There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.
– Louis XIV
Logic is extremely important. It is the only way we can make sense of the world. We only know things make sense because everyone agrees with logic and facts. No one disputes that gravity doesn’t exist or that day doesn’t follow night.
No one says cell phones don’t work because almost all of humanity has first hand experience talking to someone far away using a phone. It is a logical assumption that the phone works as advertised, there are whole disciplines of knowledge dedicated to wireless technology and the known scientific facts used to make cell phones work.
In some circles, being considered intelligent is the highest praise and implies that you can think your way out of any problem. But that mentality is the same as the weight lifter who ignores his legs.
Though emotions might not be as helpful when doing math problems, they are the compass we use to navigate life. Our emotions set the direction, our intelligence figures out how to get there.
When it comes to understanding who we are, what we stand for, and what we want from life, our emotions are what drives us.
Emotions are what we use to determines right and wrong. If we are under the influence of one emotion, our thinking is skewered. If I am angry, I don’t think right and often make bad decisions. I go for a walk and avoid communicating with others because my judgment is impaired with anger.
Likewise, if I’m madly in love with someone, I’m more likely to force myself to always see my lover in a positive light and ignore all evidence to the contrary.
When I was growing up, every tough-guy 80s movie dealt with emotions by bottling them up and then blowing up and violently taking out the source of the problem by using force. To me, that was the extent of emotional training society bestows upon boys.
To cry was to be emotional, it was an open display of weakness.
Which is a terrible shame, because our emotions underpin who we are as individuals and how we interpret and understand things.
Emotions and tone also happen to be the most effective way we communicate with animals.
Logic is the horse. The rider is our emotions. The ship is our logic, the captain is our emotions. Our emotions is the company’s board of directors, our intelligence is the company employees who make everything work.
Our emotions play a role in every decision we make and every experience we remember.
In addition to logically understanding things, we also emotionally understand things. A child is told that if they put their finger over a flame, the flame will burn their finger. But they don’t emotionally know the significance of that until they experience burning their finger on a flame.
To read the definition of the word ‘burn’ is a different kind of knowledge than actually being burned by something. Your knowledge with the concept of ‘burn’ gets more experiences and emotions associated with it when you burn yourself for the first time.
The more experiences, associations, and emotions you are able to make and understand, the richer your knowledge and deeper your wisdom.
When you search for a product on amazon.com, the reviews a product has have a big impact on how prominent the product is in the search results.
Similarly, when we recall a memory, the emotions associated with that memory are like the reviews on an Amazon product, only far more complicated than a number between 1 and 5. And the stronger emotions associated to the memory, the more likely we are to recall it.
There is literally an infinite combinations of emotions we can have, meaning that we can describe an infinite number of rich experiences with the right combinations of emotions.
They say a picture is worth 1000 words, I say a rich emotional experience is worth 100 000 words.
Imagine being able to clearly communicate with your emotions? People would understand instantly exactly how you feel, the different feelings you have, the intensity of your feelings, and even the greater context of your life from one emotional snapshot.
In some ways, it’s unfortunate that our emotions are so complex. Human languages are great at describing thoughts and things. But we struggle to explain our feelings, anything beyond simple feelings like anger or sadness are hard to explain.
If you are feeling more than one emotion, you might simply be described as emotional.
One of the best ways we can communicate emotions is by telling a story. Stories we can relate to trigger our own memories and emotions.
A well told story can make people recall powerful personal experiences and make them laugh or cry. Similarly, a skilled speaker is able to conjure up emotions and give her audience the feels.
It is well known that stories people can relate to perform better than statistics in advertising. Statistics are neutral concepts, abstract and difficult to appreciate. They are open to interpretation, told without any personal reference points, and thus easy to be misunderstood.
Stories paint a richer picture. They give the audience more context. The mannerisms and body language of characters in a story remind us of people we know, and ourselves. Events and scenarios in stories make us think of our own similar memories and experiences and the feelings we felt.
Once our emotions are drawn out, we’re more likely to associate the story or story teller (or advertisement) to our own experience and make it a small fiber in our own web of memories and experiences.
It is our emotions that shape who we are and tell our story. Understanding this will make you better able to understand yourself and allow you to more meaningfully communicate with others.
Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com
