The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You Edition: 1st

Your emotions contain brilliant information. When you learn to welcome them as your allies, they can reveal creative solutions to any situation. For 35 years, empathic counselor and researcher Karla McLaren has developed a set of practical tools for the real-world stresses of family, career, and the quest for personal fulfillment. In The Language of Emotions , she presents her breakthrough teachings for a new and empowering relationship with your feeling states. Your emotions—especially the dark and dishonored ones—hold a tremendous amount of energy. We’ve all seen what happens when we repress or blindly express them. However, there is a powerful alternative. In The Language of Emotions , you’ll learn to meet your emotions and engage with them to safely move toward resolution and equilibrium. Through experiential exercises covering a full spectrum of feelings from anger, fear, and shame to jealousy, grief, joy, and more, you will discover [...]how to work with your own and others’ emotions with fluency and expertise. When we relate to our emotions with respect and authenticity, we can directly access our innermost wisdom, unfold the deepest parts of ourselves, and heal our most painful wounds. The Language of Emotions gives us a much-needed resource for self-understanding and freedom: How to overcome addictions, distractions, and unresolved trauma—the three primary impediments to emotional ease Using the energy of anger to protect and restore personal boundaries Step-by-step guidance in the five skills of the empath (someone skilled in reading emotions) How to balance your “quaternity,” a metaphor for the interplay of mind, body, spirit, and emotions Honoring sadness as a source of release and rejuvenation Joy, the natural response to beauty and communion     Praise   “In my graduate education in counseling psychology, I found very little information about our emotions.  Yet in my work as a therapist and educator, I’ve seen that emotions are key to healing.  Karla McLaren’s book offers an outstanding guide to the signals and messages emotions send us, along with clear instructions for intelligent and emotion-supporting actions we can take in response.  Karla has made a huge contribution to the well-being of us all; The Language of Emotions will become required reading in all of my courses.”—Nancy —Feehan, MFT, adjunct professor of counseling psychology at the University of San Francisco   “Karla McLaren’s unique, empathic view of emotions surprisingly revalues even the most ‘negative’ emotions and opens pathways to understanding the depths of the human soul.” —Michael Meade, author of The World Behind the World and The Water of Life   “This book changed the way I relate to others, and to myself, forever.” —Gavin De Becker, author of The Gift of Fear   Table of Contents   Part I:  Restoring Your Native Language Introduction- Creating a Conscious Life   My Empathic Journey- The Difficult Beginnings of Empathy   Troubled Waters – How We Got So Confused   It Takes a Village – Surrounding Your Emotions With Support   Reviving Your Essential Nature – Making Room for Your Central Self   Avoidance, Addiction, and Awakening—Understanding the Need for Distractions   Unintentional Shamans—The Role of Trauma in Soul-Making and Culture-Binding   The Role of Emotions in the Resolution of Trauma—Water Will Carry You Home   The Steadfast Promise – Why Love is Not an Emotion   Building Your Raft—The Five Empathic Skills   PART II :  Embracing Your Emotions   Wading Into the Water – Awakening All of Your Emotions Anger:  Protection and Restoration—Includes Rage, Fury, and the Healing of Trauma   Apathy and Boredom—The Mask for Anger   Guilt and Shame—Restoring Integrity   Hatred—The Profound Mirror—Includes Resentment, Contempt, Disgust, and Shadow Work   Fear: Intuition and Action – Includes Anxiety, Worry, and the Healing of Trauma   Confusion:  The Mask for Fear   Jealousy and Envy:  Relational Radar—Includes Greed   Panic and Terror:  Frozen Fire – Includes Healing from Trauma   Sadness:  Release and Rejuvenation:  Includes Despair and Despondency   Grief:  The Deep River of the Soul   Depression:  Ingenious Stagnation—Focusing on Situational Depression   Suicidal Urges:  The Darkness Before Dawn   Happiness:  Amusement and Anticipation   Contentment:  Appreciation and Recognition   Joy: Affinity and Communion—Includes Exhilaration and Honoring Happiness in Others   Stress and Resistance:  Understanding Emotional Physics   Emotions Are Your Native Language—The Fine Art of a Life Well Lived