Sorting your own...

jerri a book that absolutely blew my mind, and initially I really struggled against the ideas therein, is
"die psychology der emotionen" by Reykowski, quite an old book now, written originally in Polish and
the only translation I know of is in German.
Basically he explains that what we experience as emotions are in the first place unspecific physical
symptoms, i.e. increased heartrate, a flush, adrenaline for example, and he further explains that this may
be because you see your beloved coming up the front steps to take you to a date, or it may be because
you're being stalked through the forest by a wolf. It is the interpretation that you put on the
perception of the physical reaction that decides if this is experienced as fear, or as anticipation
of a hot date.    

As well, we compare the experiences of those perceptions, and draw parallels - so if you get excited
in a specific way, you tend to assign the same emotion to that 'feeling'.

Sounded pretty alien the first time I read it. BUT: it's opened new horizons for me, because it taught me
that also, I have the power to change how I perceive emotions. Because I can choose to interpret emotions
differently. Yeah, it's a pretty outlandish concept at first. But, pretty much accepted in the field
these days; I've seen similar descriptions in American papers since.