Hi, What is the purpose of a traffic light? A strange question. But you’ll soon see what I’m getting at… There are several possible answers to this question. Some may think: “to protect us from danger”; others: “to regulate traffic”; still others: “to annoy us”. All these answers may be heard, but in the final analysis, a traffic light is first and foremost, and quite simply, a piece of information received. The Highway Code states that when there’s a traffic light, we can pass if it’s green; slow down and stop unless there’s a risk of accident or sufficient safety if it’s amber, and must stop if it’s red. Once we’ve received the information, we take the necessary steps to get into action and make sure that the crossing is as safe as possible. The same applies to our emotions. Emotions are first and foremost information. The most important thing is not the emotion itself. Fear, confidence, sadness, joy, annoyance, peace, disgust, admiration… Whatever the emotion, the most important thing is what it expresses and what it means to you. It’s a message sent to you to alert you to something. This information is directly linked to your internal dictionary (your interpretive dictionary) and its interpretation is unique to you. So only you can identify what it means to you. When it comes to emotions, there’s one important thing to know and remember: emotions are neutral! This means that there are no good or bad emotions, unlike thoughts, and none of them are reserved for a particular gender. On the other hand, if emotion is neutral, its expression is not. You’re not responsible for the emotion you feel, but you are responsible for what you do with it. Let’s take two emotions as examples: Anger: anger is information, expressing sensitivity to something, a cause or a particular interest. It will be felt by everyone in different situations, depending on our personality and our heart. However, once you feel anger, you have a choice. You can express your anger in a healthy way, looking for the reason for it and bringing about a change in the situation that irritates you. Or you can still explode or implode with anger, and thereby be a destructive factor by causing more harm around you. Oppression: I’ll just share an example of my own – the dictionary I know best is, indeed, my own. When I feel oppressed in a situation, I know that there are generally two possibilities for me: a necessary positioning (confrontation) or a situation (atmosphere) from which I must escape. This applies to all emotions. Each emotion is a piece of information that can either overwhelm you and prevent you from moving forward by causing you to think only about it, or act in a particular direction.
To identify the indication, analyze each situation in which you feel this emotion and find the common denominator. What happened in all those situations that triggered this emotion? To make it easier to analyze your emotions and decipher your dictionary, concentrate first on primary emotions. Emotions directly linked to an external reaction. Being in tune with your emotions will not only help you get to know yourself better, but also, and above all, help you manage your life in a healthier way. Managing your emotions allows you to adjust your sails in the right direction. The wind may be blowing, but it’s up to us to decide whether we want to let it blow us away, or use it to move us in the direction we want to go. In our next Newsletter, we’ll look at the different types of emotions and how to interpret them. To make sure you don’t miss out, be sure to subscribe by clicking on “I subscribe!” at the end of this article. You can also follow us and share this article on social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and so enjoy our news. See you soon,
You’re wonderful!
Joachim Fontaine
Coach | Consultant | Trainer
