18 Jun Emotional Granularity – The work of Lisa Feldman Barrett
Emotional granularity offers an important concept to those healing from trauma and attachment wounding.
Emotional granularity, the work of Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a professor at Northeastern University, includes being able to differentiate between positive and negative emotions as well as discriminating between high and low arousal emotions.
You see, if we don’t evolve our emotional lexicon our body responds to the embedded shorthand “stories” that we’re habituated to. What that means is that when traumatized we tend to lump high arousal/negative emotions into one clump — instead of being able to parse out distinctions.
Why is that important? The more we can tease apart what happens inside the more we can put a wedge into emotional reactivity. The more we do that, the more choice we have in how we experience life.
The more we know the fundamental building blocks of every day experience the more we can slow down internal distress and find more satisfying ways to live.