Emotional Analysis
29 July 2008Understanding and Decoding the Information in Your Emotions
We are educated to believe that emotion is bad. Emotion, we are told, clouds the intellect and interferes with the objective analysis of facts. We understand that excessive emotions like intense anger have tremendous power to damage the complex social relationships on which we rely. So they do. However, this is only part of the story.
Emotion as an "Early Warning Signal"
We assume that emotions give us the benefit of a speedy, and more-often-than-not effective response to simple situations, at the cost of a sophisticated response to more complex ones. As such, negative emotions are a useful early warning signal that something may be wrong.
If instant action is required, then we may choose to act. If it is not, these negative emotions can alert us to something we need to pay attention to. We can then use more sophisticated techniques to understand the situation in appropriate detail.
“‘Emotional Analysis” is an approach we use to start to understand and decode these negative emotions. It helps us get to the root of why we are experiencing a particular emotion, and understand the imperfect information that it may be communicating to us.
The Rationality of Emotion
Emotional Analysis assumes that we experience different negative emotions for different, very rational reasons. It assumes that each emotion has its own underlying set of assumptions, and that we experience a particular emotion because we are making a particular set of assumptions about a situation we are experiencing.
common angers:
- That someone or something is preventing us from achieving a goal that is important to us;
- That we feel that this is damaging our self-esteem, or that it is hurting people, objects or ideas that we think are important; and
- That the person we are getting angry with is responsible for this situation.
Follow some simple steps like…
- Relax! Once you recognized the emotion, you need to let it pass so you can think clearly and objectively
- Identify the assumptions you are making:
- Challenge the assumptions: Approaching each of the assumptions one-by-one, challenge it rationally to see whether the assumption is correct or not. With each challenge, identify whether the assumptions you have made are correct or incorrect. If it helps with this, imagine as you make each challenge that you are your own best friend – do not be harsh with yourself. Be fair.
- Take action appropriately: Where your assumptions are incorrect, the negative emotions should change or disappear as soon as you acknowledge this.
Where assumptions either have some element of truth to them or are fully correct, then you need to recognize this. Think through what you need to do to manage these situations..
Where you are sure of the foundation of the negative emotion, then you have the option to use it for good effect. For example, in the right circumstances, feeling angry can provide tremendous power and motivation. Expressing it has a shock effect that can help you achieve what you need to achieve, as long as you accept the fact that this may damage relationships
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