🔼: ###### Emotional Granularity[^1] Emotional Granularity is what allows us to understand and name specific, nuanced [[⭐️ emotions]]. Only a staggering few of us are taught to recognize and name our [[⭐️ emotions]]. Most of us can recognize versions of happy, sad, and angry, but those words are too broad to help us navigate, communicate, or even be aware of complex emotions — or what we need in order to either [[⭐️ Self-Care|⭐️ care for ourselves]] or [[⭐️ Community Care|⭐️ care for one another]]. > [!example] > We might say we’re feeling stressed. But there’s a difference between the stress of disappointment, the stress of feeling unsupported, and the stress of knowing we’re in the wrong career path. > > We might say we’re feeling anger, but we could also say we feel anger, frustration, annoyance, flustered, and vexed. All of these reveal the nuance to what we're feeling because [[🔑 we can feel several emotions at the same time]]. Emotional Granularity can be transformative, enlightening, and liberating because… - …our emotions can escalate when they’re mislabeled. [[🔑 All Parts can experience all emotions]]. They're [[💡 Trailheads|trailheads]] — if we can’t be specific about them, they and the parts who feel them can go unexpressed or misunderstood and thus unseen, unheard, and unresolved — leaving them feeling alone and disconnected. Their emotions can even intensify with time. - …the words we use can become a kind of [[💡 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy|Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]. For example, if we mislabel excitement as anxiety, we can start to feel less excited and more anxious. - …when we *do* name emotions correctly we can communicate what we’re feeling, understand and ask for the help we need, and even [[🕯️ Tending to feelings|🦮 metabolize the emotions]] without intervention as our [[💡 Parts|Parts]] feel seen, heard, understood, and valued. - …we can’t [[💡 Mind-Reading|read minds]] or [[we can't for sure know what another person is feeling|know what another person is feeling]]. Having the language to communicate our emotions can foster deeper connections and stronger [[⭐️ Relationships]] — with others and our [[💡 Parts|Parts]]. The more emotional words we add to our lexicon, the more colors we have in our palette to paint our inner-landscape. The more we practice recognizing and naming our emotions, the more clearly we can express them, and the more seen and held we can be — either by ourselves or by others. ###### Practicing Emotional Granularity - [[🧘 See, Hear, Feel In]] — label the [[⭐️ Emotions]]. - How many words can you think of to describe what you’re feeling right now? [^1]: [[📖 ✅ Atlas of the Heart (Show)]] Episode 2