The emotions experienced when we ski are compound, that is, a sum of positive and negative emotions. Negative emotions restrict our capacity for action and thought, while positive emotions expand it. According to the approach-avoidance model of psychology and psychiatry professor Richard Davidson, positive affect is associated with motivation, effort, and contact with environmental features, while negative affect is related to negative tendencies and avoidance of potentially threatening stimuli. For example, fear is associated with avoidance behavior while joy is associated with coping behavior.
In the mountain there are threatening situations that generate avoidance, and situations that promote approach. A simple wrong behavioral response made under a state of negativity can lead us to a fall or an accident, while not reaching a particular positive emotional situation is not painful, considering that there will be new opportunities in the future. While both types of emotions serve as an adaptive function to the environment, both are necessary for our interaction with the demands of the mountain environment.
In the past, psychology was inclined towards the study of what was presumed to be a conflict for the person, since negative emotions produce disorders, prioritizing their treatment rather than their prevention. Nowadays, the emphasis on the prevention of negative emotions and the interest on the positive ones is marked. Positive emotions are energy that promote motivation, while negative emotions reduce psychophysical well-being and impede good performance. An emotion considered negative, such as anger, can produce positive results: from a mediocre performance that generates irritation, the energy coming from that emotion can be oriented to increase the effort towards success.
Skiing is an activity that generates emotionally intense experiences. The positive ones are related to the tendency to achieve success and to feel proud, which generates the motivation to continue skiing. Negative emotions involve the propensity to avoid failure, the fear of embarrassment, or the fear of not being able to overcome the situation with satisfaction, which are sufficient reasons to give up.
It can be suggested that emotions are not negative or positive per se but provide signals which we evaluate negatively or positively. The positive-negative polarity is created when our mind judges the present moment as good or bad. For example, the evaluation of our sliding speed is a variable that produces both positive and negative emotions. If we are conscious, each emotion is positive since it is communicating us something that allows for self-knowledge.
Emotions have a temporal difference in duration. Negative emotions are more prolonged in time, which forces us to modify our attitude or change our thoughts to reduce the discomfort they cause; while positive emotions, although pleasant and generate a feeling of well-being, are short-lived.
It is generally thought that experiencing emotions is directly related to our personal technique. When skiing badly, negative emotions arise then it is naively believed that when our skiing improves positive emotions will follow. This predisposes us only to ski better when, in many cases, it is our negative emotion that generates poor skiing, at the same time limiting our own evolution since it increases anxiety while the positive ones reduce it. Moreover, when experiencing positive emotions, we tend to set ourselves new challenges, while we are prone to orient ourselves towards immediate behavioral responses under negative emotionality. The appropriate thing to do would be to learn to be aware of our emotional state so that it does not interfere with our skiing.
Negative emotions
Negative emotions, inherent to our human condition, are considered as natural as breathing. The conflict emerges when they are not accepted as such, generating high levels of anxiety.
There is a general belief that negative emotions have greater importance in the evolution of man, and this is so because scientific research clearly reflects the inclination towards these emotions because, it is assumed, they have a greater adaptive and survival weight, are more numerous, and presume threats to our own integrity. Positive emotions, on the other hand, are related to situations of pleasure and, in general, are less frequent than negative emotions.
The following negative emotions are common when skiing:
- Embarrassment, as a social emotion, appears when skiing in front of others, to make a fool of ourselves, to be evaluated, to express what we think or feel, to make mistakes, to feel observed, and to participate in out-of-the-ordinary activities.
- Anxiety generated by the fear of making mistakes, letting down the instructor, friends or family, taking initiative, not being accepted in a group, skiing unfamiliar slopes, skiing alone, rejection, disapproval, and challenging or unexpected situations.
- Anger arises when a situation is perceived as unfair, when goals are not achieved, or when our rights have been violated.
The benefits of negative emotions
Emotional balance is achieved by experiencing both positive and negative emotions, especially the latter, since they allow the learning of experiences that collaborate in achieving emotional integrity.
