Reflection Essay Sample on Emotions

The emotions you feel towards certain situations may not be the same as your friends but might be the same as one of your school teachers who you barely know. According to Oxford languages, an emotion is “a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others”. This theme is an important part of everyone's life and is the outcome of any situation or problem you encounter. My perspective on emotions is that depending on how you grew up or what your life experiences have been, those emotions will be different from maybe others who experience the same situation. A different perspective people have on emotions is that everyone feels the same emotions in the same situations. As well as that there is also the perspective on how people believe that once the transition from kids to adults happens your experiences laced with emotions are erased. Those perspectives are unreal, and, incredibly, people think that way. I believe that in happy situations there can be found sadness and pain, possibly because of the memories, but maybe in happy situations, you may experience sadness and loneliness. These opposite outcomes may occur in different scenarios whether it happens with music, memories, or just living your present life. 

When you are happy you would not usually put on sad music or watch a dramatic movie, you would most likely, play or do something fun. Many people find happiness in sad music and tragic movies, but it's not necessarily happiness it could be beauty, transcendence, or even wonder. For many, those feelings are closer to joy than they will ever be. These differences in emotion with the same music could occur due to different situations that people have gone through in the past. In the Ted-Ed video where Susan Cain talked about “The Hidden Power of Sad Songs and Rainy Days”, she mentions that she would often listen to what her friends referred to as “funeral music”. She would find this “funeral music” relaxing and full of wonder, beauty, and transcendence, she calls it bittersweet music. She has always wanted to be a writer, but sadly she only worked at a law firm. Susan has always had that feeling of longing, that she is longing for something, and looking for something. The music that she would listen to made her feel that she was longing for something, trying to find that missing piece from her life. Since Susan had these experiences of her not becoming a writer and always having a longing for something, her sad music would help her feel inspired, as if she already found what she was longing for. If young Susan hadn't had this job at a Law Firm and would follow her dream in writing, her perspective on sad music's emotions would've been different. Her experiences in the past helped her realize why she found something close to joy in sad music. 

In sad situations, you wouldn't usually feel happiness unless you look at the positiveness of things. Typically, when you are sad or feeling blue you would often cry and maybe find a way to cope like listening to sad music. Some people find the positiveness of things in sad situations. If you lost a loved one you would feel sad, but depending on what you have been through maybe you would feel joy instead of sadness. In this story called “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin a woman called Louise has heart problems and any sudden shocking event could cause her a heart attack. Sadly, Louise's husband had apparently died in a train accident and her sister had to be the one to tell her the news. When she tells her the news, as one would do she starts sobbing and sobbing until she stops. She stops and thinks to herself, about the freedom, the independence, and the liberty she would gain not being with her husband. She starts thinking of her life ahead, and she was even considering what she could do without him pulling her back. Louise was so happy out of a sad situation. Without her experiences with her “controlling” husband, she would have never felt joy in his death. I don't think anyone with a spouse would feel happy about them dying but since she had those occurrences in the past and lived with him, she was happy. She was happy at finding out what she could do with more liberty and freedom. She even ended up dying of joy for her “dead husband” who want even on the train.

My argument that experiences change the outcomes of typical emotions is finalized by the topic of memories. In memories, there is usually one emotion attached to them whether it's fear, anger, disgust, joy, or sadness. Strangely, there are also cases in which there are emotions combined, and you feel two different emotions at the same time. There could be a memory of joy laced with sorrow. In “The Happiness Project” the article written by The New York Times Style Magazine by Andrew O’Hagan talks about Disney. In Disney, there is Happiness, no matter what Disney is a magical world where dreams come true, and your worries are gone… At least for children. Once you are an adult, especially a parent you might feel sad remembering all the happy memories of your childhood at Disney. An adult might feel nostalgic even knowing that their time for being a child is over. The feeling of sadness and joy creates a cry of happiness mixing emotions and having the feeling of nostalgia added to those emotions. You might think “Everyone feels this way” well not everyone. Not every single person on this planet had the privilege to go to Disney as a child and had the experience of a good childhood. The product of a good childhood involving Disney is Nostalgia which could turn what was once Happiness into the feeling of sorrow for growing up.  

Your experiences will shape your emotions depending on the situation. The emotions you have won't necessarily be the same as your friends, but just might be similar to a person you have similar experiences with. This argument proves that with different experiences come different outcomes defeating all other perspectives made about emotion. People may think that emotions are all the same for everyone or that your experiences are forgotten as an adult, but in reality, it's your experience that counts and shapes you.