The Diary of Emotions made me realize that a person could feel a number of emotions in a single day and that each emotion is triggered by different situations and it affects us physically and mentally (Cornelius, 1996). Based on the entries on my diary of emotions for three days, I more or less felt happy during those times and also had several anxious periods. When I felt happy, I had a smile on my face, like someone was tickling me. When I go about my work, I just breeze through it and I don’t worry about anything. I feel that my body is full of energy, that I am not tired at all and that I want to have a good time.
Sometimes I feel that my heart beats more than the usual, sometimes I feel warm and sweaty, but in a good way. When I am happy, I think good thoughts and laughter comes easily. But when I was anxious, my body manifested several changes, one was that I was sweating profusely, and my hands had fine shakes. I also felt a little headache and my heart beat was racing and it’s almost I am at the verge of tears or exasperation. Then I was thinking of worst case scenarios if ever I was late for class or my friend would not talk to me when I approached her, or when I was waiting for the exam.
There was also a period when I was upset and felt guilty. When I was upset I felt terrible, I couldn’t get my thoughts together and I felt like crying. It felt that there was a chunk of wood on top of my head weighing me down. I also kept repeating the event in my head the one I was upset about. After getting upset, I felt guilty that I quarreled with my friend knowing that I should have not snapped at her like that. Guilt though was more difficult to define, the physical changes was quite the same as being upset, but in a lesser degree but I was thinking of how I could patch up with my friend and
planning what to say to her when I see her. Being angry was exhausting, it seemed that my head was bursting and my heart was beating so fast, and then angry words just came out of my mouth and I felt justified at saying it. I was thinking of how to get even, how to hurt her as much as she did me. After which I felt like water in the pot simmering and still heated up. Fear was actually like being anxious angry but there was something else, I was quiet and trembling all over. I was afraid that I might fail the test and mentally I was imagining what would happen if I failed it.
Feeling sad was like the opposite of being happy, I felt heavy, I did not want to eat and move around or to work on anything. Surprise and feeling relieved was like being happy and being interested felt like I wanted to know more about the movie, that I was glad I was watching it, I was attentive to the story, I was listening intently and I think my eyes were very alert then. This exercise actually helped me learn how to identify my emotions and by paying attention to what it is then allowed me to think about how we are sometimes overwhelmed by what we feel in a certain situation.
