Emotions are signs, not things. Don’t be them, read them.

The emotionally intelligent person is skilled in four areas: identifying emotions, using emotions, understanding emotions, and regulating emotions.
John Mayer and Peter Salovey (1990)

Emotion is not unintelligent, undirected, disconnected, or extreme. We think of emotion in these limited ways because we encounter emotion in these dysregulated forms.

Emotions are not something you have, they are something you read. When we are emotional, we are enacting the sign rather than understanding it

Part of one’s success in managing emotions lies in how you approach them… Engaging your emotions is the next step… The final step is integration…

Forget What You Know About Emotion

Emotions In General

Some Emotions in Particular

Reading the Signs

Exploring Emotional Change


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