From the author: Emotions seem to be supposed to help make decisions, make the situation understandable - here it’s bad, but there it’s good. In fact, the situation is often just the opposite. Surging emotions either prevent you from making a decision, or a decision made in the heat of the moment causes regret later. Why does this happen and what to do? Why do emotions often become a problem? What is it about this mechanism that accompanies humanity throughout its history, promotes survival (initially), imparts meaning (a little later), provides both the best and worst moments of our lives? Emotionality is perhaps the most striking of the phenomena of mental reality . Thinking, memory work, calm perception occur unnoticed, somewhere in the depths. Although these are the most important processes that ensure our life and various activities, we need to try to discover, note to ourselves - I now perceive: the light from the window, the chair and the hard floor beneath me, the movement of the fingers and their touch on the keyboard... I see a lot of objects around you. I divide them into those that are significant at the moment, and those simply present in the room. I remember lectures and books I read about emotions and emotional states)) I select words before they appear on the monitor screen. As you can see, a lot of things are happening. But at the same time, from the outside I am absolutely uninteresting. And I look about the same as the closet I’m sitting next to. But if they suddenly send me a fresh meme, most likely I won’t be able to resist and demonstrate a certain amount of differences from the furniture around me) Yes, in certain conditions (and everyone has their own) we regulate the manifestations of our own emotionality. That is, there are cases when a person experiencing certain emotions will also be indistinguishable from a closet. All the “movement” may well occur within the framework of consciousness, or even beyond it, without being directly realized. Nevertheless, the brightness and significance of what is happening inside his mental system does not decrease at all. This is important from the point of view of making decisions regarding another person. Emotions usually arise in response to a certain “fact” that has appeared in the perception zone. It is believed that its function is to inform a person whether this “fact” is useful or pleasant, or harmful and dangerous. In the shortest version of logic, one of the functions can be activated: fight or flight. That is, a solution is available with virtually no thought. However, in life, emotions most often, on the contrary, make it difficult to make a decision. And this difficulty itself is experienced very unpleasantly. The fact is that emotions (and feelings) are characterized by the property of ambivalence. That is, multidirectional emotional components can be combined in a single experience. For example, fear and interest. Anger and affection. Tenderness and disgust. Gratitude and embarrassment... And the higher the emotional charge of the situation, the more acutely its duality is experienced. It would be more correct to say multipolarity. Although most often it is not realized: I can be angry with my partner and this will be the focus. But what gives me pain is not anger, but the whole complex of emotional components affecting me simultaneously. What are the reasons for this state of affairs? First of all, in the multi-level brain, which was not completely “reinvented” in the process of evolution, but underwent an increase in power due to the acquisition of new sections. That is, the primitive components, such as “attack or flight,” have not gone away, but a very extensive neurophysiological system has been added to them. And scientists are watching with interest: will this individual now win over the part of the brain responsible for long-term goals, or will he prefer to watch 130 episodes of a freshly downloaded series? On the other hand, when looking “from the inside out”, the very “fact” that causes an emotional reaction is also has evolved significantly in our eyes. Even if it's just a cherry on a branch over the fence. Compare: I see a cherry, ripe, you can eat it. Or: I see a cherry, ripe, on a fence, someone will see it on the street, and it might be covered in chemicals,.