The Secret Language Of Emotions | Karla McLaren

9 Sep 2024 · 1 h 3 min

Ask about this episode

Ask anything about it. ChatGPT or Claude reads this page and answers with the times it was said.

Connect VO and ask about every podcast you hear, including the moments you saved. Add to ChatGPT · Add to Claude

In short

Podcast Notes: The Art of Charm - Episode: The Secret Language Of Emotions | Karla McLaren

Episode Overview In this episode, Johnny and AJ engage in an enlightening conversation with Karla McLaren, a prominent expert in emotional intelligence and empathy development. The discussion revolves around understanding emotions, expanding emotional vocabulary, and managing challenging emotions like anger and jealousy.

Key Concepts

Introduction to Emotions

  • Emotions as Cognition: Emotions are not the opposites of rationality but are crucial to decision-making and understanding the world.
  • Labeling Emotions: Avoid labeling emotions as simply 'good' or 'bad'; all emotions provide valuable insights into our experiences.

Emotional Vocabulary

  • Expanding Vocabulary: A broader emotional vocabulary leads to improved self-awareness and emotional regulation.
  • Practical Steps:
  • Identify different emotions and their intensities (e.g., soft anger, medium anger).
  • Create and use lists of emotions to enhance communication and understanding.

Anger and Boundaries

  • Purpose of Anger: Anger is a signal indicating that personal boundaries have been crossed.
  • Managing Anger: Strategies include:
  • Recognizing the emotion early (at lower intensities).
  • Communicating boundaries effectively rather than repressing anger or expressing it violently.

Jealousy

  • Role of Jealousy: Jealousy serves as social radar, indicating issues in love, commitment, and security.
  • Healthy vs. Unhealthy Jealousy: Differentiate between productive jealousy that helps set boundaries and destructive jealousy stemming from insecurity.

Tools for Emotional Management

  • Questions to Combat Emotional Manipulation:
  • What does this emotion signal to me?
  • What boundaries need to be set?
  • Perspective Taking: Enhancing empathy by understanding others' emotional responses based on your emotional vocabulary.

Practical Applications

  • Emotional Preparation: Use anxiety as a tool for preparation—write down worst-case scenarios and plan responses.
  • Understanding Social Dynamics: Recognizing one's default emotional state can provide insight into interpersonal dynamics and improve communication.

Conclusion Karla McLaren's insights offer transformative ways to understand and harness the power of emotions. By expanding emotional vocabulary and recognizing the significance of each emotion, individuals can foster healthier relationships, improve self-awareness, and enhance emotional intelligence.

Resources

  • Karla McLaren's Work:
  • [KarlaMcClaren.com](http://www.karlamclaren.com)
  • [Empathy Academy](http://www.empathyacademy.org)

Key Quotes

  • "Emotions are not the enemies of rationality; they are essential allies in decision-making and relationship-building."
  • "Anger is about boundaries; when you feel anger coming up, look around and see what boundary was just crossed."

Final Thoughts The episode encourages a deeper understanding of emotions and emphasizes the importance of emotional literacy in building meaningful connections and personal growth.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Hear the part that matters, and keep it.Open this episode in VO. Double tap your headphones to save a moment as you listen.
Get VO free

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:28You know why you're tired all the time? talking or even using my camera. Stuff is built to intake information quickly in whatever form you think in and turn it into actionable tasks right away. Lists and stuff are built like completable projects. So that book you want to write, that business you want to start, or that trip you want to plan starts to take form inside stuff, step by step. The magic is it gets exponentially more powerful the more you feed into it. Download stuff today. Start brain dumping and organizing your tasks and feel the freedom of an uncluttered brain. Download stuff for free today by going to trystuff.app.

1:04That's T-R-Y-S-T-U-F-F dot A-P-P. Or simply by searching stuff, S-T-U-F-F in the app store and to enjoy everything stuff has to offer. You can get 50 % off your first year of extra stuff by using code charm at checkout. Get stuff done and start closing your open loops. Download stuff from the App Store today. Hi. I'm here to pick up my son Milo. There's no Milo here. Who picked up my son from school? Streaming only on Peacock. I'm going to need the name of everyone that could have a connection. You don't understand. It was just the five of us. So this was all planned. What are you going to do?

1:46I will do whatever it takes to get my son back. I honestly didn't see this coming. These nice people killing each other. All Her Fault, a new series streaming now only on Peacock. That level of alarm that you might get with anger is going to be heightened if it's in your love relationship because that person has access to your money, your house, your body, everything. So, you know, people would think, why am I feeling this powerful negative emotion if I'm in love? It's like, because you are also very, very vulnerable to betrayal and other things. Welcome to the Art of Charm podcast, where we break down the science of powerful communication and winning mindsets so you have the cheat code to succeed with people.

2:31Every episode is jam-packed with actionable steps to unlock the hidden superpowers inside of you. Level up with us each week by listening to interviews with the best in business, psychology, and relationships. We distill thousands of hours of research in the most effective tools and the latest science so you can start winning today. Let's face it. In order to be seen and heard, your communication needs to cut through the noise. And we're going to show you how. I'm AJ, successfully recovered introvert, entrepreneur, and self-development junkie. And I'm Johnny Zubak, former touring musician, promoter, rock and roller, and co-founder here at The Art of Charm.

3:05And for the last 15 years, we've trained thousands of top performers and teams from every background. We have dedicated our lives to teaching men and women all they need to know about communication, networking, and relationships. You shouldn't have to settle for anything less than extraordinary.

3:24All right, let's kick off today's show. Today we're talking with Carla McLaren, an emotions and empathy expert. We're decoding the language of emotions to grow your EQ and make you more charismatic. Carla is an award-winning author, educator, workplace consultant, and social science researcher. Carla developed the six essential aspects of empathy model that breaks down how you can develop empathy and makes them easily understandable, accessible, and attainable for everyone. Her work revalues even the most negative emotions and opens new pathways into self-awareness, effective communication, and healthy empathy.

3:57Carla is the author of many books, including The Language of Emotions, The Power of Emotions at Work, and Embracing Anxiety. And she's a developer of the online learning site, empathyacademy.org. We discuss how to expand your emotional vocabulary to connect with anyone, why emotions are key to rationality and they're not to be dismissed, how all emotions serve a purpose, even the negative ones. Carla shares how we can grow our empathy and why it's so important as a leader and the secret to effectively managing anger to set better boundaries. Welcome to the show, Carla. So great to have you. Thank you so much.

