Emotion Stimulation

To live, to be alive is an infinitely complex state, and every human must go through a varied spectrum of emotions on any given day to fully experience all the things life throws at them. One might start the day happy, but they do not linger in that state long; soon, they transition to excitement, then to despair, then maybe back to happiness again just to venture into jealousy all through the course of 24 hours. There are as many emotions as humans can describe, and depending on their disposition, one could be inclined to feel more or fewer emotions, more intense or milder emotions, but every single human experiences every single emotion at some point during their lives. This is to say, every single human possesses some understanding when someone mentions happiness, anger, jealousy, love, embarrassment, fear; even though some emotions are scarce to come by. Sure, nobody would want to feel “bad” emotions such as embarrassment, guilt, or jealousy if they were given the chance, but everybody would love to feel happiness, hope, and excitement abundantly. Yet, there is no escaping an emotion when it surfaces from within because just like how life has its ups and downs, one needs to experience as much emotion as possible until their life ends; this is what living is all about. Life, at its core, is a journey, a collection of experiences that stimulate emotions.

Trust has been a scarce commodity so far in the 21st century. Especially since the emergence of social media and the prominence of hustle culture, people acquired a tendency to repress their emotions and lock them away in the depths of their consciousness as a defence mechanism. In a cruder sense, they have been lying and portraying themselves as someone different from their real selves in hopes of ensuring protection from harm, relationship formation, or job acquisition. They think they are doing this to get ahead of the competition, but as a side-effect, they are also shunning some emotions. If one is not trusting enough to open themselves up to others, to show their vulnerabilities, their experiences will be limited to their comfort zone. They will never feel or experience what comes after a leap of faith; as in trusting someone to follow them to success or failure, and  this is no way to live. Sure, one should not trust all, but if one does not trust at all, one cannot live one's life to its fullest. One needs to trust and open oneself to vulnerabilities to a certain extent so that one can not only experience success and the emotions that come with it but also failure and what it represents. It does not matter how much it hurts to feel shame or guilt, because if one does not taste “bad” emotions through the course of their life, they cannot possibly appreciate the good ones. One needs a point of comparison to understand things, and when one takes the opposite of something out of existence, that something ceases to exist as well. There would be no good without bad just like how there would be no hope without despair or happiness without sadness. Hence, one should try and move out of their comfort zone so that they can directly experience as much emotion as possible before their life reaches its conclusion.

One still might be disinclined to move out of their comfort zone to directly experience life to its fullest. Thankfully, this is not necessary in this day and age since experiences can come from anywhere and everywhere if one is open and accepting, and there are multiple ways to experience new and various emotions aside from direct personal experience. This is where imagination in the context of content consumption comes in. Be it literature, cinema, theatre, or video games; there are multiple ways for someone to stimulate their emotions and experience ones they would not during their regular lives, all without leaving their comfort zone. For example, it is not possible for someone to actually experience the atmosphere of the Second World War because it is long in the past and there is no such thing as time travel, but one can easily watch a movie or read a book set in that era to immerse themselves and artificially stimulate emotions from that period. To take it further, when one wants to feel despair they can watch Marriage Story, if one wants to be scared they can read Stephen King, or when someone wants to feel love they can watch Scenes From a Marriage. There is some form of content for every single emotion one can possibly describe, and this makes content consumption is a very good source of emotion stimulation, because it more often than not helps the consumer experience emotions beyond the ones they will most likely experience without forcing them to leave the comforts of their couch. There even is a word for it: escapism, but it does not accurately represent how content consumption helps one experience different emotions. Escapism sounds negative, as if one is running away from their feelings, but one does not necessarily escape when consuming content, they can also consume to feel, to experience. Therefore, “emotion stimulation” by content consumption is a much better way to put it in this context.

Succinctly, there is no need to despair even if one tends to hide behind their artificial creations such as social media profiles, because content consumption as a way to stimulate emotions is within their grasp. One can easily experience heaps of emotions this way. It does not matter whether one is an introvert or an extrovert, a thrill seeker or a couch heater; there is content fit for everyone’s desire, and escapism can be a wonderful way to get out of oneself and get experience different stories, periods, personalities, and emotions. This is why, no matter who one is, one should look to stimulate their emotions through content consumption. However, there is a caveat: content consumption for emotion stimulation is not enough by itself; it can only be a placeholder for some experiences one could not possibly have throughout their life. In the short term, it would be fine, but in the long run, the lack of direct experience would result in a lack of emotional intelligence and strength to tackle the challenges life will present. Therefore, one should try the method emotion stimulation through content consumption, but only as a compliment to direct experience. Sure, one can watch movies, read books, play video games, and cry, laugh, taste fear through them all, but one also must get out of their comfort zone regularly to expose themselves to the world around them as well as to physically experience life. Because then and only then one can realize what it means to be alive.