When skiing, we may experience, at one time or another, some of the following emotions:
- Joy appears when we are in a familiar and safe context. These are optimal moments in which we feel being in the place where we want to be and skiing turns out as it should be, producing placidity and fun together with the sensation of security and well-being.
- Serenity, as well as joy unfolds in familiar and protected places when we enjoy what we are doing.
- Humor stimulates laughter and allows us to interpret threatening situations positively. It is a trigger of positive emotions since it facilitates our state of well-being, in addition to using it as personal strength in the face of adversity, positively interpreting challenging situations.
- Anger corresponds to self-degradation in relation to the relevance or incongruence of the proposed objectives. It is associated with our desire to change the situation and to go against the obstacle by conquering it. It involves our Self in terms of self-preservation, enhancement of self-esteem or social esteem. It represents guilt (internalized anger) or blame towards another (externalized anger). Angry behavior tends to manifest itself through reaction.
- Ire is a primitive emotion more intense than anger and often leads to undesirable behaviors, generating irritability and rage. It is presented in the face of something that offers resistance, disturbs, or limits our own pretensions. In certain cases, if do not achieve what are proposed to, we may exhibit an aggressive emotional behavior through anger in the form of sudden rage as a way of discharging in the face of our impotence in achieving satisfaction. Here, our thoughts are inhibited and we express our indignation by means of a certain irritating language towards ourselves or with offensive gesticulations towards the object in question. It also occurs when we interpret the situation as unfair and as violating our individuality, which can be interpreted as an indeterminate fear.
- Fright reveals a concrete and immediate danger that may cause imminent physical harm or a threat to our psychic integrity that momentarily paralyzes our movements and alters vital psychosomatic processes. The coping potential of the situation is uncertain as well as our future expectation. Our behavior is manifested by the propensity to avoid an undetermined goal.
- In agitation, which is related to fright, we also perceive that something implies a threat to our physical integrity. This is irritating but not to the point of being paralyzing, but is characterized by an anarchic excess of movements, voluntary and involuntary, which have no technical purpose of their own. It is a primitive emotional reaction to situations subjectively perceived as dangerous. We lose serenity and cannot control our movements.
- Fear encompasses a harm that may occur to ourselves as well as towards others due to a bad behavior. It also appears as an instinct of self-preservation in which the supposed threat is not real but possible. The perception of an object perceived as threatening may, like agitation, start with a bodily weakness (our legs become ‘loose’) that leads to a lack of firmness to continue skiing. Fear generates self-doubt, uneasiness, and alarm as when fearful, we tend to be distrustful, feel alarmed, do not believe that the situation will develop favorably, and encourage defensive skiing.
- Embarrassment demonstrates the failure of our ideal skier’s-Self. It presents guilt towards ourselves. Future expectations tend to mitigate shame and to hide or avoid our own failures observed by others. It is considered a social emotion that occurs when skiing in front of others and is usually associated with shyness and blushing.
- Gratitude is manifested by being aware that another person acted correctly towards ourselves by doing more than one should have.
- Anxiety is related to an uncertain threat. It involves our Self in terms of self-protection and potential uncertainty of coping as well as uncertain future expectations. We manifest the same behavior as in fear.
- Happiness results from reasonable progress towards the realization of our relevant and congruent goals. It arises when we succeed in overcoming a challenge, such as descending a steep slope that exceeds our capabilities, or looking at the tracks left on a slope with virgin snow. It contains a positive future expectation for the continuation of the activity, being a psychological expression of pleasure and security.
- Pride is an Ego enhancement in self-recognition and self-praise for the valuable goal achieved. We feel the need to attract attention to our achievements. Pride is generally interpreted as something negative, but if associated with humility, we achieve positivity by attributing our achievements as a product of our sustained effort.
- Interest is revealed when something new catches our attention and provokes curiosity and inspiration, generating new challenges which provide the opportunity to improve our skills and feel encouraged.
- Surprise, as an emotion, appears on certain occasions when we face unknown situations that we do not understand at first. We experience a primary affective state of disorientation due to the lack of knowing whether the situation will be favorable or unfavorable. It is related first to astonishment and then to curiosity and interest. It can produce brief reactions of shock, astonishment, and bewilderment.
- Anguish derives from the Latin ‘angustus’ meaning narrow or strait. It is characterized by a respiratory narrowness in which breath and space to deploy actions are difficult. In skiing there is the tendency to expand, so if we suffer from anguish, we experience a constriction both in breathing and in our evolutions. Such may be the case of the beginner skier who feels sheltered and contained by the instructor within a familiar area, but the time will come to leave that protection and face the slopes solving his own difficulties by himself. This is when anguish appears, that is to say, the fear of destiny.
- Exaltation is the opposite of anguish. It refers to our tendency to go outside of ourselves through a liberation of our boundaries.
- Fear is the anticipation of a danger or threat which generates anxiety, uncertainty, and insecurity in which we tend to self-protection.
- Aversion originates disgust and rejection when facing an unpleasant context causing the propensity to move away from the aversive source.
- The state of flow is considered a positive emotion that inserts us completely in the activity, concentrating all of our senses and thoughts in what we are executing in the present moment losing even the notion of time, and in which all our abilities work harmoniously, enjoying the glide with all our senses, transforming it into a gratifying experience.
- Fun is, together with the pleasure of sliding, a basic aspect of skiing, since it allows for regeneration and soul vivacity. It is expressed through laughter and recreation, which rejuvenate the perspective of the activity being performed.
- Inspiration, sustained by attention, directly influences the motivation to do what we wish to achieve: a more appropriate execution of the technique, a certain result in a competition, or simply to descend smoothly through a certain place giving us a renewed air in our daily skiing.
- Awe happens when we contemplate something grandiose such as a mountain, a superb landscape, a breathtaking sunset, or an intense snowfall that elevates our spirit.
- Hope makes it possible to experience an enlightenment that strengthens our belief that we or the situation can change for the better.