4:33It's good to be here. I know for a lot of our audience members, emotions can be a struggle to grapple with and understand. So I think it'd be super helpful if we just start by defining what emotions are? Well, there are a lot of ideas about that, but the ones I like best to talk about emotions as aspects of cognition. So it's not the opposite of rationality. It's a very important part of rationality. A lot of people would say, I don't wanna talk to you until you're less emotional. I'm like, well, then you're never gonna talk to me because emotions are a part of everything you are and everything you do.

5:08The sociologist of emotion, Arlie Hochschild, calls them our most important sense and that they are how we make sense of the world. And I think a lot of people see them as very different than that, right? Certainly what I was taught, if you're being emotional, you're therefore not rational, you're therefore not logical. And I was thinking of Mr. Spock the other day and he was very, I mean, I think that's where we all learned it was from Mr. Spock that you would either be logical or emotional, but they don't come together. And with that, we often label emotions good, bad. We attribute negatives and positives to emotions, but that's not a healthy way to look at it.

5:53No, because if I tell you an emotion is negative and you feel it, you're going to feel other things too, right? And you're going to feel as if you're a failure. And if I tell you an emotion is positive and you don't feel it, you're going to feel other things too. So right away with that negative and positive idea, you're almost inviting a pileup of emotion that maybe you can't deal with very well, right? Because it's not just that one emotion. Now it's your emotions about your emotions. And then do you know how to deal with any of them? Because now you've got a bunch that maybe you don't know about.

6:30Yeah. So taking that negative and positive bit off is one of the most important things. It's one of the most important things you can do. You see, an emotion is an emotion. It's part of my sensing of the world. It's part of my making sense of the world. It is one of my senses, and there's no bum emotions. They're all worth something. I know for myself, I started doing men's work about seven years ago, and I recognized that I had a rather stunted emotional vocabulary. I struggled to even understand and label the emotions that I was feeling, and I defaulted to just a few descriptors. And through men's work, I've recognized that there are families to emotions, there are ranges to those emotions and being able to describe them and increase your vocabulary is super important, not just for communication, but also for self-awareness.

7:18So for those in our audience who might be in a similar situation, struggling to make sense of their emotional vocabulary, what do we mean by that and how can we strengthen it? There's some really good research and I'm glad you brought that up. There's some really good research that shows just getting a better emotional vocabulary all by itself will give you better emotion regulation skills. And that's so easy, it's free. So if your emotional range is, I feel crappy, I feel happy. That is not enough words for you. So I was gathering, before I even read this research, I gathered a bunch of words, you know, through just on my website, on social media, I was like, give me words for emotions and let's organize them.

8:05And so now we've got this massive list of emotions, but they are by emotion and by intensity of emotion. So it's soft anger, medium anger, intense anger, soft jealousy, medium jealousy, you know, and they're alphabetized. It's so organized. It's like a spreadsheet. And so you can just go to this list and you can say, I feel crappy. Now you go and look at what does that mean for you? Is it sad? Well, what level of sad? Is it angry? Right? Is it sad and angry? What about depression? You know, what are you actually feeling? And just knowing what you're feeling. my theory is that you're telling your body what's happening instead of your body saying am I sick is it Tuesday am I angry you know what am I feeling and you're able to tell your body I'm feeling a tiny bit of anger it's kind of peevishness and I'm feeling some sadness at the medium level it's kind of no it's a little despair you know and and you would think this is going to make everything worse, right?

9:12Because now I've said the emotions and I'm going to be drawn down into them, but with no skills. But what happens is your whole body sort of goes, oh, that's all. Okay. It's fine. I'm going to be good. Okay. Despair. That's an interesting word. Do you know what I mean? It's almost like not getting yourself out of the emotion, but giving it a context. And now your body can move along with its day. Yeah. Yeah, and making sense of the emotions by having a better understanding of the intensity and then potentially what may have caused that reaction so we could recognize some patterns to make some changes and help us regulate those emotions seems really impactful.

9:54But I know Johnny and I were both smiling because we know a lot of people who just label their emotions as crappy or happy. And that's the depth that we have with our vocabulary. I think for a lot of people, in order to label them properly or to give them any time to find a descriptive that applies well, I think people are a little bit too nervous to hang out in those emotions to figure that out. So it's like, hey, I feel crappy, and then they move on. And then they just deal with that throughout the day. But again, when we have a larger emotional vocabulary, it just makes things so much easier.

10:32It gives you an idea of what can I do in this moment to get to the next level or to feel better. Now that I have a better vocabulary, I know that, well, I'm a little under the weather. I'm not at my best, but perhaps some coffee will get me to where I need to be. Is that how we fix emotions? I have to write that down. That's Johnny's self-diagnosis. Coffee fixes many emotions, especially in the morning. Okay, good. Emotions equals coffee. Okay, good. I'm writing. Anytime. For any confusion being 411, that's what it is. So not only understanding for yourself, but then being able to communicate it to people that matter in your life, whether it's coworkers, whether it's your partner, whether it's your friends, actually having that vocabulary to draw from to then share with others what the real emotion is going on for you allows you to connect more easily, allows you to be supported in those difficult moments or in those super happy, exciting moments to really recognize and label properly what that emotion is, allows other people to just feel closer to you.

11:43Yeah. Yeah. And I have to say there's a caveat there because some people, they don't like emotions to be named. And I even created a list of words for people who don't feel comfortable talking about emotions because that became very clear to people as they developed a stronger emotional vocabulary. They're like, but my family doesn't want to hear any of it. And so we found some words that are just wonderful. Three of them are magic. They're bad, stressed, and unhappy. So if you say you're stressed, people will understand something's wrong, but you haven't actually said the name of an emotion. So you can get out of jail free card.

12:26And if you say, I feel bad, everybody can get that. Right. And unhappy. I mean, it's got happy in there, but you're on and I'm unhappy. So for people who have a strong emotional vocabulary, and they realize they're in a place where they're, that's not okay. I think for a lot of people, they would just repress their awareness. And I'm like, don't repress. Use some words that can keep you in the conversation. All right. So I can know in myself, right? I feel these five emotions right now, but this person would hear stressed and they would, that would be like a little, I don't know, a keyword for them to know that things aren't going well.

13:11Right. What's interesting is all three of those are negative. Yeah. Well, I think we're all okay saying that we're happy. Yeah. Unless you know someone. Yeah, yeah. To show happiness, to smile, to show joy, to show contentment. I think we've all been socialized to be okay with those emotions, right? And even to want to go to them when we're feeling another emotion. So I'm feeling sad. Damn it. I just want to feel happy again. And happiness is like, but it's not a happy. What? What are you even talking about? It's not a happy time right now. Why would you want that emotion? But I think most of us are taught that you need to have that emotion.

