How does surprise affect your soul

Surprise, an instinctive emotion, is a reaction to an unexpected event or sound or a deviation from your norm. It can be pleasant or unpleasant and range in intensity. 

Of the seven instinctive emotions, surprise is the shortest feeling. For a fleeting moment, you experience something that disturbs your soul, that part of you that consists of your unique experiences, character, beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

In surprise, positive or negative, your mind, body and soul freeze for a fleeting moment. It is a hard wired subconscious information processing system within you. Depending on how deeply your belief systems and experiences are ingrained within your soul will affect the intensity of the surprise you feel, either positive or negative.  

Back in 350 BC, Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, recorded the feeling of surprise. Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher, born in 551BC, included surprise as one of the seven universal emotions in his book of Rites. Darwin discussed surprise in terms of biological function, a theory further developed by evolutionary emotion theorists Silvan Tomkins and Carroll Izard. It is thought that the purpose of surprise is to focus attention, both in mind and body, to assess the situation, which will be affected by your soul.  

Surprise in the soul – what is it? 

Your unique self or your soul will be surprised when it encounters an experience, sensory to your body or through your mind, that does not fit into your belief systems (moral or religious) or your previous experiences. If the surprise is strongly at odds with your belief system then the feeling will turn negative and vice e versa.

Surprise to your soul will affect your subconscious reaction in body and mind

Surprise is an instinctive emotion, a hard wired information processing function that works at an unconscious level in your brain. You expect something to happen and you experience something that is new. Your subconscious freezes your thinking and in the context of the soul, the feeling has been described as ‘wonder’ or ‘awe’ or even the fear in the face of the unknown, such as the sublime. The degree to which your beliefs or experiences are ingrained in your soul will affect this process.

Surprise can intensify the feelings in your soul 

Whether it is wonder or fear that comes after that fleeting freezing of your soul from surprise, the feelings are intensified. Your nucleus accumbens, a region in the brain associated with pleasure and reward expectation, responds most strongly to unexpected events. The deeper your belief systems ingrained in your subconscious brain, such as the worship of a deity, the more rigid your moral framework or your unique experiences, such as trauma, the more intense your feelings will be, 

Surprise in the soul is a historic learning tool 

Before scientific discoveries confirmed surprise as an instinctive emotion for the purpose of human learning, philosophers spoke of the soul and learning. Not all philosophers from Aristotle to Descartes agreed on the definition of the soul or what ‘wonder’ or modern day surprise is or how this affects learning. Yet ‘wonder’ or surprise is a governing principal for display and visitor engagement in museums today and has been in some places of religious worship for centuries. Surprise or some may say shock into pushing boundaries and new ways of thinking is a purpose of modern art today.

How surprise affects your soul depends on you 

Instinctive feelings are universal to all mankind yet each one feels with different intensity: This depends on your soul, your unique character, set of beliefs and experiences and how you wish to adapt your view. 

Surprise can enrich your soul 

Surprises, like all instinctive emotions are warning signs, a warning that an experience does not fit into your ‘schema’ or order of things, the unexpected. This may cause you fear, may not fit into your belief system but embracing it and trying to learn from the experience can enrich your soul, add to your experiences, help with a new viewpoint. On a lighter level, a simple surprise, such as an unexpected gift may delight you, trigger an ensuing reaction of joy. 

Too strong a surprise can torture your soul 

Surprise, if it is so startling, that all of your belief systems and experiences are shaken can cause a strong negative experience. You may not be able to override your existing belief system and your soul may feel tortured. 

Instinctive emotions are like the weather, beyond your conscious control. For a balanced life, the first step is to understand human instinctive emotions, how they work and practical steps to take in order to avoid situations that are destructive to emotional wellbeing. Surprise can be as short as a flash of lightning and the ensuing reaction can give you a rush of pleasure or fright. Emotional evolutionary theory suggests that surprise has evolved to help drive interest and learning.