Expanding Your Range of Emotion

​Similar to expanding your range of motion in your body, you can also expand your range of emotion.  

Let’s start with why it would be advantageous to expand your range of emotion.  Imagine that you only had 2 emotions available to you at all times, happy and sad.  Whatever happened to you, you could only respond with happy and sad.  If someone cuts you off while driving, you respond with sad.  If you were cut from a team you really wanted to play on, you are sad.  Now, if you expanded your range of emotion to include, happy, sad, excited and angry, then you choose the appropriate response to each circumstance.

The way we respond to angry and irritated are slightly different.  Happy and ecstatic are also different.  Each emotion is hardwired into your nervous system in a different pattern.  The higher the range of emotion, the more responses you can chose, the more complex your nervous system.  This is evolutionary great because survival does not depend on the fittest of the species but the one that’s most adaptable to change.  The more adaptable the range of emotion, the better off you will be.         

So, how do we increase our range of emotion?

First, find out what your current range is.  For 1 week, write down all the emotions that you experience on a regular basis.

Next, create a list of emotions that you don’t use that often that you would like to access.  

Each week, make a conscious effort to add in one of the new emotions.  

Looking for help in increasing your range of emotion, give us a call 613-761-1600