Empathy is not a soft skill — it’s a vital skill The quality of your empathy — for yourself and others — can mean the difference between just getting through life and thriving in difficult times. Tending your world without losing yourself You may not realize that your empathy and your emotions are always working on behalf of you and your relationships. Many people treat empathy … Read More
Your emotions can help you thrive in troubled times Something we’ve all been seeing so clearly over these years of pandemic and upheaval is how vital emotional skills are — and how much people suffer if they don’t have those skills. As we’ve all felt the necessary emotions of fear, anxiety, and panic (see this video to understand the vital work of each of these emotions) … Read More
We’re all empaths In my earlier career, I identified as an empath, but I stopped doing so because the term got to be really troubling. An empath tends to be seen as some kind of magical psychic, and that’s nonsense. Empathy is a human trait and skill, but it’s also a trait in many animal species, so there’s nothing magical about it. We’re all empaths, because … Read More
Hello emotional kids and parents! (That’s all of us, you know.) Emotions are at the center of all learning, thinking, and behavior, and you can learn how to work with them directly and skillfully. Kids especially love learning about their emotions, and we’ve made a 2-page chart for kids that includes emotional vocabulary words and helps kids understand exactly what their emotions do and what gifts … Read More
Hello, Emotional People! That’s all of us, you know. Emotions are central to everything we think, every idea we have, and everything we do, but most of us haven’t learned how to work skillfully with all of our emotions. Luckily, we can learn to work well with our emotions at any stage of our lives. One of our licensed Dynamic Emotional Integration® professionals, Jennifer Asdorian, created … Read More
How Do We Celebrate Our Mothers? A real-world poem for Mother’s Day How do we celebrate our mothers — The ones who are here and the ones who aren’t? The ones who gave their lives for us, And the ones who walked away. The ones who lovingly directed our lives as if we were art projects, And the ones who never knew how to welcome us … Read More
Your emotions aren’t the problem As I was writing my 2020 book, Embracing Anxiety: How to Access the Genius of This Vital Emotion I thought a lot about two emotional mistakes that almost everyone makes: We blame emotions for causing problems, when in fact, emotions arise to help us deal with problems We blame emotions for people’s lack of emotional skills I call these the emotional … Read More
Your judgments have value and purpose When I grew up in spiritual groups, I was taught that judgment was forbidden, and wow, was that a colossal mistake. This no-judgment rule is still infecting a lot of communities, however, so it’s worth looking at again. This essay is from my 2010 book The Language of Emotions. When I refer to judgment, I refer to your capacity to … Read More
Welcoming the gifts of the Sadness Family In times of upheaval, loss, and trouble, many emotions will step forward to offer their gifts and their unique forms of genius. If you don’t know this, you may mistakenly respond to multiple emotions as if they’re problems in and of themselves. You don’t have to; there is another way. All emotions bring you help and support, and all … Read More
Anger is essential to true forgiveness I wrote this piece in my book The Language of Emotions back in 2010, but I return to it a lot. So much of what we’re told about forgiveness teaches us to avoid the powerful emotions that arise when we’ve been wounded or betrayed. But these powerful emotions are crucial to our ability to realize what happened, feel it, and … Read More