Although it is strange to believe that negative emotions bring benefits, the fact is that they allow individual growth in a more complete way. It can be considered that the first benefit is to achieve emotional balance, that is, to experience skiing with realism, not with illusory positivism or permanent negativism. This is achieved when we prevent negative emotions from taking control of our behavior by knowing how to listen to them and accept them instead of repressing or denying them.
A clear example is the emotion of fear, which is actually a survival mechanism since it allows self-protection in dangerous situations through the application of prudence and makes us remain alert in the face of danger. If we do not feel fear, how would we know that we are in a dangerous situation?
Another example is anger, as long as it does not turn into rage, which communicates that there is something that deserves our attention and collaborates with the analytical thinking of the situation being, in general, a good motivator to solve it. In difficult situations, anger can be functional since it incites us to confront the environment increasing aggressiveness.
Positive emotions
Positive emotions can be interpreted as the experience of feeling satisfaction with personal achievements, which generates motivation to act and is conducive to good mental health. Positive emotions have biochemical effects that promote a sense of well-being and these effects, in addition to being healthy, are addictive.
These types of emotions generate fewer physiological changes, are diffuse, and are not as intense or as important for survival as negative emotions. They allow us to follow creative behavior patterns that go beyond survival. They promote enjoyment and gratification, develop creativity, and increase commitment to the activity. They are brief pleasurable reactions that occur when experiencing meaningful situations, while allowing key reasoning for learning new skills. After skiing they result, in the vast majority of cases, in feeling better, increased self-image, in the experience of self-control in overcoming our limits and abilities, in overall satisfaction, and in social experience.
Some of the benefits of positive emotions are:
- Promotes rewarding experiences.
- Stimulates enjoyment of ongoing activities.
- Enables creativity.
- Unfolds pleasure and increases commitment and satisfaction for what is being done.
- Facilitates learning.
- Enables resilience.
- Cultivates personal strengths and virtues, all aspects that contribute to our personal growth and physical and psychological well-being.
In addition, positive emotions enable the development of resilience in terms of enhancing our ability to recover after experiencing a stressful event or to overcome adverse incidents. Resilience in general, is not a personality trait but is formed by modifying our attitude towards distressing situations developing the ability to overcome and emerge stronger.
In conclusion, it can be said that we tend to pursue two objectives when skiing: to achieve good skiing and to experience positive emotions. If the time available is sufficient, we have a propensity to select attainable goals that will allow us to increase our abilities; but if it is not, then we will be inclined to enhance positive emotions since they reduce or eliminate the physiological and psychological effects produced by negative emotions.
Emotional agility
Psychologist Susan David argues that the positive-negative emotional duality is rigid and toxic in complex situations and should be replaced by emotional agility, understood as the ability to manage our emotions.
She asserts that in a culture that values relentless positivity in which being positive has become a new form of moral rectitude, no one wants to see or hear the negative emotions of others. This author considers this false positivity as an inflexible response as emotions are seen as either good or bad rather than normal and natural.
Today’s society increasingly tends to retreat into intolerant responses to emotions. According to her own studies, 30% of people criticize themselves for experiencing negative emotions or for hiding them. They do this not only with themselves but also with their children, unconsciously shaming them for externalizing so-called ‘negative emotions’, but not helping them to see these emotions as valuable. Other studies show that, when they are not considered, these type of emotions are strengthened, that is, the more we try to ignore them, the more power they will exert.
This is not about to be anti-positivist, but when normal emotions such as negative ones are omitted and false positivity is admitted, the ability to develop skills to deal with the real skiing world as it is, not as we want it to be, is lost. Diversity is not only about skiers but also about our emotions. Many skiers don’t externalize what they feel because they don’t want to be disappointed or want the feeling to go away.
Research corroborates that acceptance of all emotions is the beginning of resilience and thriving. Emotional agility is more than just accepting all emotions since accuracy matters. Words are essential: quick and easy labels are often used to describe our feelings, but labeling emotions more accurately allows us to discern the exact cause of the feelings and make the right coping efforts, not just any ones, but the ones that are appropriate for each of us.
David proposes a coping strategy which is to express the truth: to accept that in certain situations it is normal to be afraid, rather than to soften the reality. She concludes by saying that courage is not the absence of fear; “courage is fear walking”.
