9 Human Emotions

Imagine the freedom of feeling whatever you feel, without guilt, blame, or second-guessing. If you are angry, imagine not needing a reason. Imagine not having to be perfect, right, or justified.

Does it really matter why you might be angry, what hurt you, or what caused the reaction? The anger itself is validation enough. If you're angry, it's simply acceptable.

Sometimes we try to push away what we determine are negative emotions. We talk ourselves out of feeling them. We reason with ourself that we "shouldn't" feel anger, or sadness, or fear. If something is happening, it is meant to exist. We don't need to replace the emotion or justify why it is there.

We don't need to talk ourself out of it, we need to bend our ear closer to the feeling, and listen. I think of time wasted trying to navigate my emotions. I think of the added criticism I pile onto myself when I feel something I think I shouldn't. Or when I don't think I have a good enough reason.

Blame takes the place of feeling the actual emotion, and suddenly I am off on another course, a tangent that is preventing me from dealing with the emotion at hand.

In our bodies, there are 9 emotions that exist. The Sanskrit word for these emotions is Rasas and actually translates to "essence" - the essence or flavor of our energetic Self. Unlike emotions, which we label as good or bad, rasas are simply energy. The energy in our body takes on these 9 qualities. The nine rasas are: love, joy, wonder, calmness, anger, courage, sadness, fear, and disgust.

Each rasa has a different chemical make-up in the body and the brain. If we're angry, we might feel hot or tense. If we are joyful, we might feel flighty or excited. Our body actually reacts to these chemicals, just like it reacts to any other substance we put into the body.

All of the rasas are valid, and may be triggered by different events, people, or circumstances.

Since the rasas are energy, or different chemicals in the body, they have much less to do with our rational thought than we think. Of course, when the body feels angry, if we add on fear, impatience, or criticism in our mind, we feed the anger and make the emotion more difficult and uncomfortable. We can further agitate the angry energy by adding more anger, more frustration or more hate.

Certain emotions tend to be tied to imperfections or are looked at as "bad" human qualities. A human being is not "bad" because they feel anger. Humans are by nature a full, energetic experience.

Accepting any of the rasas for what they are takes much of the pressure off. It's much more freeing to think of tension in the body as a difference in chemical makeup than something we have to figure out or berate ourself for. Each rasa also has a range of intensity - love for example, is felt differently for your spouse than for a hobby. Both are love, but have a slightly different chemical make-up.

So what can we learn from the 9 rasas? There is usually a rasa we tend to avoid. For whatever reason, our body does not like the feeling when it comes up. Maybe we avoid anger. Maybe we avoid love. The energy we avoid is exactly the emotion we should become aware of, and eventually accept. Every human has the capacity for all 9 emotions, we just tend to live in some more than others.

What are you looking at as an imperfection? What are you trying to avoid? In order to have a full human experience, all 9 emotions are valid. All are part of being human.