On my experience of 50 shades of emotions.

We sat down after dinner. After we played a game, I started browsing the web. I happened to find a random music band that reminded me of something that I’d listen to some years ago. I know that understanding of lyrics is important for him, so I played my favorite tune with subtitles. The lyrics really moved me emotionally. With addition of the music, I was done. I was crying of happiness. This was the time we realized we were not quite on the same page emotionally. While I was nostalgically sobbing, he did not feel the meaning of the lyrics and felt simply amused.

Do I over empathize so much, or am I simply different?

I tried to analyse my own emotions and chunk them down.

First culprit: Joy

Joy is one of the most important emotions that I experience. You can find different shades of joy in my palette. 

When I see a dog on a street, I feel joy that makes me smile a little. It feels light. 

When I see friends I feel a different kind of joy. I don’t see my friends out very often, so this feeling reminds more of contempt and excitation. 

After work, upon a view of my beloved one I feel the joy that gives me warmth in chest and makes me smile gently. I feel like a puppy that wants to play with her human. 

Upon a surprise, the joy is rather short but intense. It reminds me more of an excitement or curiosity. 

The one that I feel when I see a beloved one after a long time not  seeing each other gives me a burning sensation in the chest, that makes feel like… 

Then there goes the “nostalgic joy”. This emotion appears when I come across something from the past that I felt particularly attached to some time ago. This corresponds mostly to art, including music. The joy that I experience is that weird tingling sensation. If it’s particularly vivid, it makes me cry. 

Success of others, in particular success stories also make me cry of joy. This is a very similar feeling to “nostalgic joy” and I guess it corresponds with the fact that I like to think of my life as a success story. 

The joy after a good training session in the gym is the feeling of satisfaction. That satisfaction is peaceful.

So do you feel the same kind of joy in any situation or do you feel different kinds?

How can you tell it’s joy and not something different?

I’d be interested to hear your experiences with observation of your emotions.

Karolina