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Resilient Responders

Feelings & Emotions

Understanding our emotions and how they may influence our behaviours is key to managing operational stress effectively.

Last updated 28 May 2026

Our emotions play a role in guiding the decisions we make. The situations and people we encounter at work and in our personal lives trigger emotional reactions, and a lot of what we do is motivated by a desire to change or maintain a feeling-state - to hold on to good feelings or avoid bad feelings.

It is thus helpful to know how we are feeling and what actions our emotions may be guiding us towards. Let's start with exploring how you are feeling today!

How Are You Feeling Today?

You can feel more than one emotion at any one time. For example, when you think that you have completed a task well, you may feel confident in your work and happy.

Similarly, good and "bad" emotions can co-exist. You do not have to only feel positive emotions or negative emotions in the present moment - you may feel relieved about a certain situation, but also feel disappointed that the outcome was not up to your expectations.

So, how are you feeling today? These are some examples of words that can help you to describe how you are currently feeling:

Grid of emojis showing different emotions: Angry, Annoyed, Anxious, Apologetic, Bored, Cautious, Confident, Contented, Disappointed, Embarrassed, Excited, Exhausted, Happy, Lonely, Optimistic, Relieved, Sad, and Shocked.

Note: This is a non-exhaustive list

Emotion's Frequency and Intensity

In addition to knowing the emotion (or emotions) you are feeling, you can also look at how much of the emotion you are feeling and how often you may feel this way.

A person at a desk with questions about his emotions: the cause, intensity (with scale), and frequency experienced over the past 2 weeks.

If the emotion has been overwhelming, here are some tools that can help you regulate your emotions.

How Our Emotions May Motivate Us

The emotions that you feel can also play a role in influencing what you are motivated to do, for example:

Emojis show joy, fear, sadness, anger, compassion, and embarrassment, each with descriptions of how they might motivate actions.

Impact of Our Emotions

Since your emotions can influence what you are motivated to do, if you want to manage your emotions, you first need to be aware of how they may impact your life.

Take some time to reflect on the role emotions play in your life:

Person at a desk with laptop thinking about his emotions in three blue thought bubbles: What do I feel too much/too little of? What do my emotions get in the way of me doing? What do my emotions lead me to do too much of?

To find out more about how your thoughts can influence your emotions, and subsequently your actions, you can check out the page on automatic thoughts.

References