13:52So you can be more pleasant for other people to be around. Yeah, and I think in general, people want to have a decent sense of how you're feeling. They don't want it to be completely hidden from them. Yeah, maybe. Unless it's rage. Yeah, while driving, especially, you want to avoid. Yeah. Very often in small talk, that's the first thing. How's your day going? How are you feeling? These are very surface level questions that we start conversation with. So having something to label is better than ignoring. Yeah. But I think people mostly want to hear fine. How are you doing? Fine. It's all good. It's all good.

14:33Yeah. Let's not explore that any further. So when it comes to stretching that vocabulary, walk us through how we can start to understand the families of emotions and start our self-assessment so we can get more in touch and in tune with the vocabulary of emotions. Yeah, I put the emotions in four families just to make it really simple. And when we start with kids, there's the four families. They are anger, sadness, happiness, and fear. And if you can even add two more to crappy and happy, you can go, what would sadness be? Slappy? No, it has to rhyme. If you could get sadness, happiness, anger, and fear, you would at least begin to start to dial down.

15:27Right? You would at least have four directions to go into. And then you can get more clarity there. Are you feeling ashamed? Are you feeling bored? Are you feeling sad? Are you feeling confused? So you can get more emotions in there. I work with 17 emotions. And you would think that's entirely too many emotions. You need to fix that. But those are the emotions that have been mostly identified. And they are each different enough that they deserve their own category. So sadness is different from grief. Depression is different from suicidal urge. Fear is different from anxiety. Anxiety is different from panic.

16:14Jealousy and envy are two close together but separate emotions. Yeah, it's just a wonderful world of cognition and sensation and sense-making. And when you understand the emotions, when you feel them, it's no longer a problem. So you can say, I feel envy, which means there's some unfairness in the system. That's a lot better than I've just stepped into one of the seven deadly sins of Catholicism and I may go to hell. Right, guilt that goes along with that. I may go to hell soon. So that's a lot better to be able to say, you know, envy is telling me something here rather than I am failing as a person because I feel a normal human emotion.

17:00So recognizing the vocabulary, strengthening your emotional vocabulary, how can we use that to then skillfully use our emotions and the signals that those emotions are telling us? Yeah, just identifying them will help you regulate yourself. So you have the cognitive space you need to think about it. And then I teach what each emotion does and how it works. And at first, it's a little bit of a game changer where you sort of have to go, wait, what does, you know, you'd look at your chart, what does shame mean? You know, and to understand that each emotion has a job to do, it's almost like they're organs.

17:38So your liver can't do what your heart does and your stomach can't do, you know, what your gallbladder does. The emotions are like that too. Anger can't do what happiness does, and happiness can't do what anger does. We need different ones. We need these 17 aspects of basically intelligence. Okay. So walk us through that signal of anger, because I know a lot of our audience members, certainly the male cross-section of our audience members might be living more so in that emotion than ever. Yes. And men are welcomed into anger. They are not welcomed into sadness though, or grief. So if you see a crying man, call the hospital, right?

18:22Because he's not being a man right now. So a lot of men are chased away from sadness and grief, but they're welcomed into anger. Anger is about boundaries. So when you feel anger coming up, look around and see what boundary was just crossed. And then you have an option about how you're going to reset that boundary. If you're like most of us, you've learned two pretty terrible options. One is to repress your anger and ignore it. And that means that the boundary is not going to get put back up, right? Nothing's going to happen. The other is to overexpress it and become violent. You know, hey, screw you.

18:59That's a boundary. But it may damage the relationship. Well, Well, so would repressing anger because now that person doesn't even know what they did because you are not engaging. So we learn a third way, like a third path of working with the angers to understand it's about boundaries. And you can reset a boundary in many different ways. You can set it by saying, oh, it doesn't matter, whatever, whatever, which is nothing. You can say, hey, screw you or punch someone. That's something. But also you can speak to what happened and say, when you didn't show up at three and I was waiting for you and I was paying for parking, you know, whatever, that really, that really bothered me.

19:49Instead of going way over the top, you're still setting a boundary, but it doesn't have to be done with too much or not enough. It's sort of like, it's just right. It's Goldilocks anger. You choose the way that's just right. So something that you have for anger is about boundaries. Certainly we have our fair share of guys who have found us due to those boundaries being taken advantage of. And rather than engage and understand that they're angry due to that, they usually take it personally and end up trying to figure out what is wrong with me that I was taken advantage of. Yes. And which is only going to lead to more and more dissatisfaction and getting taken advantage of.

20:40I think it's men need to understand that it's okay to feel anger and that it is about boundaries and how are you going to set those up or convey those to other people rather than trying to avoid an emotion that basically has allowed you to survive up until this point. Because again, if it's about boundaries, without anger, we don't have no boundaries. We don't procreate. And our procreation does not evolve and reach adulthood. So I think anger has gotten a bad rap. Yes, it has. And again, this is one of those emotions that I think people would attribute bad or negative to. And people need to get back in touch with all of their emotions because anger certainly can lead to violence, but it is a survival mechanism that you need to protect yourself and your family.

21:39Yeah. And if you know anger and you know that there are many different levels of anger. So let me read from the soft list. You can be ambivalent, annoyed, displeased, frustrated. You can go to intense anger. You can be livid, loathing, passionate, powerful, projecting, raging, right? So many words for anger, but they're all about boundaries. I don't think there's a lot of men who would have put passionate and anger together, but It's funny. Absolutely passionate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then what I did with these, I'm reading from the emotional vocabulary list. It's a pocket-sized list that you can carry around with you.

22:21Super helpful. I wanted to make sure to put all of the, I'm saying positive and negative right now, but I wanted to put all the positive attributes of each emotion, as well as what everybody knows that you're raging and you're furious, but you're also passionate. it. You cannot do any kind of social justice work without your anger because anger says, hey, it is not okay that people are living in the streets in the wealthiest. Do you know what I mean? It's like your anger would say, that's a boundary that got crossed and that is not okay with me. You can't do your work in the world of creating equality and fairness and anti-racism without your anger.

23:04But how do you and your anger work together? You know, does your anger go on a rampage every time it comes out? I would say, let's look at how you can work with anger at a lower intensity. It also really helps if your anger goes to 15 on a scale of one to 10, every time it shows up, what I like to do is work with the soft presentation of anger, the words, and to help people grab their anger when it's at a lower intensity where they can work with it. Because when my anger goes to 15, y 'all just better watch out. Everybody watch out. But if I'm catching myself at anger three, four, five, and by studying the soft anger list, I'm irritated, I'm peeved, I'm protective, I'm quiet, I'm rankled, I'm separate, I'm steady.

