7 Human Emotions And The Key To A Better Life

An emotion is just a state of mind or a feeling created when your focus on something that affects you on a mental and physical level. Everything we think we want out of life is all about our emotions. We may think we want better health, more wealth, or a better love life, but what we really want is happiness. It’s really not the “things” things that we want - we want the happy feelings we will have when we get the things. In this way, our lives are ruled by our emotions.

As Anthony Robbins has said, “Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning you give it. If you don't like the way you're feeling, change the meaning”.


Every emotion we feel is created by us. Most people believe that their emotions are beyond their control. The think that emotions are uncontrollable reactions to things we encounter in life. This is not true. You can take control of your emotional responses, but only by dealing with them. Ignoring or denying your emotions is not the answer. You must be able to become the master of your 7 human emotions.

We have 7 different emotions, but our lives are driven by only two main categories - pain and pleasure. Our lives are governed by the desire for pleasure, or the desire to avoid pain. As the philosopher Jeremy Bentham said, “Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure...(which) govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it”.

Each of the 7 human emotions has both a positive and a negative side. We are drawn towards the positive emotions because they bring us pleasure, but we try to avoid the negative emotions because they cause us pain. Our instinct to avoid pain is actually stronger than our instinct to obtain pleasure. This is just how human beings are wired.

The 7 human emotions that bring us pleasure are Love, Sex, Hope, Faith, Sympathy, Optimism, and Loyalty.

The 7 emotions that cause us to feel pain are Fear, Hatred, Anger, Greed, Jealousy, Revenge, and Superstition. These all bring us discomfort, so we try to avoid experiencing them.

Anthony Robbins believes that people must learn to use their positive and negative emotions in order to succeed. Too many of us allow our emotions to use us instead. Life will control us unless we get control over our lives.

Our emotions, both positive and negative, have a purpose. They let us know whether we are moving toward something that will make us happy, or something that will bring us pain. We have to learn to listen to our emotions. If we try to suppress painful emotions, we merely make the problem worse in the long run. We will never be able move in the direction that can make us truly happy.

By: Seminar Review