How well do you really know your own emotions?

Can you accurately describe when you are feeling depressed? Anxious? Overjoyed? What about some of the reasons you might be feeling this way?

It’s okay if you’re unsure. Most people are relatively unfamiliar with their emotions. In our emotion-phobic culture, we are often taught how to avoid our feelings instead of how to address them. What’s more, we are told we are supposed to have total influence over our emotions when the science says that emotions are driven by a whole host of non-conscious physiological forces.

Control your emotions! Emotions are…

First coined in 1975 by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, the term “fractal” denotes complex, visually chaotic patterns that generate an infinite amount of copies self-repeating across different scales through a process called recursion.

Across increasingly fine magnifications of leaves, waves, clouds, snowflakes and the arrangement of galaxies, researchers have uncovered recurring fractal patterns. According to environmental psychologist Caroline Hagerhall, these patterns affect an observer’s physiological state by way of generating positive aesthetic responses referred to as “biophilia” — literally “love for life” — the experiential tranquility of moments felt to be “good for living”.

Working with psychologists and neuroscientists, physicist Richard…

When we are afraid the heart races, breathing becomes rapid, the mouth dries up, muscles tense, and palms become sweaty. We may feel anxious, stressed, panicked or nervous, but emotion recognition does not end here. Psychophysiology shows us that such changes are mediated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which operates the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the human body.

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is a “quick response mobilizing system” responsible for “fight or flight” responses, which prepare the body to react to stresses such as threat or injury. It directs muscles to contract and heart rate to increase…