Beginning with the discoveries of existing, caring, and everything about us as caring — from our head to our toes — that includes our emotions.

Our sensory systems serve a purpose to tell us something, like something is hot or cold, smells good or bad, tastes delicious or awful, and so on. Emotions work the same way, or emotions are responses to what’s happening around us and in our minds, serving a purpose to give us a sense of what is good for us or not good for us, another caring feature of our caring, living being.

Keep that in mind as I talk about what I have have observed clinically for the past couple of decades.

I have noticed that we all seem to experience four basic emotions over time. They are wellness, or feeling well, happy, contented; depressed, or feeling down or empty; anxious, or experiencing overwhelming anxiety and fear; and anger, or irritability, grumpiness, highly annoyed. And basically, that breaks down to four primary emotions, or joy, anger, fear, and sadness.

Remarkably, one day I ran across an article about research at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. The researchers identified four primary emotional expressions, or facial expressions. And remarkably, they matched the four that I saw clinically, or joy, anger, fear, and sadness.

Not only is this the basis of how I approach clinical work with my patients now, it also tells us a great deal about ourselves, and about how our emotional systems are part of the caring system that is life-sustaining for us.

Emotions exist because they serve a purpose for us, are life-sustaining, or caring, enabling us and many other animals to continue existing, and this topic will be another key aspect of this channel going forward.