A hardwired biological component of our physiology, emotions are as essential to survival as other automatic, purely physical regulatory processes such as metabolism and muscular reflex responses. We do not get angry and then have our blood pressure rise – rather, our blood pressure rises in response to some stimulus, which causes our bodies to experience what we have learned to label ‘anger.’ What we call emotion is simply how we mediate between environmental stimuli and subsequent behavior, and the labels by which we mentally index those stimuli and behaviors for future reference.
From the time of the earliest humans, recognizing fear on a comrade’s face triggered an impulse to act – to flee, escaping the shared danger, or to help him fight, collaboratively overcoming the threat. While expressions of happiness encouraged familial or community bonding. This leads to the understanding that our emotions, far from being irrational or unimportant, are universal tools that help us read cues that allow us to successfully navigate our environment. Establishing the oft-forgotten notion that emotional fluency can mean the difference between survival and death, or success and failure, and that it therefore figures prominently in evolution. – Anne Kreamer