Emotions can be physical or spiritual. Both physical and spiritual emotions can be negative or positive.
What makes an emotion physical or spiritual? Frankl defines spiritual as the “human” in man, and by human he means what sets us apart from animals, as opposed to what we have in common with them.
When we are moved, agitated, stirred by something that relates to self-preservation, the phenomenon is a physical one and it is one we share with animals.
When we are moved by an altruistic desire to give, and we are stirred by something that relates to a value that we care about for its own sake, the phenomenon is a spiritual one.
This does not imply that physical emotions are bad. Emotions, even those that are set in motion by self-preservation, cue us in to values. Still, identifying their source as “self-preservation” allows us to evaluate them and relate to them appropriately.
How can spiritual emotions be developed? Pirkei Kinyan Da’at, a book which presents a comprehensive analysis of consciousness, mentions prayer, ethical guidance and music as ways to nurture spiritual emotions and spiritual sensitivity.
Through prayer we can get in touch with the values we care about and what we long for deep down. Through ethical guidance we focus on how we relate to our self and to others and think about how we want to grow in these areas. Through music we speak the language of the heart and express what is deeply felt by our spirit, too deep to be expressed in words.