As human beings, we focus on our progress as a species in terms of accomplishment placing ultimate value in the evolution of the things we create.

We’ve lost sight of collaboration with nature and affix no merit to the evolution of our emotions.

Were one to dwindle things down to an incredibly basic level, it could be said that we have 5 core emotions: fear, joy, sadness, disgust, and anger.

You may recall a Disney movie that personified these…

But I digress.

However, our emotional experience is far vaster.

Emotions are anything but basic and as the world around us changes, I believe it can only be expected that our emotions would too.

An emotion is a natural state of mind or instinctive feeling.

We all have them. Our emotions are every bit as unique as we are.

And that is where things get muddled.

Your joy will never be my joy because we all feel our emotions differently with varying intensity. And in that varied intensity a new (and different) emotion is established.

And we rarely feel one emotion at a time, so now we can approach combining emotions. Often an event will evoke multiple emotions at once. By experiencing these emotions simultaneously, we establish another new emotion.

Then comes the mixing of emotions and their varying intensities.

Sometimes you can feel a lot of one emotion and a little of another to establish something new. But should you flip the ratio, you establish yet another new emotion.

When my son was little, I think about 3 or 4 years old, he came to me and said:

“Mommy I feel scared and happy about tomorrow.”

I can’t quite recall what it was happening tomorrow, but I do know that we concluded he felt nervous and excited: two emotions that commonly go together. So, I said:

“It’s called nerve-cited – when you’re a little bit nervous and little bit excited too!”

And it has stuck.

For over a decade nerve-cited has been a recognized emotion in our home.

We have such an outward perspective as human beings. We fixate on the evolution of our physicality and what that can achieve.

Seldom do we even acknowledge what we feel. Instead, emotions are cast to the ground and buried deep, receiving no mention.

But if we were prompted to explore, to expand our emotional experience, I think we could be differently inspired.

Experience matters, it counts.

If we allow it to.