Emotion is a personality strength, touted as the “go to” soft skill and is professionally and socially desired. It is not a weakness. Are you emotional? If so, stand tall, thrust your shoulders back, and be proud because your emotional predisposition gives you an advantage at important life skills. You’ll easily relate to these facets of highly emotional people as they describe nine things that you do better than anyone else.
1. You Empathize
Emotion allows us to navigate the unpredictable and often hostile social environment. It facilitates the rational judgement of a certain situation by causing a physical reaction and creating lasting memories. Empathy is at the core of interpreting social encounters. An emotional person finds it easier to place themselves in the shoes of others, to empathize with that person. Truly understanding an opposing point of view requires empathy and conflict resolution is lost without it.
2. You Teach
Effective teachers are emotional. Teaching can be viewed in the traditional classroom sense, or in the informal situational sense. Regardless, communicating concepts effectively are easier done with emotion. Research shows that even mild emotional arousal facilitates learning. An individual who is naturally emotional injects that feeling into their conversation and effortlessly distributes their point of view.
3. You Connect And Develop Deep Relationships
Emotional people are passionate and understand that a life laced with significance requires deep, healthy relationships. Emotional people prioritize relationships because not only do they give meaning to their own life, but also the lives of others. Shared emotion provides strong roots for a relationship to grow upon.
4. You Form Lasting Memories
Close your eyes, think back to the last funeral you attended. Now attempt to recall yesterday’s breakfast. It comes as no surprise that the funeral was easily pictured. Everything from the smell of the parlor to the clothes of the deceased was brought to light. Why? Emotion has a fundamental evolutionary adaptation.
Emotion causes memories to “stick” because it served us best to remember and learn from emotional experiences in the past. Life, death, food, and love were the only things on the mind of our ancestors. It is no coincidence that they are also the cue to spark an emotional episode. You form lasting memories because you are innately predisposed to be emotional. Emotions serve to highlight experiences and learning often depends on it.
5. You Are Resilient
The ability to bounce back after a fall is an under-appreciated personality characteristic. Emotional people are more resilient because they are more connected with their “why.” Following a set-back, emotion drives an individual to reflect and respond. Emotion turns an obstacle into a lesson.
6. You Are A Great Storyteller
If you haven’t had the pleasure of listening to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History Series, you are truly missing out. Carlin is a storyteller, and a fantastic one. His narratives describe pivotal events in history. Carlin’s stories are effective at conveying meaning because Carlin injects genuine emotion into the tales he tells. Emotion captivates the listener transporting them from a passive bystander to an active participator. Emotional people are better storytellers because emotion ignites their words with meaning and purpose.
7. You Achieve By Creating
Art that makes you feel is an expression of emotion and is created by an endless intrinsic drive. Creating resides deep within the identity, sharing that same space that your emotional self is found and therefore creativity and emotion are innately linked.
Devin Westland is a young artist diagnosed with several mental disabilities which require emotion to be self regulated. Art is Devin’s outlet:
Art, therapy, and emotion are linked for Devin, resulting in art laden with his creativity.
8. You Prioritize Meaning…
… over materials. Things don’t make a person emotional, memories attached to those things induce emotion. Being emotional means that you cherish and value experience over possessions. Materialistic wealth is shallow and an emotional person considers a meaningful memory priceless.
9. You Lead
Emotion is contagious. Calling others to action requires persuasion. Emotion is the vector to transmit a leader’s enthusiasm to their people on the front line. Emotion also shows decisive conviction. A confident, emotional leader will find that compliance is seamless and unquestioned. Do you think Steve Jobs was emotionally stagnant?
Viewing your emotion as a positive personality trait results in strengthening the characteristics discussed above. Remember, at its core, emotion causes you to distill more from life making it meaningful and pleasurable.
Featured photo credit: Ed Gregory via stokpic.com
