What is your Emotional Signature?

 

"Emotional Signature" refers to the unique and distinctive way an individual interacts with themselves and others, encompassing their typical emotional responses and interpersonal styles. Being aware of one’s emotional signature is the first step towards Emotional Awareness and Emotional Acceptance of Self, and therein, transform for the better !

A deep dive into Primary Emotions and Secondary Emotions will help unravel one’s Emotional Signature.

 

The Primary Emotions

Primary emotions are the most fundamental and direct emotional reactions to a situation, serving basic life purposes such as survival. It may serve a purpose like alerting us to danger, or drawing us toward pleasant experiences. These emotions are often considered universal, meaning they are recognized and expressed across different cultures and societies. They differ from Secondary Emotions, which are responses to one's thoughts or feelings rather than to the situation, such as feeling angry in response to feeling hurt. 

Psychologist Paul Ekman identified six primary emotions: Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. He later expanded this list to include emotions such as Pride, Shame, Embarrassment, and Excitement. 

Another psychologist, Robert Plutchik identified eight primary emotions, which he grouped into four pairs of polar opposites: joy-sadness, anger-fear, trust-disgust, and surprise-anticipation.*1

Source: SimplyPsychology

The main difference between primary and secondary emotions is that primary emotions are how we react to events and situations, whereas secondary emotions are reactions to how we feel. 

Why know your Emotional Signature?

Each one of us carries a very unique emotional signature, just like we all have a unique pen signature.*2

To live an authentic and wellbeing-led life, it is important to get to know ourselves better as humans. Knowing who are at our inner core is the key to carving a life which upholds our inherent goodness. It shall help us be Aware, Acknowledge and Accept who we are – a key essential to prevent cognitive dissonance and to maximise our potential.

How to Know your Emotional Signature?

All of us have an inherent dominant emotion. Look at the above Primary Emotions, and ask yourself, some core questions … Sit with these questions, the answers may not come up immediately but may require lot of deep diving and self-exploration, but willingness to reflect and explore will help …

?   What is your dominant emotion/s? Look at the Primary Emotions and identify which one comes up for you more.

?   How frequently does this emotion/s emerge for you on a day-to-day basis? You can keep an Emotions Log to track your dominant emotion/s by the hour.

?   To what degree do you feel this dominant emotion/s? i.e. how intense is this emotion. For example, a primary emotion of Anger can vary along the spectrum : (minimum) Annoyance – Frustration – Exasperation – Argumentativeness - Bitterness – Vengefulness – Fury (maximum)

?   How long has this been your dominant emotion/s? You may want to go into your childhood / youth / past to dig out where and how why this emotion became your go-to emotion.

?   What led to this emotion? This will help unravel Why your Emotional Signature is the way it is. Was there any past trauma or incidents which led you to wear this Emotion to survive or thrive?

In a Nutshell…

Emotional Signature is a powerful tool to understand how we interact with ourselves and with others. It can open up answers to our thoughts, reactions, actions and behaviours, and help us take an objective look at why we are the way we are. Naturally, this Emotional Awareness opens up the willingness to change, because, without awareness change is not possible.

For example, being aware of my Emotional Signature helped me understand my tendency to over-function, over-do, and over-be! With this understanding of Who I am, I am on this journey to get over the “Doing”, and cultivate more of “Being”.

Are you willing to unlock Joy and Peace by visiting your Emotions, ?

Connect with us @ mojomantra.coaching@gmail.com . Our Life Coaching modules are centred on “Finding and Living your Mojo” i.e. your Magical Spark, through the power of  emotions !  

Sources:

*1 https://www.simplypsychology.org/primary-and-secondary-emotions.html#:~:text=Psychologist%20Paul%20Ekman%20identified%20six,shared%20by%20everyone%20across%20cultures.