad habit of oversharing my emotions and experiences. Emotion-sharing can be a common way we communicate. It helps us form relationships, express ourselves, and we overall feel better after doing it. 

Emotion-sharing can have positive and negative effects. When I emotion-share with my best friend about my significant other or about a positive day I am having, her listening to me about being happy, in turn makes her happy, this is called emotional contagion. When people have happy or positive attitudes it tends to rub off on others. Negative emotions can rub off on others as well. When someone is emotion-sharing about something that made them feel negative emotions, we often feel empathy for them or catch the same emotions. For example, when my mother is having a bad day, we are all having a bad day. In a way emotions can be contagious. Emotion-sharing can be used to connect with other people and can be seen in many different ways all around us. 

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