If you have sweated, screamed, been excited and had fun with every soccer game of the recent World Cup, this article is for you, if you want to better understand what all those emotions you experienced during the last month are due to. .
The newspaper EL UNIVERSO consulted this fact with Dr. Glenda Pinto Guevara, from our staff of specialists.
What happens when we are faced with an exciting fact
In order to understand what happens in our body when faced with stressful emotions, in this case due to the World Cup final, we must first understand when a stress emotion becomes dangerous or unhealthy for the body and how that reaction occurs within the body.
First, let’s make it clear that emotions are not bad per seare natural and instinctive reactions of our organism that fulfill an adaptive function facing situations that happen to us and that allow us to implement a response as a result of that perception.
However, it can become an abnormal or negative reaction due to its excess. That is to say, when the person who suffers from it is carried away by the perception of risk in a continuous, oversized or inappropriate way. Learning to determine if the stressful response is adequate or not, in the face of a certain situationis part of a subsequent process carried out by the prefrontal cortex, the parietal and temporal structures, which adjust the perceptions and adjust them in degree and importance and have been developing and perfecting over time.
Currently, within our civilized life, instinctive and emergency defense reactions should not make much sense, since we live in very different situations, where such an aggressive or defensive type of response would do us more harm than good and require more thoughtful responses. and appropriate to our cultural, moral and social codes. However, there are some types of very stressful situations, which are going to require the kind of immediate response that we used to depend on in the past.
In other words, One thing is the perceived stress in the face of a danger of harm or death and another, the perceived stress in the face of disappointment due to the loss of a longed-for expectation.
An example of this can be seen in the present World Cup, since although we all have favorites and the event is part of our current habits of distraction and relaxationthe emotions that this event arouses can lead many people to an excess or an exaggeration in their emotional responses, to such a limit that they threaten your health and even in some cases, even your own life.
When do emotions become dangerous or harmful?
There is a direct and intense relationship between the emotions, the organs and the symptoms that we can experience. This being the case, stressful situations for a long time cause brain neurons responsible for learning to be damaged and, in turn, the brain suffers from alterations that produce changes in the hormonal system and whose consequences affect the different organs and systems of the body.
The relationship between thoughts emotions and the body is closer than one might suppose. Surely we have heard more than once that the mind controls the body, the biological functioning of the brain is what makes this so, since there is a relationship between thought and body, between emotion and symptom.
For example, when we keep a negative thought in our head for a minutethe immune system remains in a delicate situation for approximately five hours, so if these negative thoughts or emotions are maintained over time, we will be more predisposed to contracting diseases due to the weakness of the immune system that protects us.
Knowing this relationship between mind-emotions and body, We must be attentive to emotions that are not very positive, since it is essential to learn to manage them in the most positive way possible. to protect our body.
Surely on more than one occasion you have heard a friend rebuke a player or the referee of a football game: “don’t be like that, you’re going to have a heart attack”. Of course it is a set phrase: not all people have the same chances of this happening; Normally there are previous factors (hypertension, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, smoking…) that announce the risk. But the set of emotions that are triggered in our body when we watch this sport influences our health in various ways.
Generally, stress causes blood pressure to rise. Heartbeat and breathing rate increase, blood is redistributed to vital organs (brain, liver and kidney), which as a consequence causes greater pallor, loss of empathy and increased aggressiveness. If a person with a coronary history is found in this situation, the possibility of triggering a cardiac crisis or a cerebrovascular accident increases significantly.
On the other hand, beyond the physical part, Excessive identification with a team can bring unpleasant psychological consequences such as anxiety, anguish, lack of sleep, irritability, disproportionate emotional reactions. and other consequences of a cognitive order, such as worse performance at work, distractions, forgetfulness, among others. But we must clarify that this happens in more extreme cases.
And what happens if I’m with other people?
Sporting events such as this World Cup are so well received by the majority of the world population that they should serve not only as a distraction, so necessary for mental health. But also as an opportunity to fraternize and promote family union and social, far from the interests of another type.
Each participating country represents the dreams and desires of a country, they represent the pride of being considered among those who know how to defend their people.their sovereignty, share the feeling of sufficiency and together they reaffirm their idiosyncrasy.
However, what usually happens will depend on who are the people who gather to enjoy a football game, because as we have mentioned before, If among the participants in the family or friendship reunion there are people who do not know how to regulate their emotions and therefore display an excess of exaggerated or overstated reactions, what usually happens is that the group is infected with this type of reaction.
And especially children, who are learning directly from their parents and relatives, those particular ways of reacting and behaving in the face of the loss or gain of the soccer game. In the same way, they are also learning about how to react to the failures or achievements that these sporting events represent and that they will transfer to other aspects or areas of their lives in the future.
Becoming aware of these aspects would serve to self-manage your emotions and show your children and loved ones how to face an event of this type, with a true sports mentality.in which the most important thing is the participation and enjoyment of the skills of those who participate in an event of this nature.
How to cultivate emotional intelligence in future fans
Regarding how to cultivate the emotional intelligence of your children and other minors in the family, What must be taken into consideration is that children are people in formation, so their minds must be nourished by adequate ideas and concepts. with which the minor can form an adequate criterion, as well as the power to discriminate and decide on their behaviors.
For it it must begin because the child understands and becomes familiar with his emotions, normalizes them, accepts them and puts them into words. For them, understanding that feeling sad, angry and anxious about something is not necessarily bad and is the response to a particular situation, that their body is letting them know through these emotions. In such a way, that you do not need to resort to expressing yourself through reactions and behaviors of anger, anger, sadness, among others, but rather that you can understand what you feel and want, express it and find a way to solve the discomfortwithout getting carried away by their emotions as the only way to make themselves noticed or ask for help.
It is also convenient that as parents and educators we always reflect on the important aspects with which this society and our culture identifies and behaves, such as “WINNING” as a symbol of sufficiency, in contrast to “LOSING” as a symbol of insufficiency and incapacity.
This aspect is of vital importance, because in the course of life, due to the difficulties that every person must go through in the different areas of their life, added to the level of maturity of each vital stage, there will be more occasions in which frustrations and disappointments are experienced, instead of achievements and conquests. Which should not be interpreted as “bad luck or misfortunes”, but rather as learning and opportunities to manage oneself in more effective and appropriate ways, taking advantage of what life experience brings with it.
Dr. Glenda Pinto Guevara
Clinical psychologist. Master TBE (Brief Strategic Therapy) – Cognitive Therapist
Telephones: (593) (4) 232-4066. Cell: 099-612-322.
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