23:56then I can understand and work with anger more easily. It's not sort of anger management, but anger awareness. If your anger goes to 15, catch it when it's at three. Address it then, and it doesn't need to go to 15. Well, that's the downside of a stunted vocabulary is you struggle to recognize those earlier signals that could keep you from getting to that rage-filled moment. Yes. You could catch it earlier and develop skills. Now, there are some times when you need to go to anger 15. I'm not saying never do it, but if it's every single time, then I think you need some flexibility within your anger response mechanism, right?

24:42You need to add some stuff in there. But to be able to befriend your anger and to say, okay, I'm getting steamed up right now. Let me see what my options are. Who stepped across a boundary? What are my values? What's going on? Yeah. And that rise in self-awareness leads to emotional intelligence around others too. You could recognize when they're irritated and that frustration is about to boil over. So in a work environment, you can actually head them off at the past in terms of conflict by recognizing, okay, I'm starting to see them get steamed under of the collar here and that frustration could turn out to hurt a teammate or could get us off course or lead us to being unproductive for an entire meeting.

25:24Recognizing that earlier with that gradation of these emotions not only helped yourself, but can help you manage and communicate more effectively in a team environment, a work environment. Yes. Understand the emotions of others. I mean, you first have to understand your own, but it's what makes social life work, right and understanding the emotional tone of others and which emotions they're good at i mean you learn it over time but yeah without emotional intelligence and awareness you're kind of a pinball pinging around the social world you know yeah it's kind of not aware of what's going on well for many of our clients they're drawn to work with us they want to increase their emotional intelligence to be successful in their career, to grow their network, and to have a better social circle.

26:16And oftentimes, they want to first look outward. Okay, how do I read people's body language? How do I pick up these signals in others? How can I tell what their emotional state is? And we actually dial them back first to go, hey, well, let's understand our own emotional state. And what's your default emotional state? And then what emotions come up for you when you're stressed and you're in an environment that puts some pressure on you? Recognizing that is a key first step before focusing outward and trying to develop emotional intelligence by just observing others. Yeah. Yeah, that's huge. If I don't know in myself what's going on, and also if people tend to be sensitive or hypersensitive, they may pick up emotions in the room without knowing how to work with them, right?

26:57So they just get overwhelmed. So they don't have any practice for anxiety, but they can feel it and then they go into anxiety and now everybody's anxious right and nobody knows how to work with it right so yeah I think becoming aware of yourself is so important so I can say I can see that Dave over there is really anxious about this project I am feeling something different but how can I respond to him do you know what I mean instead of no now we're both you know now we're both feeling the exact same thing Are you ready to elevate your career, master the art of influence and become a standout leader?

27:37Then listen up because the Art of Charms executive coaching program is here to help you achieve your professional dreams. Imagine having personalized one-on-one coaching tailored to your unique needs. That's right. Individualized attention and customized strategies that align perfectly with your unique goals. With 17 years of experience and over 10 ,000 satisfied clients, the Art of Charm has the know-how to propel your career forward. Privately, work with us to build your custom North Star strategy, identify your core values, build unstoppable habits, and start reaching your career goals fast.

28:11Whether you're looking to enhance your leadership skills, master the art of persuasion, or develop strong networking skills, our program is designed to meet you where you are and guide you where you want to be. We've worked with elite clients like military special operators and Olympians. Join the ranks of professionals like you who have transformed their careers with The Art of Charm. Our executive coaching program is your key to unlocking your full potential. Apply today at theartofcharm.com slash elite. Start your journey to becoming a better leader and networker today. Don't wait. Your future self will thank you.

28:44Apply today at theartofcharm.com slash elite now. Wow. Well, for some of our clients, if their default state is frustrated, then that's the lens they're experiencing others through. And now you have an opportunity not recognizing that you're just in that frustrated state to label others' emotions in a different light than if you were there calm or present or in a lower anxiety. So recognizing your own default state and painting that vocabulary helps with regulation and then helps you observe more realistically the emotions that are presenting in others. To go along with that, people need to understand that you are influenced by everything around you.

Read the full transcript

29:25And you don't have a choice in the matter. If you're there, you're being influenced by that stimuli. Now, you can be aware of the stimuli and how it's making you feel, and you can decide at that point if you want to leave or not, but you will be moved in that place. And when we open our computers, we're exposed to marketing all day long again, which is targeted stimuli to affect us for ideas, products we are being marketed to all the time. So getting that understanding of that default and getting grounded is certainly very helpful in a world where, well, we're sponges. So we need it. Yeah, we're a social species.

30:19We learn from each other. Like you can't have a baby growing up without humans. They don't develop language. They don't develop anything. I mean, we become human by being with other humans. We are socialized animals. We aren't born like animals who know how to walk and who know what food to eat. We don't know nothing. We have to learn from other people. And you're right, John, that is true throughout your entire life. You will be affected by others and you will learn your cues. I also like your point about marketing. Marketing knows that emotions are how we function. Marketing comes into our emotions.

30:58they just I sometimes I will watch ads and I go I see which emotions you're trying to get there and I choose not to my favorite thing in order to combat that because it is something that we have to deal with at all times is to start challenging the adverts so my the first question is who is sending me this ad so you can do some research you can look into the company you can look into who they are and what they're about. And then who is this ad targeting? Because a lot of times I see things and I'm like, why am I seeing this? What did I click on? This has nothing to do with, or I'm like, man, this ad is good.

31:39This is right up my alley. I'm always amazed. So that ad is going to have some sort of stimuli to put you in an emotional state. So the next question is, well, what do these adverts or this company or this advertising marketing want me to feel? So then I will write what the emotions are that they want to invoke in me. And then lastly, what is the call to action? Now that I am upset, angry, happy, whatever it might be in a lot of marketing is fear-based because that's a major motivator, right? Now that I'm utterly terrified, What do they want me to do? Buy this skin cream. Vote for this person.

32:20Buy this skin cream. Make a donation, whatever it is. And for me, having that little checklist, first of all, it's fun because you learn a lot about marketing. You learn a lot about the people who are trying to get your attention and your motivations. But again, everything is marketing, so it comes in very useful. But answering those questions allows me to create distance from that ad and look at it objectively. I can now look at it. We're just disconnected and poke fun at it. You need to create like a group where people meet and just look at ads and then call out the emotion. Call it out. But then I'm seeing ads like one after another, maybe 60 ads in a day, maybe more.

