appropriately managing our emotional responses to daily life stressors.
Men and their emotional health is a topic that is often sorely understood in our communities. Like all cultures, America has established many social norms and standards around masculinity and emotional expression.
In our culture men are encouraged to suppress emotions such as sadness and fear while boldly expressing emotions of anger and rage. It is, therefore, no surprise that many men grow to overly express aggression as a sign of manhood. This is one of the major reasons why heart attacks are twice as common in men than women.
Regardless of our gender, humans are emotional beings. Our emotions exist for our own protection and they function as a source of communication between our environment and us. Emotions are the connection between mind and body.
Every emotion that we experience in our body creates a sensation or feeling, which is why we refer to our emotions as our feelings.
There are seven basic emotions recognized universally and they include anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and surprise. Each emotion is linked to its own unique cascade of chemical reactions and physical changes that can either improve our health or increase our risk of disease development. The CDC states that 85 percent of all diseases have an