LE_W1_EQ_LF_TextStructure

People think emotions aren’t very useful, but they, in fact, help us in a variety of ways.

For example, if a little boy touches a hot stove, he will experience intense pain. The thought of touching another stove in the future will carry with it the memory of that searing pain. Thus his emotions will hopefully keep him from doing it again.

Overall, our emotions are essential tools for understanding and interacting with our environment, and it would be unwise to discard them as unnecessary.

First of all, emotions help us learn from our memories. When our brain stores experiences, it doesn’t just collect facts. It also records our feelings, and these feelings help us learn from our experiences.

Finally, emotions give us the drive to act. We require them in order to react quickly to a situation.

For example, imagine you’re faced with an angry man. His body language (maybe his clenched fists or loud voice) can tell you his emotional state. Knowing this, you can predict his future actions; he might, for instance, be ready to hit someone.

Emotions also help us to interpret the feelings of others, which can aid in predicting their actions.

Take that angry man from the earlier example. If we feel that he may be close to a violent outburst, our emotions will make us feel threatened or angry. They prepare us to react quickly in case the man was about to attack.