33:10Oh, my gosh. We're just inundated with emotional manipulation. Right. Another reason why people need to learn about their emotions so that they are well armed for the barrage of marketing that is coming their way. It's coming for you. Oh, it's already here. I mean, I've bought stuff that I'm like, why did I buy this? I think it's hard for people to recognize that emotions can actually lead to action, which is why so much of this advertising is evoking emotions first before the call to action. They want you to feel something so then you react in a way that makes the purchase, signs up for the newsletter, joins the group, makes whatever action that they're seeking possible by first evoking that emotion.

34:05Yeah, with a lot of music cues. Music is so powerful. Yeah, so powerful in terms of what we're supposed to feel. So there's another emotion I'd love to unpack with you because I know for a lot of our audience members, it comes up in relationships, and that's jealousy. Jealousy. Which can feel like anger to some in some situations, but let's unpack jealousy for our audience and how to better manage it skillfully. Jealousy is one of our main social emotions, right? A jealousy and envy and anger and shame. These are social emotions that teach us how to be in community. Jealousy comes up, I call it relational radar.

34:50It comes up when there's issues of love, commitment, security, fairness, intimacy, connection, and loyalty. I like to engage jealousy before I get into relationships. because a lot of people just, I like oranges, you like oranges, let's have sex and get married. Okay. This is, this is basically the level of choosing a lot of people do with their, with their love relationships. Okay. And I was like, you would spend more time buying a car than you did getting into that relationship. And so when we don't have good agreements at the beginning of a relationship, we're not really clear why we're getting in when we haven't really seen how the other person behaves.

35:32Our jealousy will need to be up more because we're in a kind of an insecure place. We don't really know if we can rely on this person. When they do step across those lines into some level of betrayal, our jealousy may come up at 15 out of 10 because we don't have that stability we need to understand who this person is or what. They like oranges, but we don't really understand their level of depth or commitment in the relationship. So jealousy will and should come up when there's some kind of betrayal. And basically, the person is stepping over a boundary of the relationship. There is anger in jealousy.

36:15They're stepping over what was agreed to, or they're stepping away from a sense of providing security. tea. So jealousy has a purpose, but most of us have learned of it as the green-eyed monster, right? So when we feel jealous, the only sort of model we have, role model, is a green-eyed monster. And we kind of spin out. And instead of saying, what kinds of intimacy do I desire and want to offer? You know, getting really clear with yourself, is this relationship offering me what I need? or do I need to make other plans, right? And that would be jealousy at a very kind of five level, you know, four or five saying, I see what happened.

37:05Is this ever going to be okay with me? And instead, because we only have monster as the role model, we go ballistic. And I think with jealousy, it's also really important to understand the soft presentation of it, which is like a suspicion, a sense of, is everything right here? This is what needs to be going on here instead of, you betrayer, you infidel. So I think it's a very powerful emotion like anger, right? It's a part of our social survival. We need each other and we need loyal people who are right up close to us. So that level of alarm that you might get with anger is going to be heightened if it's in your love relationship.

37:49because that person has access to your money, your house, your body, everything. So, you know, people would think that I'm in love. Why am I feeling this powerful kind of negative? I'm going to say the word negative. Why am I feeling this powerful negative emotion if I'm in love? It's like because you are also very, very vulnerable to betrayal and other things. The holidays are here. And if you're running a business, you know that's when things get real. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Your platform needs to handle whatever comes at it. That's why over 10 % of all U.S.

38:26e-commerce runs on Shopify. It's the commerce platform behind millions of businesses, from brands you know to people launching their first holiday sale this year. Here's what makes Shopify different. Thousands of templates to build your site fast. AI tools that write product descriptions and enhance your photos. marketing tools that work across every platform your customers use. And the award-winning support team that is there 24-7. When things get busy, you need them. And then there's ShopPay. It saves customers information and speeds up checkout, less abandoned carts, and more sales. If you want to give customers the best experience this holiday season, you need Shopify.

39:06This Black Friday, join thousands of new entrepreneurs hearing for the first time with Shopify. Sign up for your free trial today at shopify.com slash charm. That's shopify.com slash charm. Go to shopify.com slash charm and make this Black Friday one to remember. Johnny, keeping track of all my old financial accounts across multiple apps and an outdated spreadsheet is just such a hassle. Between old 401ks, sub-savings accounts, and multiple investment platforms that I opened and forgot about, there's just something so fulfilling about seeing all of your numbers visualized in just one place. That's where Monarch comes in.

39:42Feel organized and confident in your finances with Monarch, an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or your phone. I leaked everything in just minutes. No more jumping between apps, no more updating spreadsheets, just one dashboard showing me exactly where I stand. And you'll never need to touch a spreadsheet again. Monarch does the heavy lifting, smart categorization of your spending, clear data visuals, and real control over your money. When you're making good money, it's easy to miss opportunities. Money sitting idle, investments allocated wrong, savings rate lower than you thought.

40:17Monarch keeps you informed so nothing slips through the cracks. And right now, just for our listeners, Monarch is 50 % off your first year with code CHARM at monarch.com. Use code CHARM at monarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50 % off your first year at monarch.com with code CHARM. Cold mornings, holiday plans on the calendar. this is when I want my wardrobe to be simple. Stuff that looks sharp feels good you actually wear. That's Quint. And the bonus, Quint's pieces make great gifts too. This season's lineup is smart. Mongolian cashmere sweaters for 50 bucks that feel like everyday luxury.

40:55Cool coats that are stylish and durable. Johnny, I've been reaching for my Quint's cable knit sweater constantly on these cooler LA mornings. I have to say the fit and quality are incredible and it's holding up perfectly even with regular wear. It's actually become one of those pieces I just keep grabbing from my closet. Quince partners directly with ethical factories and top artisans. They cut out the middlemen to deliver premium quality at half the cost of other high-end brands. So you can give luxury quality pieces without the luxury price tag. Quince is gifting covered beyond clothing too.

41:26Home, bath, kitchen travel, all worth checking out. Give and get timeless holiday staples that last this season with Quince. Go to quince.com slash charm for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com slash charm. Free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash charm. Well, you brought up an important point that I think gets missed in a lot of these situations, especially for our clients, is the explicit explanation of the boundary versus the covert contract. Yes. And the assumption of the boundary. And oftentimes that betrayal can arise in situations where you haven't actually communicated the boundary, but you feel internally like a boundary has been breached.

42:13But due to being a people pleaser or not wanting to cause conflict needlessly, you avoid stating the boundary and then betrayal, distrust, peeks its ugly head into that relationship because you weren't an effective communicator of what your wants and needs were and what those boundaries are in your relationship. Yeah, early on. That's why I kind of like to have jealousy there at the first date. It's like, so here's what I want. Monogamy, that's important to me or not, right? Or polygamy is important to me. How do you feel about that, right? That's not something you want to be surprised with later.

