Your emotional or social dimension of your life is defined by your relationships with others. Are you someone people love to talk to? Are you a person who loves people, gets along with people? Are you a trusted friend, and trustworthy? Do you trust people? Do you enjoy connecting with people? Or are you bitter and a bit paranoid? Do you avoid relationships for fear of getting hurt or rejected, or are you open and honest with people and able to relate to a variety of personalities?
Needless to say, of your five dimensions, your emotional health (some call it your “Emotional IQ”), is crucial to your ability to overcome adversity and live a successful life.
A vicious cycle may start with an argument with your friend or spouse or sibling; insults fly; feelings are hurt; grudges; no one steps up to say “I’m sorry”… now starts the “Silent Treatment”… you may even forget what the argument was about or how it started… but the cycle continues and grows like a snowball rolling down a hill.
Relationships each have a kind of “bank account”. Acts of kindness, of understanding, or forgiveness, of appreciation, of love – are deposits into these emotional bank accounts. Angry fits and insults, complaints, and criticism are withdrawals. It is easy to see how virtuous cycles occur in our emotional dimension – we can start them with a letter of thanks to someone we love (or like). We can be there for a friend – even if it isn’t convenient for us. We can go out of our way to make people feel good about themselves. These acts usually lead to acts of love back to us…. And so the virtuous, healthy, positive cycle continues.
I like these pictures because they elaborate how our emotions can change, depending on what things we may discover. Our emotions can vary as we may learn new things throughout the course of our lives. It is a life-long learning process. In fact, it is good to experience negative emotions because it gives us the idea of what types of experiences we must avoid. No matter how you look at it, we can change the way we feel and express our own emotions.