MINDRAMP PODCASTS

MIND - Awe & Emotional Intelligence

March 27, 2023 Michael C Patterson Season 3 Episode 26

In this episode we examine the role EMOTIONS play in muddling our minds and how emotional regulation can help in the un-muddling process.

We introduce the important concept of EMOTIONAL GRANULARITY. Neuroscientist and emotions expert Lisa Feldman Barrett expounds this idea, which suggests that emotions are constructed and that we only feel those emotions that we can name. A such, we are emotional illiterates, making use of a limited range of basic emotions like Happy,  Sad and Mad.  Barrett suggests that we can  expand our emotional range - our emotional literacy and regulation - by expanding our vocabulary of emotion words. By, in other words, being more "granular" in our choice of words to describe what we think we are feeling.

We also focus on the important and healing emotion of AWE. I introduce a new emotion word - a neologism - to describe the ecstatic feeling we get when exposed to something awesome. In such instances, we have AWEGASMS!  And we explore the psychological evidence that awegasms are good for your health and your happiness. 



Support the show

Support our work to promote creative aging. Subscribe to the MINDRAMP Podcast.