42:48That's not a good surprise. Yeah. So yeah, I think a lot of people are sort of like, do you like me? Do you like me? Will you have sex with me? There's none of that sort of, here's what needs to happen before you decide you like me. Or here's what needs to happen before we become intimate. What I like to highlight is that feeling of distrust, recognizing that early on and asking yourself, okay, do I need to communicate something? Have I been clear about my wants and needs in this situation? whereas for a lot of people that distrust is a trigger to unlock their phone and search on their social media and look for more things to validate that feeling of distrust instead of looking internally and saying okay but did I communicate what I want out of this relationship what my expectations are what I'm bringing to the table in terms of boundaries yeah and that's the work of jealousy so doing that you know becoming aware of what kinds of intimacy do you require and what do you want to offer to others?

43:47I think until my third marriage, I never even had that conversation with anybody. I was just like, okay, we like oranges. Let's get married. Here's my credit card. Sounds fun. The green-eyed monster's there. Yeah. And jealousy's like, you could have asked a couple of questions here, okay? Before we got there. Yeah. One piece that I'd love to unpack is the idea that the more that we focus on strengthening our emotional vocabulary, the easier it is for us to develop empathy. And I know we have a number of clients we work with who will oftentimes feel, well, I wouldn't feel that emotion in that situation, or I wouldn't feel betrayed, or I wouldn't feel jealous.

44:33and therefore they struggle with empathy and allowing the other person's emotions and feelings to be validated. So what can we do to strengthen our empathy as a skill now that we've recognized all of these emotions and strengthen our vocabulary? Yeah. Empathy is first and foremost an emotional skill. So if you don't have your vocabulary and stuff and you're like, well, I wouldn't have felt jealousy in that situation. So ask yourself, well, what would you have felt? So use your perspective taking, which is a part of empathy. So in that situation, what would I have felt? Why did they feel that way?

45:09You know, it's like opening the range of your emotional life to see where would you have felt that so that you can get some empathy by moving into a situation where that would have happened for you and not discounting that other people feel different ways. I think that perspective taking is huge. I find so often that recognizing the emotional vocabulary and the range, even if you might not feel the intensity, you can at least directionally with those families get it right and see, okay, well, I would definitely be frustrated. I might not be rage filled. But, you know, when someone cuts my wife off, she's rage filled.

45:48When someone cuts me off, I'm frustrated. But I can understand based on the family and the intensity of how in her shoes she can feel that way. Yeah. Like this is much more important to her than it is to me. Yeah, being on time. You know, like the cause of that. I'm being cut off. Now I'm missing a light in LA and I'm going to be late to something and I like being on time. Whereas I feel there's a little more flexibility on being on time in LA. So I get frustrated and not rage filled when I miss a light due to someone cutting me off. so what else can we do to strengthen our empathy recognizing this is an important part of emotional intelligence you know what's really cool about empathy is you can change you can increase it or you can calm it down depending on where you are with your empathy at any stage of your life it's a skill it's also a trait but it's more a skill and an interaction than it is a trait Drama and fiction are absolutely brilliant ways to work on your empathy because in fiction, you become the protagonist and things happen to you and you're putting on the body and the emotions of another person.

46:55So good movies will do that. Good TV, especially long series where you watch character arcs over a period of time are excellent for developing and honing your empathy. So Korean dramas, here we come. We're going to Netflix. I'm working on my empathy, y 'all. It's a great reason to sit in front of the TV, growing my empathy, leave me alone. Yeah, not for you. Get out.

47:28Yeah. The reason drama plays as well, music, all art is a way to speak with emotion. Music, dance, drama, fiction, all of it is a way to transmit emotion to others. So the more art that you can take in, the more emotions and empathy you're widening your field of view. Yeah. And I would certainly recommend for our audience that they use as many senses as possible to perceive and pick up on those emotions. So not just passively watching, reading novels and seeing how authors develop emotions through a story because these emotions are universal. So, you know, I have not gone on a hero's journey like Luke Skywalker, but I can relate to the emotions that he's feeling in the betrayal and what happened to his family and then going after on that journey.

48:26That's just a normal, natural part of storytelling and why we are drawn to these plays and movies and books and TV shows in the first place. I was thinking for kids, a lot of people look at children's books and say, well, that's just too scary. But kids love that stuff. They love the big emotions. You know, they love the monsters. And obviously adults do too, because of the Marvel universe. We love our monsters and we love our big dramatic stories. And it's good for us. It's good to take time to feel big emotions in a safe way and see how other people do it. Yeah. Yeah. So what's always been fun for Johnny and I in class and teaching emotions and recognizing emotions in others is the question of how much emotions are too much.

49:16It's like, oh, AJ, I can't express overwhelming happiness. It's going to be too much for other people to see me that emotional, especially for men. I feel like that's a real gradient that they are concerned about is not wanting to be too emotional in situations, good or bad emotions. So how much emotion is too much? Do you remember that politician Howard Dean? Oh yeah. And he lost the ability to run for president because he went like this. Emotion sank his entire campaign. That is ridiculous. And now we've got candidates who I don't even want to talk about it. Okay. I do not even want to talk Talk about what candidates are getting away with today.

49:58I wish they would just go, yeah, and we could cancel them all. But there's very much a rule for men with emotions that you have to be cool. You have to hold it in. But even for women, to be extremely joyous in a regular everyday life, people would say, yeah, that's too much. I would say almost any emotion in its intense range would be too much for a lot of people. They would say, yeah, you're too much. I think you want to also surround yourself with people who express emotion in the way that you do or open-minded to how you express emotion. When we first started this company, one of the things that we were helping our clients with was helping men speak with ladies.

50:50And some of the main issues that we were seeing back then, and now it's just, it's the same issues now, just in different surroundings, such as more in career. But it was about expressing themselves in front of women. And the amount of women that have told me, oh, I had to end the relationship or I just wasn't feeling it. And of course, my question is, oh, why so? What did he do? What didn't he do? What turned you off? The answer I always got was I didn't get any emotion. And so if you can't pick up on what somebody else is feeling, you're always going to have this sort of black box in your mind, which results in feeling vulnerable and a lot of anxiety.

51:33So that doesn't allow you to feel comfortable in a relationship. So of course, you're going to remove yourself from that. And now we're seeing the same things as now that our work is more geared to helping people network and their careers, which again, they're now in an office with people who are unable to read them, who are unable to connect through emotion. And that doesn't bode well for getting a raise. That doesn't help out in getting a promotion. If I'm going to give somebody a raise or promotion, I want them emphatic and I want their energy to infect and give me more energy. Yeah. I want to see that enthusiasm.

