Emotions are not weaknesses or problems to suppress but signals to interpret. They are intelligent messengers designed to protect, inform, and guide you. Every emotion carries information about what matters most to you—your safety, values, relationships, and well-being.

Emotions evolved through natural selection as a way to get humans to avoid things that would threaten their survival and approach things that would serve them.

In essence, emotions condense our judgment about what’s happening around us, driving us to make the “right” decision for survival and adaptation.

We first experience emotions as physical sensations (e.g., a tightening chest, racing heart, sinking stomach). These physiological changes alert us to an emotion worth paying attention to. They give us important information about our well-being, indicating that we are experiencing a deep reaction to someone or something, and that we need to deal with it.

Once you understand how the emotional system operates, including its built-in negativity bias, you can use emotions as your personal navigational........

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