The Layers Of Our Emotional Landscape

If the data around our emotional literacy is true, most of us can only name 7 emotions, and for some of us it's only 3-4.

I find that both depressing and scary.

I grew up in a family where we didn't talk about our emotions, much less show them. I was often told I was "too sensitive."

What we don't realize is that not talking about emotions doesn't mean we don't have them. Not talking about them doesn't make them go away.

 have done the "bottle them up thing" plenty in my life, and have left a wake of relationship destruction when the cork finally exploded. It's not pretty.

In Brené Brown's newest book Atlas of the Heart she invites us to look at the layers of emotions -- to dig in our emotional basement, so to speak.

She outlines 4 layers of human emotions.

The biology.
The biography.
The behavior.
The backstory.

Looking at my emotions through these layers takes me closer to understanding them more deeply, and also to releasing them more fully.

Please use this graphic that I created to help you the next time you want to understand your emotions more deeply.

Originally posted on LinkedIn

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