How Does Stress Impact You & What Should You Do?
Resting emotion(s) is what we at Undelusional define as the emotional state of a person in the absence of external stimulus. Meaning to say, when one person is in a place or an environment, there is nothing that can trigger any form of emotional reaction. So, what about resting emotions and why do they matter?
In the physiological aspect, physical health and emotional states have a very strong correlation (Vikan., 2017). According to Nummenmaa et al. (2013), “Emotions coordinate our behavior and physiological states … Here we used a topographical self-report tool to reveal that different emotional states are associated with topographically distinct and culturally universal bodily sensations …” (Figure 1).

Apart from topographical representation, in the physiological systems,the Autonomous Nervous System (ANS), hypothalamuspituitary-adrenal cortex axis (HPA axis) and Immune system are mainly the three systems in our body that respond to emotional stress.
Upon receiving stimulus that the brain considers important — in this case an emotion, the brain then signals the release of hormones such as noradrenaline which stimulates the ANS. This stimulation is often felt with changes in heart rate, perspiration, and gastrointestinal activity. Stimulation of the HPA-axis results in the secretion of cortisol, commonly known as stress hormone, which elevates blood sugar level while suppressing the immune system. Lastly, the immune system, which defends your body against virus, bacteria and cancer, is affected when an emotional strain (Vikan., 2017) is sensed. This is the reason why most people have the tendency to fall sick or become more susceptible to illnesses when they encounter “stressful” periods in their lives.
This alone is a cause for concern. If one’s resting emotion is constantly being fearful, angry or sad, this sets your body up to a constant level of stress and weakened immune system. Overtime, even though one may seem alright on the outside, their internal system is so exhausted, which leads to physiological breakdowns and psychosomatic illness.
On the psychosocial aspect, one’s resting emotional state will affect the way one interprets input(s) from others and by which, the response they give. Positive emotions promote one’s engagement with their environments (Frederickson, 2001), expands the range of thoughts and actions (Fredrikson, 1998) to push limits and spurs creativity (Ellsworth & Smith, 1998).
On the other hand, if one is angry (at rest), any input from another person may be received and interpreted as a personal attack, which further exacerbates that emotions and translates into actions or behaviours that is ready to “fight”. Is this intentional? No. But is this detrimental? Very likely. Psychological well-being will be compromised over extended periods of negative emotions which “interferes with a person’s ability to function in his or her daily life.” (International Association of Applied Psychology, 2009). This then causes a strain in relationships with other people at work, at home and with friends.
So then, do we promote one to be on a constant, permanent, positive, “feel-good” emotional state? Not at all. What we want to advocate is a sustainable emotional well-being which includes the experience of negative emotions (sadness, fear, anger, etc) which are part of life.
We want to move people up the Undelusional Emotional Wellness Spectrum to improve people’s ability to manage their emotions (or moods) in different situations for long-term well-being.

Moving Up The Scale
- We become more aware of our own emotions (at rest or in different situations)
- We become better at analysing people’s emotional reactions
- We improve our ability to manage emotions intelligently.
With better understanding of our emotions and what causes them, we will be better at managing relationships with ourselves and with other people whom we are in contact with. Understanding emotions can reduce unnecessary misunderstandings due to better clarity in our heads and therefore in our actions. This will in turn improve efficiencies at workplace as well.
References
- Ellsworth, P. C , & Smith, C. A. (1988). Shades of joy: Patterns of
appraisal differentiating pleasant emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 2,
301–331 . - Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of
General Psychology, 2, 300–319. - Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology: The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions. The American Psychologist, 56(3), 218–226.
- Nummenmaa, L., Glerean, E., Hari, R., & Hietanen, J. K. (2014). Bodily maps of emotions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(2), 646–651. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1321664111
- Vikan, A. (2017). Emotions and Health. A Fast Road to the Study of Emotions, 9 (49–56). http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52313-2
