Emotions

People are complex systems of thinking, feeling and responding using attitudes and actions. The human ability to be aware, attend to, label and manage our feelings so we are better able to respond to the demands of our environment is called Emotional Fitness

Emotional Fitness is central to wellbeing; it allows us to have empathy, connectedness, self-care, informs survival and develops cognition. We are designed to experience and process all emotions - the whole range of them. There can be a tendency to pay considerable attention to depression and mood dysregulation because it feels so bad.

Emotional health is learning to become emotionally fit - to create a space where our choice of focus on our feelings is not skewed, but balanced. This determines our mental capacity and our overall wellbeing.

Emotional Intelligence is the umbrella term used to describe the sophistication of emotional dynamics and how they impact on development and coping. Research has shown that people with low EI tend to use maladaptive coping strategies and display more problem behaviours [Karen Hansen, Swinburne University, 2010]

List of Emotions

Emotional Literacy

Learning to name feelings helps people find ways to express them without having to act them out

Learning to pay attention to how people are feeling helps individuals understand that they can have emotions without being controlled by them

Emotional tagging [differentiation] allows us to know the pain without having to endure the suffering [Todd Kashdan, 2011]

Emotions are transient

Learn to play with Emotional Literacy http://www.do2learn.com/organizationtools/EmotionsColorWheel/index.htm

Emotional Literacy Tool

Catch and Tag

• Catch the emotion
• Tag it with the correct label

Know the level and intensity about your emotions

The Heart's Intuitive Intelligence:A path to personal, social and global coherence