After nearly 20 years, the structure of emotional evolution I have been working on has been birthed into the world. Let me share some of what you can find in this book.
I first became interested in emotion when I noticed that in my 20’s, I appeared to have a mysterious ability to manipulate my reality. The stronger I felt emotionally about something, and the more I visualized/fantasized the story that excited me, the more responsive it became to my desires. My fantasies began to come true exactly the way I had imagined them. But I found that the people I wrote into supporting roles in my fantasies began to resist playing the part I had assigned them. They could tell on some level that they were being manipulated into my story without their full consent and cooperation. This helped me understand that I was working with a powerful force that was necessary to understand so I could be sure I was always in integrity when utilizing emotional energy. But I also saw that if I was able to manipulate reality without knowing much about it, what could someone who knew about this power do with real intent?
When I entered the world of advertising, I began to see how many resources were used to manipulate people to buy things they didn’t need. Billions of dollars are spent to get people to react. What I was doing on my tiny, one-woman level back in my 20’s was now a global wave of businesses and governments who understood how to trigger people into the exact responses they wanted.
I began studying everything I could find about emotion, which was precious little back then, and none of the psychological or medical models made sense to me. It took a foray into quantum physics and shamanism to bring the knowledge I was looking for. I learned that emotions have a very specific purpose, that they have a powerful creative energy, and that if we do not understand this power, we can be easily manipulated to fulfill another’s agenda.
When emotion is expressed with sacred intent and in safety, it has the ability to change reality. Is it any wonder we are not taught the power of emotional expression? There is an awful lot invested in keeping us unaware of the tremendous creative power we have via our feelings.
I was guided to teachers that added to my knowledge. Looking for the threads that connected emotion to evolution, I found patterns in Quantum Physics, human behavior and Nature that all interconnected. I began testing out theories through workshops, retreats, classes and private sessions. The ideas that had substance were then developed and evolved. Throughout my years of research and teaching, I believe I have been able to articulate a simple yet profound understanding of the power behind emotion and its’ true purpose in our lives. You can read a bit more about my journey at the About page. I wrote articles for Experience Life magazine introducing ideas about emotion. In 2000 I wrote the first draft of this book on the shore of Lake Bacalar in Mexico.
Here is a comment I received from an early reader:
“OMG Cat, what a beautiful book! I love the passages that I have read so far and I even love the design of the book. So much profound wisdom, so much love and so accessible to the lay-person who has never pursued an inner journey! Once again, THANK YOU!”
Here are some excerpts from the book.
Table of Contents and samples:
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Part One: Emotional Literacy
Co-Creation
The Five Bodies and Their Emotional Development
The Importance of Emotional Expression
Where Do Intense Feelings Originate?
The Difference Between Masculine and Feminine Energy
Negative Energy
Emotion Attracts Experiences to Evolve Itself
Evolving Emotion
Why Can’t I Just Let Go and Move On?
Examples of Healthy Emotional Expression
Part Two : The Five Harmonics
Part Three: Investigating the Five Harmonics
Metal: Intellectual Intelligence
Water: Emotional Intelligence
Wood - Physical Intelligence
Fire - Spiritual Intelligence
Earth: Environmental Intelligence
Epilogue
Image Credits
Introduction
Human emotion changes matter. Human emotion influences the stuff our world is made of. This is a technology, it is an internal technology that is available to every human if we choose to embrace it in our lives. -- Greg Braden
Much of the prevailing philosophy about emotional intelligence has to do with “managing” your emotions. Have you ever tried to “manage” a three-year-old having a tantrum? Think of your emotional body as that toddler inside you, punching holes in your walls, slamming inner doors, and kicking you black and blue--or being so angelic and so in wonder and awe that you can’t help but see the world in new, breathtaking ways.
The definition of alchemy is: 1) any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value. 2) any seemingly magical process of transforming or combining elements into something new. In this book I propose to show how you can transmute intense, reactive feelings into personal, creative power, and how the process of sacred expression can lead to a magical shift in ordinary reality.
My research leads me to believe emotional intelligence is actually the ability to use an emotional reaction to understand how you are co-creating the event that is causing the reaction. The alchemy starts with an immature feeling which is a signal from our subconscious. When expressed in a safe and sacred environment, the emotional and physical bodies go through a cascade of neurological processes. The end result is an awareness of how we are co-creating our experience. This awareness is critical to move us from a perception of victimization (or being powerless to control things happening outside our influence) to a perception of creation (where we understand how we are involved in every interaction we have). From that shift in perception, we can change the behavior that keeps us feeling powerless or victimized. In addition, the resulting awareness comes with an increase in vitality--exactly the amount we need to change our direction. This then leads to the mature expression of the emotion, which is quite different from what we may be accustomed to. For example, mature anger is never angry. Mature anger is the conviction of standing in our truth and holding steady no matter how the outside world may push at us or tell us we are wrong. (See my page on Anger)
This book will walk you through the steps of identifying the immature feeling, expressing it with safety and reverence, and the subsequent flowering of strength and compassion you will experience as you follow the life path you came here to fulfill. My model of the Five Harmonics™ works with five master emotions from which all other feelings arise. These emotions are Grief, Fear, Anger, Joy and Empathy.
