If emotional nakedness got as much attention as physical nakedness, we’d be much happier.
Of course, it’s not about baring your soul and putting your emotions behind a loudspeaker; it’s about being in-tune with your emotions—being as familiar and aware of our emotional selves as we are with our physical selves.
But it’s not as easy because they’re not as obvious. Emotions can arise mysteriously and be misleading, often going against our better judgment. We get angry over what’s fickle, upset with what’s spoken in jest, and fall in love with the wrong people.
Happiness comes in being congruent with your emotions, to be aligned with them. Oscar Wilde said, “I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, and to enjoy them.”
Emotions can be broken down into 3 major components:
- Subjective—your perception, awareness, and experience of the emotion.
- Physiological—how your body reacts to the emotion.
- Expressive—your actions and behavioral response to the emotion.
