From the author: This article examines human feelings, namely their positive and negative manifestations. The manifestations of “healthy” sadness, sadness, anger and joy are considered as the main markers of the quality functioning of a harmonious, balanced personality. Emotions and feelings are concepts close in meaning, often used as synonyms. Emotions are short-term and situational, while feelings are more stable and characterize a specific person. The difference between emotions and feelings is the speed and duration of the processes. Emotions are quick and short elements of feeling. Feelings are a lasting and more stable basis for manifested emotions. Which of the feelings (emotions) does a person not need? When answering this question, you can often hear that a person does not need “negative” emotions and feelings. People do not want to experience sadness, fear, anger, resentment... In fact, “negative” emotions play a more important biological role compared to “positive” emotions. It is no coincidence that the mechanism of “negative” emotions functions in a child from the first days of his birth, and “positive” emotions appear much later. A “negative” emotion is an alarm signal, a danger to the body. A “positive” emotion is a signal of returned well-being. “Negative” emotions are harmful only in excess, just as everything that exceeds the norm is harmful (including “positive emotions”). The usefulness of “negative” emotions of moderate intensity is evidenced by experiments on rats conducted by V. V. Frolkis (1975): Of the three groups of experimental rats, the longest lived were those that were systematically subjected to moderate stress - frightened, picked up, etc. So, feelings (emotions) are a kind of dashboard in a car. This panel contains various kinds of signaling mechanisms that define “norm and violation.” Therefore, when the driver ignores, for example, the temperature of the engine, then the engine can jam right on the road, and this breakdown can lead to a terrible accident and even human casualties. What can inattention to one’s feelings, to one’s emotional inner world lead to? Let's consider this issue using the example of feelings of resentment, anger, sadness and joy. About healthy anger Anger is a natural human reaction to insult or disappointment. The emotion of anger in origin goes back to the animal world, whose representatives, when faced with dangers, are faced with a choice - to flee or counterattack. An effective counterattack requires a reinforcement impulse in the form of a powerful negative emotion of anger, which in many animals, especially predators, is genetically fixed as a reflex reaction. As for a person, “homo angry” is a stronger, more powerful and assertive person than a calm one. When a person is angry, he loses a lot of energy, a powerful release of biochemical reactions occurs - blood flow changes, hormonal levels change, heart rate increases, brain activity accelerates, mood deteriorates... When talking about anger, one should not say that a person does not need this feeling. The wording here is incorrect. A person needs anger, and he needs “healthy” anger. If anger is “unhealthy,” then by its nature it is destructive, destructive. “Unhealthy anger” leads a person into a state of depression, attacks of rage, passions, violence.... The main task and purpose of “healthy anger” is to eliminate the obstacle, the obstacle. This barrier can be people, objects, all kinds of irritants... Anger (healthy) will help in mobilizing internal resources for a breakthrough (opening your own business, quitting smoking, “getting on the right path”...), and it is anger that will “open the way to a powerful reserve of internal energy.” About healthy sadness Sadness occurs when a person is significantly dissatisfied in some aspect of life. Synonyms for “sadness” are: sadness, melancholy, despondency, sorrow, melancholy. Sadness is a negatively colored emotion. Occurs whensignificant dissatisfaction of a person in any aspect of his life. What is “healthy sadness”? Why do we need it? “Healthy sadness” helps a person to adequately accept losses, mourn what he cannot change, and come to terms with the inevitable. Elisabeth Kübler Ross, a psychiatrist, studied the problem of death and dying of a person. Ross stated that the mental state of a person with a fatal illness is unstable and goes through five stages. The first stage is the stage of denial and rejection of the tragic fact. The second stage is the stage of protest. When the first shock passes, repeated studies where dying people confirm the presence of a fatal disease, a feeling of protest and indignation arises. The third stage is a request for a delay. This is a period of accepting the truth and what is happening, but “not now, a little more.” The fourth stage is reactive depression, which is usually combined with feelings of guilt and resentment, pity and grief. The fifth stage is the acceptance of one’s own death. A person gains peace and tranquility. The “red line” of Ross’s research, first of all, is the fact that everyone who. goes through these stages and those who can reach the end, go through the whole process of acceptance and humility, live much longer and live much happier. And it is sadness that helps in this. When a person is sad in a healthy way, he moves towards humility, towards acceptance. what he cannot change, thinking about what is within his power, what can and should be changed in a given situation. “Healthy sadness” helps relieve tension, helps to let go of vain hopes and expectations, stop hoping for the impossible, and realize one’s inner pain and “cry.” About healthy fear Fear is an internal state caused by a threatening real or perceived disaster. From the point of view of psychology, fear is an emotional process. In the theory of differential emotions by K. Izard, fear is classified as a basic emotion, that is, it is an innate emotional process, with a genetically specified physiological component, a strictly defined facial expression and a specific subjective experience. The causes of fear are considered to be real or imaginary danger. Fear mobilizes the body to implement avoidant behavior, running away. Fear in a person improves peripheral vision, increases the frequency of eyelid movement and breathing - all this allows a person to react more quickly to danger. So, “healthy fear” protects against danger. He warns of danger, it arises much earlier than it. “Healthy fear” helps not to remain in a frightening situation, not to experience prolonged discomfort and stressors, and to warn a person against what could harm him. “Healthy fear” helps to successfully get out of an uncomfortable and frightening situation. “Healthy fear” helps you not to be self-sufficient and do everything yourself. It helps you seek help and support, admit your weaknesses and fears. “Healthy fear” enriches the personality, teaches one to love and take care of oneself, and warns against dangerous and destructive situations. Healthy Joy Joy is one of the main positive emotions of a person, an internal feeling of satisfaction, pleasure and happiness. It is a positive internal motivation for a person. Joy can be separated from and even opposed to satisfaction and pleasure. There is joy from contemplation, joy from movement, joy from sadness, joy of communication, joy of knowledge, joy of beauty, joy of life, and sometimes associated with the latter, causeless joy “Healthy joy” helps to accept successes and enjoy them. For a person who strives to change something in his life, it is common to experience various successes and defeats, since the process of mastering new skills and abilities is always associated with them. A healthy and harmonious person is one who adequately enjoys himself, does not scold or reproach himself constantly, allows himself to make mistakes, encourages himself when something goes wrong.