Having the knowledge and insight to accurately identify the emotions you are feeling in the present moment.

~ Emotional Clarity

By developing your Emotional Clarity you automatically begin to increase your level of Emotional Intelligence and deepen your practice of Mindfulness.

Emotional Clarity is having the knowledge and insight to accurately identify the emotions you are feeling in the present moment.

Most of us at a young age learn basic emotions like joy, sadness, fear, and anger. Hopefully, with time and education, we learn to expand our knowledge and understanding of the wider range of emotions that actually exist.

The challenge is that most people don’t get the emotional education they need and are left with a very limited emotional vocabulary. This can be especially true when it comes to negative emotions. How many negative situations in the recent past have you found yourself simply using the same word — for example ANGRY — to describe how you were feeling in each of those negative situations?

• I’m so ANGRY right now…
• Why did Andrew do that, he knows it makes me ANGRY…
• That situation at work made me so ANGRY today….
• ANGRY doesn’t begin to describe how I’m feeling right now…

Of course, ANGER is a very valid emotion, and yes, there are times and situations where ANGER is the correct emotion to describe exactly how we’re feeling at that moment. However, there are times when the correct emotion might actually be IRRITATED or FRUSTRATED, but we default to using the word ANGRY, just out of habit or a limited emotional vocabulary.

We refer to these situations where an incorrect emotion is used as a lack of Emotional Clarity.

Does it really matter if we use ANGRY, instead of IRRITATED or FRUSTRATED? Yes, it really does matter! By limiting ourselves to just the basic emotions, we limit our ability to accurately identify where we are on the 7-Level Emotional Scale. This in turn, limits are ability to effectively move up the emotional scale to better, more positive, emotions.

So, how do you start to develop your Emotional Clarity? It’s actually pretty easy. You simply start by increasing your knowledge and understanding of the wider range of emotions available! There are 57 different emotions on our 7-Level Emotional Scale, and we’ve created this 57 Emotions (Reference Table) where you can view each emotion by its assigned level along with its specific definition. With just a little time and effort, you can easily begin to expand your knowledge and understanding of these emotions.

As you expand your knowledge and understanding of these emotions, you will soon find yourself in a whole new world, a world of Emotional Clarity, a world where you can accurately express and articulate what you are really feeling in the present moment.

In our next post we will look at how we use our Emotional Clarity to help us move up the Emotional Scale.

Until next time…be satisfied, but eager for more!