What would humans be like without bad emotions?

Psychologist Emma Hepburn says emotions help us live, feel, react, and connect. Trying to deny a negative emotion means we are denying ourselves.

The book series Open your emotions and Open your happiness

In the book series Unleash Your Emotions and Unleash Your Happiness , Emma Hepburn leads readers on a journey to unlock their inner world , from how emotions form and operate, to how to identify happiness and stay with sadness without letting it overwhelm them.

Without sadness we would hardly understand the value of happiness.

In Emotional Expansion , Emma Hepburn compares emotional life to a roller coaster, sometimes soaring to the sky, sometimes falling freely without brakes.

Psychiatrist Emma Hepburn advises us to be open to bad emotions.

And everyone has their own train, running on their own unique memories, experiences, hurts, and nature.

When we are gentle and patient enough, emotions will become reliable companions.

"Emotions are the central characters in your story.

They are inherent in memory, reaction, future planning, behavior, connection, and most of all, survival.

How we understand and respond to our emotions is important and can affect our health and happiness throughout our lives,” says Emma.

According to Emma, ​​unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, guilt, and shame are essential parts of human survival mechanisms:

"If we had no worries, we would not consider risks. If we had no fears, we would not avoid dangers. If we were no longer tired or sad, we would not know how to rest when illness comes or understand the value of present happiness.

A world without negative emotions would be a world where people are indifferent to pain, unable to sympathize or love. And at this point, joy also becomes meaningless because there is nothing to compare or learn from past experiences."

Happiness is like a sandwich

As you can see, understanding emotions is an important part of being happy. It is when we know how to open up to bad emotions and accept that we are not always happy.

As Dr. Emma Hepburn herself admits in the very first pages of Unlocking Happiness , she says: "It would be extremely hypocritical to pretend to be happy all the time. Worse, it would reinforce the myths about happiness that are all around us, deeply ingrained in our beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors."

In the book, Emma points out that beliefs such as striving to make money, get promoted, be busy, achieve a lot... are often the reasons why we look for happiness in the wrong places.

The author chooses to describe happiness as a sandwich that we eat every day.

The base is the basic things we often forget: enough sleep, enough food, enough water, safe space to breathe… The core is the things that bring joy, inspiration, and meaning to life. Each person will have a different core.

The top layer is our belief. This layer, though fragile, governs the entire taste of the cake. If we believe that happiness lies in the little things that connect us with others, we will stop searching for it.

Dr Emma Hepburn is a clinical psychologist specialising in neuropsychology, with over 15 years experience working with and treating mental health issues.

Her Instagram account @thepsychologymum has 134k followers, won a Bronze Lovie (Best of European Internet) award; a Peoples' Choice Lovie award for social media activity, and was shortlisted for a Media Awards.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/con-nguoi-se-ra-sao-neu-khong-con-cam-xuc-toi-te-20250619150741549.htm