EMOTIONAL LITERACY

The term "emotional literacy" was introduced by Claude Steiner in 1997. Steiner believed that emotional literacy is the most important tool for helping people, especially children, deal with their emotions and thus improve their quality of life. He also divided emotional literacy into five separate parts:

1.     Recognizing one's own feelings;

2.     Feeling empathy;

3.     Learning to manage one's emotions;

4.     Solving emotional problems;

5.     Integrating all of the above, also called emotional interaction.

Emotional literacy - the ability to understand, express, and effectively manage emotions - is a very important skill for adults in both personal and professional life. Adult emotional literacy involves understanding how emotions manifest and change a person’s behavior and thinking. By exploring practical strategies for developing emotional literacy, we aim to provide adults with the tools needed to navigate a complex emotional environment.

Eight basic emotions / Robert Plutchik:

1.     Sadness

2.     Fear

3.     Disgust

4.     Anger

5.     Joy

6.     Surprise

7.     Curiosity

8.     Hope

Others: happiness, anxiety, love, depression, contempt, pride, shame, envy.

·       We experience about 30 emotions per hour.

·       We go through about 500 emotional states daily.

·        Joy, satisfaction with oneself, often alternates with dissatisfaction, despair.

·        Anxiety, tension, and disappointment with everything lead to a feeling of indifference and emptiness. This feeling arises when realizing that childhood has ended, yet one is not fully grown up. In the past, emotions were of little concern, but now their importance is being recognized. It is said: "People are angry and frustrated, so we need to listen to them." Interestingly, such phrases often arise when a crowd is not just angry but expressing aggression. Recently, there has been talk about the anger of participants in movements like the family march. Emotions are neither good nor bad, unless they are pleasant or unpleasant. They always convey information that needs to be heard. Specifically, anger can transmit unmet expectations (both personal and others'), crossed boundaries, etc. It provides energy to defend oneself.