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Hannah Boettcher on the mental health challenges that come with trying to have a big impact

80k After Hours

CHAPTER

The Importance of Understanding Emotions

The function of an emotion is to organize and mobilize the appropriate response. In the case of a positive emotion, like let's say you're with somebody and you feel a feeling of love, maybe this motivates a response that's like, take care of this person, keep them around. And then in the case of an immersive emotion, like fear or disgust, the function is to get you to do those threat management techniques that the mind is great at. So avoid it, escape it, control it, suppress it, right, spit out the poison, tasting food, or run away from the thing that might be dangerous. It's this felt sense of unpleasantness that animates that machinery

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