52:15That energy is what makes the office run well. And the better the emotions, the better the morale in that office. So you want to make sure that that chemistry is good. And the only way that you can do that is by being able to read those emotions. Yeah. It's like table tennis, ping pong. If you can't see what's being served, then you're not even going to see the ball. And that's it. The game's over. It's like to play back and forth with emotion is fun. And I think that's why watching drama, watching or reading fiction is seeing the movement back and forth between people. Well, with that, you know, the rise of stoicism, the poker face at work, not wanting to show emotion, good or bad, or certainly nothing intense can come across as very off-putting and uncomfortable for other people experiencing that.

53:08When you're bottling emotions, when you're withholding emotions, you might think you're doing a good job in withholding them by not verbalizing them. But oftentimes when we see in our video work, well, it's coming through in your body language. It's coming through in your facial expressions. And sometimes it's even painful to watch someone bottling those emotions instead of just sharing them openly. Yeah. And it's hard if you're sensitive within that social group. And the bottling of emotions, it sends such a message to people, but you think you're not doing anything. You think you're not sending any messages because you're bottling your emotions.

53:43You're like, nope, you're loud. You're loud over there with your not emotions. But it can cast a pall on the entire social group, right? I mean, everybody can say, okay, I guess bottling emotions is what we do here because he's doing it. And then it all begins to fall apart. Well, what we find in a lot of our clients is they end up in surface level relationships because they can't get to that trust point. You can't trust another person if you don't know what emotions they're actually expressing, if they're withholding them through stoicism and trying their best to be as even keel as possible. But emotions are a normal, natural human experience.

54:22And if we want to be in relationships, whether it's a work relationship, social relationship, or romantic relationship, we want to know how the other person's feeling. We want to be able to connect on that emotion and not be put at a distance so that stoicism, withholding works against you when we're trying to connect with one another. It really does. And I'm just thinking as you're talking that so many men have been so injured and abused around their emotions, just slapped upside the head every day about their emotions. And it pisses me off. I'm going to tell you, let me go see what I'm feeling.

54:55I'm feeling enraged, livid. And emotions are like our birthright. They are parts of our brain, parts of our ability to make sense of the world. So by telling men that they're not allowed to feel, we're actually crippling them in the social realm. It makes me angry because a deeply feeling man is one of the most beautiful things in the world. And to miss that through social training and abuse, it hurts everybody. There's a lot of emotions tied into a lot of masculine traits, such as loyalty and honor that we need in order to be proper men. Yeah. Well, I know for myself and the way I was raised, those emotions and being emotional and showcasing emotions was frowned upon.

55:47It was seen as not something I should be doing from a young age. And what developed out of that for me was an inability to emotionally regulate. I could not catch any of the ranges. And then on top of it, I could not even get to a place of understanding what my wants and needs were. Because I was constantly modulating my emotional response to please others first and foremost, instead of just trying to figure out, well, what am I feeling and why am I feeling that way? And how can I self-regulate? I was regulating simply to please everyone around me. And then when someone would turn around and say, well, what do you actually want?

56:19I'm sitting there completely stumped. I don't know. What do you want me to want? Exactly. Well, what do you want me to want? Tell me what I should want. Let me know. Give me a clue here. Yeah. And so people talk about the patriarchy being bad for women. And I'm like, it's just as bad for men. It's the arcy that's the problem. Okay. It's not the patri. It's not males being in charge because I see men and especially boys damaged by how we've separated the genders and all this nonsense, both being damaged so much. I'm like, let's get rid of it. Not have a matriarchy because it's going to be just as bad in the other direction.

56:59But something where we're not being pressured to be either for men unemotional and kind of dead inside or for women to be hyper emotional. And it's like we need to balance with each other. We need to come to some middle place where we can all just be human beings with normal human emotions. Well, I'd love to talk about that balance because one of the questions we get is, okay, I know that I'm going to be walking into high stress anxiety situations. I have a job interview. I'm going to a networking event and I'm an introvert. I'm going on a first date and I know I'm going to be high anxiety in that situation.

57:39It's going to be stressful for me. What can I do in those moments to regulate my emotions in a manner that allows me to communicate effectively and connect with the other person? Anxiety is a beautiful emotion that most people hate. But its job is to help you prepare for things you're not prepared for. And so with anxiety, it's doing your prep work, writing down what you're afraid of, writing down the worst case scenario, and then planning for it. There were some studies done on students who were told they were taking a calculus test and they have 30 minutes. That was the experiment. and some were allowed to go and meditate.

58:23Some were just allowed to sit for 30 minutes and some were allowed to write down what they were afraid of, right? And you would think, don't write down what you're afraid of. It's going to break your courage. Well, we were all wrong because the ones who were allowed to write down what they were afraid of, which means they were being honest with their emotions, their anxiety was coming out and saying, okay, you do not know the cosign. You do not know how to use a cosign. They did well on the test and the ones who meditated did not and the ones who sat there did not. So being emotionally honest with anxiety is really the most important thing and have some time to write down, I think I'm going to just say all the wrong things and then find, go to Google and say, how do I say the right things?

59:09It's like, fill yourself. There's some professionals of anxiety actors, because they're going to go on stage live. Lord, anything can happen. They can forget their lines. And their rule is preparation, preparation, preparation. And so with those fears, it's not to treat them as like, oh, that's never going to happen. You're just being silly. Listen to each one of them and prepare. I mean, it takes some time, but it's better than being overwhelmed and unable to speak because you don't actually know what you're afraid of or what your anxiety is trying to point out. Yeah, I think it's a more effective way to use the signal that anxiety is giving you than to withdraw and avoid anxious moments and get further in your comfort zone instead of stretching yourself.

59:57Yeah, another thing is a lot of when I did my book on anxiety, it's called Embracing Anxiety. And I asked everybody, tell me your anxiety stories. They were to a person, including psychiatrists and psychologists talking about panic. They weren't even in the right emotion. So anxiety is about preparing for a future that you're not prepared for. Panic is about saving your life. So if there's any dread or danger in your anxiety, panic is there too. And that's not a bad thing, but it's important to know the difference between your emotions, okay? Because with anxiety, you prepare. With panic, you have fight, flee, freeze, flock to safety.

