The Bare Necessities: Jungle Book
Identify our true needs in life!
This article aims to introduce the concept of Emotional Literacy.
Emotional literacy — the ability to name and communicate our feelings correctly, which brings awareness and helps in managing and working through difficult emotions.
This article talks about:
- Part 1: The Broken pieces of our Emotions.
- Part 2: The Bare Necessities.
- Part 3: Journey from Gross to Subtle.
Part 1: The Broken pieces of our Emotions
Sleeping like a Baby!
Doesn't it sometimes feel like a distant dream?
As we started to grow old, we somewhere left behind our inner child unnoticed.
In therapy, this process we are about to see is called healing through Inner-child work. Lets us take a moment and see some of the situations where our emotions run us or overwhelm us causing an emotional imbalance.
For discussion purposes, let us divide human life into majorly two aspects, Professional and Personal. The source of emotional imbalance in Professional life is not very different than in Personal life.
Personal Life: sources of emotional imbalance
- That painful feeling of a broken heart (friends or family).
- That disappointment of being misunderstood by our loved ones.
- Those high bars of social expectations.
- Living up to unrealistic standards of beauty.
- Major changes in life — marriage, relocation, or a new job.
- That insecurity of falling out of place, yet having to manage through.
- Loss of a job.
- Increase in financial obligations.
- Health imbalance.
- Traumatic Events in Life.
The Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions
(we will take a deep dive into understanding these emotions in the upcoming articles, for now, just get familiar with the idea)
Professional Life: sources of emotional imbalance
- Work Overload or Underload
- Perfectionism
- Problems due to work style differences with Boss, Peers, or Direct Reports.
- Unrealistic Expectations and Demands.
- Leadership Stress — expectations to always have an answer, expectations to always close the client deal, expectations to be able to manage time, competition or lack of teamwork, missing respect/support, and unclear strategy or Vision.
- Lack of skill (Core or Interpersonal ).
- The pressure of performance and promotions.
- Drive to achieve it all in the shortest time possible.
The Yerkes Dodson Human Performance and stress curve.
(we will take a deep dive into understanding this curve in the upcoming articles, for now, get familiar with the idea)
The deep exhaustion that comes due to these above-mentioned events causes revolving and catastrophic thinking. Sometimes leading to physical, emotional and mental burnout.
Part 2: The Bare Necessities.
Identifying our true needs in life
Do you recollect the answer to the most frequently asked question during our early schooling days, what are basic human needs for a blissful life?
FOOD, CLOTHING AND SHELTER.
Unfortunately, this answer is only 10 percent true. Even passing marks require more than 36 percent.
Comprehending Human Needs
Let us look into some more fundamental human needs:
Physiological :
- Food, clothing, shelter, and rest.
Safety Needs :
- The need to live is a safe and secure emotional environment as well as the physical environment.
- To be living in a playful and relaxed atmosphere.
- To be surrounded by people who are better human beings than us.
- People who help us in our healing journey and we help in theirs.
Belongingness Needs:
- Need for being loved and understood. (family, friends, and community)
- Need for freedom and space to process feelings.
- Need for true and genuine friendship.
- Need for sharing the silence.
- Need for meaningful communication.
- Need for trust, loyalty, and Integrity.
Esteem Needs:
- Feeling of accomplishment.
- The feeling of dignity, reputation, and respect from others.
Self-Actualization:
- Achieving one’s full potential.
- Exploring the creative side.
Part 3: Journey from Gross to Subtle.
There is a difference between living by chance and living a meaningful life. Understanding the difference starts our journey from gross to subtle.
The emotional imbalance is caused when:
- Trying to fulfill wants as compared to looking after our needs.
- Unable to let go of a situation/person/goals which are out of our control.
- Wanting to do too much in too little of a time frame.
- Forgetting you are a human and not a machine.
We have seen what is emotional imbalance and we have seen what are our basic needs. We will see how to reduce the gap between the two in the upcoming articles.
We all are work in progress, but progress is still progress.
It takes a lot of courage to be willing to look inwards, into the roots of emotional imbalance. Emotional Literacy is very hard to approach, as it is as real as it gets. You cannot be untrue to yourself about your true emotions.
I deeply appreciate your willingness to reach here.
I have written this blog with the hope to avoid information overload yet put across all the essential points. As mentioned earlier this is only an introduction to EL, planning/hoping to share detailed insights on the above topics in a series of quick bytes, as and when possible.
If you feel this article has added value to your life, please do share and leave in the comment box below about your feelings/emotions/feedback/suggestions that will help me improve and bring the content in a more meaningful way.
Thank you ☺️
