A SIMPLE Emotional Awareness Exercise.
As human beings if we want to prosper in this world (by prosper I mean to grow and not always in the financial sense, and by the way I have no difficulties with that either!) it is of vital importance to become aware that every human being will have a different emotional reaction to any given situation.
It is part of the beauty of being a human being because what we are saying here is that everyone is on their own life journey and that everyone is unique in his/her own special way. That is why we are called individuals.
Advertising agents are very aware of this fact and use it to their commercial advantage.
They categorise people into ABC type groups depending on aspects of their age, buying power, type of car they drive, newspaper they read, area they live in etc etc.
To put a bit of humour into what I am saying, the advertising agencies realise that there is no point really in selling ice to the Eskimos or ski jackets to the Bedouin tribes of the Arabian deserts.
Also if you break down each individual groups .e.g. Fashion, Food gourmet diners you will find that each individual has his or her own like/ dislike.
Take the fashion industry for example the most successful people in this industry are those who are willing to dare to express their individuality in a way that has never been seen before.
Remember there was a raucous frenzy when the first bra, bikini, hotpants hit the market and that up to then these products had never been seen before.
What is now commonplace and banal was once awe inspiring and breathtaking. This is what we refer to when we say that a designer is groundbreaking. Gone where no man/woman has gone before. A true pioneer in the real spirit of the word.
To this end I am going to suggest an emotional exercise to show that we can all react emotionally different to a given circumstance.
It is best done in a group format where you get a few friends (3 or 4) and write down all the different type of emotions that you can think of.
The type of emotion for this part of the exercise is of no significance i.e. it doesn’t matter whether it is a positive or negative emotion as long as you have a similar number of both positive and negative emotion.
It is in the doing of this exercise that you really get the real benefit. So…
1. Get your group of 4 friends.
2. Write down all the emotions you can think of (equal no’s of positive and negative) – about 30 will do!
3. If there is any doubling up (i.e. same emotion e.g. happy appears twice) only list that emotion once.
4. Once you have all the emotions written down, list them into positive and negative. You have to list every emotion without exception.
5. Notice what happens. As I said, this exercise is best appreciated when done and it is even of more significance if you have other groups with a similar list of emotions and to make comparisons between the groups.
When I did this exercise, we were in a class of 16 and we were divided into 4 groups of 4 with a similar list of emotions (really any teacher out there should try this!).
For this purpose of writing down the emotions, here is my selection. Remember we are not going to cover all possible emotions as we would be here for ever!
HAPPY SAD RELIEF PITY EXHUBERANT FEAR ANGER SURPRISE LONELY DISGUST ENVY LOVE LUST SHAME IRRITATED JOLLY WONDER PRIDE JEALOUS GENEROUS FANTASIC JADED CONTENT ATTRACTED WEARY VAIN MERRY CHEERFUL CARING FONDNESS EUPHORIC PLEASED ELATED STUNNED INSECURE REVULSION HURT SAFE MELANCHOLY TRUSTFUL FRUSTRATED TENDER HUMILATED EMBARRASSED HORRIFIED COMFORTABLE OPTIMISTIC SYMPATHETIC SPITEFUL OVERWHELMED
Ok this is my list and next week, I am going to divide them into positive and negative emotions. I’ll be interested in any feedback I get from your group doing the same exercise. Feedback = Information = Awareness
I am going to leave you with a quote.
Action without awareness is fatal.
Awareness without action is futile
Next week I am going to write about An Emotional Journey III