1:00:37It's a very fast emotion, very intense. So it's important to say, okay, what about going to this blind date is so threatening to me that my panic has come forward, which is the emotion that saves your life? Well, there could be a lot of things, right? It could be a lot of things about this blind date that feel life-changing or life-threatening, or at least, do you know what I'm saying? It's like Yeah. Panic is there for a reason. But when anxiety, which is very forward-leaning and has lots and lots of information, and panic, which is a very powerful emotion, when they're together, you can sort of lose yourself, right?

1:01:19You're just being pushed forward. So working these two emotions is really important. It's like, is my life physically in danger, panic? And they're like, well, maybe not at the date, but I'm just looking out for you. Yeah. So gleaning the information from these emotions, knowing what part of cognition that they hold for you, is a way to begin working with them in different ways. And it's not that you won't be overwhelmed by emotion, because sometimes emotions need to come up at a really high level. But that you'll at least have some idea of what's happening inside you. You know, when you're feeling rage, it's a boundary.

1:01:57So what's the boundary? instead of a lot of people, they're feeling rage. Where's the weapon and who can I hit? Like, that's not exactly the question you want to ask rage. You want to get in the ballpark of what it's doing. And understand what is the signal that created that emotion. Yeah. What is that emotion responding to? It's real. So find out what your entire organism is sensing here through the prism of anger. Well, thank you so much for sharing the language of emotions with us. Where can our audience find out more about the work that you do? You can come to my site, CarlaMcClaren.com or my educational site, EmpathyAcademy.org.

1:02:38Wonderful. Thank you for joining us, Carla. Thank you so much.

1:02:51Thank you for joining us for another fantastic episode of the Art of Charm podcast. This is the part where we celebrate one of our X Factor members. Take it away, Clint. This is Clint, and I'm in capital sales, and I'm a former X Factor student. I joined X Factor because I felt I needed more personal and professional growth. I considered myself successful in my career, but when it came to having conversations with customers, I felt I wasn't building relationships to their full potential. I then started noticing I was having similar shortfalls in personal relationships. Additionally, I felt a confidence void in certain situations, and I was hoping I could improve on that as well.

1:03:35Through the work I did at X Factor and the core confidence course, I was able to improve on both of these areas of my life. And since completing the X Factor, I've transitioned to a new position and the skills learned helped me securing an approximate 30 % increase in pay. So to any guy who considers himself a driven individual but feels he's not quite achieving all he thinks is possible in his current situation. I'd say look hard at joining X Factor. It sure did great things for me. Thank you, Clint. It was a pleasure and an honor working with you too, sir. And good luck to all of your future endeavors.

1:04:14If you found value out of this or any of our podcasts, head on over to your favorite podcast player and rate and review the show. It means the world to us and it helps others find the show. If you've listened this far, you're probably somebody who understands the value of building meaningful connections and expanding your network. Well, do we have something special for you today? Imagine a world-class networking program that helps you grow your social capital, not just through random handshakes and business cards, but through your general interests and core values. Introducing the social capital training, your gateway to mastering the art of authentic networking.

1:04:51Whether you're a professional looking to climb the career ladder, an entrepreneur seeking partnerships, or just somebody who wants to enhance their social skills, our free social capital training is designed for you. It's not about collecting contacts. It's about cultivating connections that matter. What makes our program stand out? We focus on leveraging your unique interests and values to create powerful, lasting relationships. Ready to take your networking game to the next level? Head on over to theartofcharm.com slash SC and watch your free social capital training today. Don't miss out on this opportunity to transform your social life.

1:05:27That's theartofcharm.com slash SC for your free social capital training. Elevate your network. Elevate your life with social capital. All right. Before we head out, a huge thank you to our producers, Michael Harreld and Eric Montgomery. Now, everyone, go out there and have a very epic week. Yeah, I remember you. You were the bad boy. You threw your love away Like it was just a toy And you sold the world Your song of the tragedy Cause you had your taste All black on the yesterday Yeah, but I remember you Oh yeah, I remember you You were the best, best, best, best The wrong way

From the publisher

In today’s episode, we cover emotions and empathy with Karla McLaren, a renowned expert in emotional intelligence and empathy development. As an award-winning author, educator, and social science researcher, Karla dedicated her career to helping individuals and organizations understand and harness the power of emotions. She developed the "Six Essential Aspects of Empathy" model, which breaks down empathy into accessible and actionable steps, making it possible for everyone to enhance their emotional skills. Karla's books, including "The Language of Emotions," "The Power of Emotions at Work," and "Embracing Anxiety," offer transformative insights into revaluing even the most challenging emotions, turning them into pathways for self-awareness, effective communication, and healthier relationships. 

Join us for an enlightening conversation with Karla McLaren as she unpacks the intricate language of emotions and the vital role they play in our daily lives. Ever wondered why certain emotions feel so overpowering or why we struggle to articulate what we're feeling? Karla breaks down the complexities of emotional intelligence and empathy, offering practical tools to expand your emotional vocabulary and improve your communication skills. We explore how emotions are not the enemies of rationality but essential allies in decision-making and relationship-building. Discover how to manage challenging emotions like anger and jealousy, set healthy boundaries, and develop a deeper connection with yourself and others. 

What to Listen For
Introduction – 00:00:00

Why do we often feel strong negative emotions even in our most loving relationships?

How does vulnerability play a crucial role in the intensity of emotions experienced in close relationships?

Introduction to Karla McLaren and her journey into exploring the language of emotions and empathy.

Understanding Emotions – 00:02:46

What are emotions, and why are they essential to our rationality and decision-making?

Why is it unhelpful to label emotions as simply ‘good’ or ‘bad’?

How does expanding your emotional vocabulary improve your self-awareness and emotional regulation?

Building an Emotional Vocabulary – 00:05:28

What are the benefits of having a broader emotional vocabulary?

How can identifying the intensity of emotions help you manage them more effectively?

Practical steps to enhance your emotional vocabulary and how it can lead to better communication.

Anger and Boundaries – 00:16:01

What is the true purpose of anger, and how does it relate to setting boundaries?

Common misconceptions about anger and how they can lead to unhealthy expressions or repression.

Strategies for managing anger constructively to maintain and reinforce personal boundaries.

Resist Emotional Manipulation – 00:27:20
What easy questions can you ask yourself to figure out if/how someone is trying to convince you to do something or think a certain way?
The Role of Jealousy – 00:32:36

What triggers jealousy, and why is it considered a crucial social emotion?

How to differentiate between healthy jealousy that sets boundaries and unhealthy reactions driven by insecurity.

Tips on addressing jealousy in relationships through clear communication and understanding personal needs.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More from The Art of Charm

All 254 episodes
The Secret Language Of EmotionsThe Art of Charm · 1 h 3 min
Listen in VO