In addition to emotional expression, I introduce the related areas of the body that each emotion governs. If we are unable to pinpoint something in our life that is not working or hurting us, our body will use pain or injury to provide additional information. I have seen injuries heal within hours when a person receives the body’s message and takes action to change the situation.
The book is divided into three parts. Part One presents emotional literacy or the components that make up the technology of emotion. Part Two gives a brief introduction to the Five Harmonics™--the five distinct components of our personality, the purpose of each component and how they work together. Part Three gives an in-depth look at each harmonic--the emotion and body parts that correspond to each harmonic, the power and purpose of each, the life lesson each teaches, the personality description of an individual governed by this harmonic, and how the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. You will learn how to take the emotions that may have crippled you in the past and transform them into powerful tools of change that appear magical. You will also receive strategies to help build a stronger, more coherent inner community, collaborating to guide you to the life that satisfies your soul. And as your own inner community begins to cooperate peacefully, creating a more satisfying life, you send out ripples that change the very fabric of the collective experience.
We stand at a crossroads today. We cannot fix what is wrong with the same intelligence that created the problems. I hope to show you that by using emotion as a legitimate and powerful technology, we can change not only our own lives but the integrity of the world around us as well. Sacred emotional expression may prove to be the most powerful tool of change we have in our repertoire.
The Importance of Emotional Expression
All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you. -- Rainer Maria Rilke
Many of us have been taught that expressing emotion is immature. We have been programmed to repress our feelings, except for a middle range of comfort. For many people, the idea of feeling and expressing strong emotions is frightening. We have all had the experience of being on the receiving end of someone else’s emotional outburst. That is why it’s best to do expression alone, with conscious intent, in a way that transforms the experience without judgment or shame.
Emotion is the force that steers you along your heart path and reveals your purpose quietly and subtly. Our bodies are uniquely designed to provide continuous feedback about where we are, where we are going, and which direction to take. More than once in my life I’ve come to a crossroad where I had two choices I could make, each of which would take me in a completely different direction from the other. Sometimes, I had no internal information about which direction to take. No matter how many pros and cons lists I made, no matter how much I meditated, I just could not get a clear answer. That was because I had shut down my feedback loop due to high stress, self-judgment and mistrust. I have also had experiences where I knew immediately and profoundly which way to go. The difference between the two is how emotionally aware I was at the time. When my feelings were shut down due to pain or fear, I could not access my internal compass. When I was emotionally healthy, I knew instantly the right choice to make. The more I evolve my emotions, the easier it is to know what to do when a decision has to be made. In fact, when our emotional bodies are operating with evolved maturity, we can actually feel the consequences of our actions long before we make them, giving us additional information that can steer our lives and prevent unpleasant experiences.
There are no negative emotions. Feelings are simply information. When you call an emotion good or bad, you are at war with yourself and cut off from considerable power. Later in the book you will learn about the purpose of negative energy, and when you reject “negativity” or feelings you perceive as “negative,” you lose your ability to manifest your desires and dreams. Of all the work I propose here, the most important may be to release all judgment about your own emotions. While we may not be able to control our feelings, we can certainly control how we judge those feelings. Sacred expression of emotion is a revolutionary act.
Why Can’t I Just Let Go and Move On?
If you desire to know where your spiritual work lies, look to your emotional pain.
-- Alan Cohen, Wisdom of the Heart
Have you ever been told to just move on and let go? And then feel like you are somehow at fault for not being able to do that? Let me explain how the magnetic nature of emotion can keep you stuck.
When we are unable to resolve trauma in the moment, a piece of our emotional body becomes stuck in that time and space. You might imagine this as a small child stuck in a traumatic situation over and over, unable to escape The more traumas we experience, the more fragmented our personality becomes. When the traumas become more than the emotional body can handle, full-blown Dissociative Identity Disorder may arise. Our personalities fracture and fragment and may become so disconnected from each other that we can experience lost time, an inability to follow through on commitments, or what looks like impulsive and inconsistent behavior. Too many fragments lost and we may end up struggling to survive.
In order to heal, our emotional body will look for opportunities to return to the original trauma so it can release the energy that is stuck and return it to the present moment. If we do not understand this process, we may feel like we are being victimized over and over. Without knowing how to release the trapped energy, we are unable to move on. Recognizing triggers and do-overs can help us find the original trauma and reclaim our personal power. When we have expressed our emotions to satisfaction, we then very naturally reclaim the energy that was stuck, bringing a new vitality and peace. There can be no letting go and moving on until we have resolved the original trauma which is looking for release. In the case of severe trauma, it is critical that we have some kind of professional help to return to the wounded part or we run the risk of retraumatizing the self. Remember, you will not have a do-over until you have new skills and support to face the trauma and bring healing.
Click on the book to be taken to Amazon. If you would prefer to buy one directly from me, send me an email [cat AT emote.ws]
When I entered “The Next Top Spiritual Author” book contest, I came in the top 1%. This was my pitch. The name of the book has been changed, the message is still the same. Emotional literacy is the key to increasing personal power. Personal power determines how well you can create the reality you most desire to experience.