EMOTIONAL HEALTH
We aren’t born knowing how to identify, understand and process our emotions. It's a skill we must learn and practice.
Build your emotional health skills and realize the profound benefits and empowerment of working with your emotions, instead of negating, shaming, or getting overwhelmed by them.
The Mood Meter, devised by Mark Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, provides a tool to identify your current emotion as specific as possible.
what emotions do for you
1
motivate for action & behaviors
Emotions get us to act ASAP! Ignite Fight/Flight response to protect us and save our lives! Emotions help us overcome obstacles and THREATS.
2
sense of purpose
Directly reveal our passions, dreams, interests, aspirations, desires and values. This requires being connected to your emotions. Otherwise you may feel like you are running on empty and lacking a sense of purpose.
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"We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions."
- Brene Brown, PhD
3
CONNECT WITH others
Emotions connect us, attract us, bond us, create LOVE, TRUST and a sense of BELONGING. They allow feelings of love, care, joy, excitement and connection in relationships. They also help us maintain balanced boundaries.
NOTE: Emotions are communicated in every moment - facial expressions, body language, tone, cues, vibe, demeanor, etc. Lack of emotional awareness may be giving off mixed signals, a disingenuous, confusing vibe.
Emotional health skills are cleansing... "delivering the body from functioning as a storage room for suppressed emotions brings a sense of natural love and ease, a spaciousness in the breath, that we commonly call happiness."
Somesh Curti, PhD
4
CONNECT WITH YOURSELF
Emotions give us important information that need our attention. For instance, anger reveals you have been violated on some level, real or perceived. Emotions provide insight that only you have access to. This is also known as Self Leadership."
"Is frustration or any other 'negative emotion' useful or worthwhile?​ Every emotion is valuable. The trick is to actually feel it - and then fully accept it. Judging ourselves for feeling 'less than outstanding' or for being adrift from our divinity for a minute, or several months [even years] only keeps us locked in those negative states. If we're condemning it, we're creating 'stuck-ness'. When we wipe the residue of judgement off the lens, we can see where more positive options are waiting for us."
- Danielle LaPorte, The Desire Map
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5
reveal your reality
Emotions are direct links to the way you perceive yourself and the world around you; messengers that tell you how you're feeling, who and what is important to you, your values, fears, expectations, desires and more.
Hurt doesn’t go away simply because we don’t acknowledge it. In fact, left unchecked it festers, grows, and leads to behaviors that are completely out of line with who we want to be… that can sabotage our relationships and careers.”
- Brene Brown, PhD
disconnected from emotions
merely sURViving
Disconnected from your emotions sets you up for an automatic threat response and amygdala-hijack - which disables access to your higher intelligence. This results in reactivity and living more like a lizard - as reptiles do not have the emotional capacity, nor intelligence that humans do.
connected to emotions
thriving
With emotional health skills you gain access to the infinite array of complex feelings we humans ingeniously generate in each moment, along with stable connection to your higher intelligence for rational, calm, authentic decision-making, rather than reactivity.
12 reasons emotional health skills are difficult
four keys to emotional health
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WELCOME all EMOTIONS equally
Even though we tend to dislike certain emotions, emotions themselves are not good or bad. All emotions are necessary and useful. It's the tendency to suppress emotions that increase their intensity and stir-up reactivity and negative behaviors.
identify multifaceted
emotions
Emotions are multifaceted and blend together. For example, jealousy is a blend of anger, sadness, and fear. Researchers propose we have 8 to 27 primary emotions - that mix like paint colors creating hues of approximately 34,000 distinguishable feelings.
understand
emotions are information
Emotions are information. Instead of automatically reacting or repressing emotions, learn to understand and process them. Emotions are not based on facts! However they are based on you: your unique perceptions, beliefs, experiences, and more.
realize INTENSITIES
SOFT, MEDIUM, INTENSE
Emotions exist at all times, ever-flowing like ocean waves. When soft, you may not notice. At MEDIUM state (or "mood") you likely become aware of thoughts associated. At INTENSE states they're obvious and detectable to those around you, whether you want them to be or not!
important note
The stronger the emotion, the stronger we BELIEVE it's based on fact.
examples: “I am afraid so there must be immediate danger" (panic), “I love him/her, so he/she must be good for me.” IN FACT: The stronger your emotion, the more you need to pause (unless in immediate danger) and use emotional health skills.
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STEPS TO BUILD emotional health
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