EQ - structure of subjective experience

Structure of subjective experience:

• External behavior - what can be observed by other people in our body posture, gesture, in our voice, muscle tension, breathing, etc.
• Internal processes - what we imagine, what we are saying to ourselves
• Internal state - what we feel internally, our emotions, our moods

External behavior, internal processes and internal state are inextricably bound up together, as the relationship between these elements is systemic.

Thoughts are systemically associated with emotions. Someone who feels depressed will have pessimistic thoughts. You can also reverse this: someone who always evaluates their experiences in a negative way will feel depressed.

Emotions are skills - a self employed person cannot allow themselves to become ill. This can give them the ability to become resistant to diseases.

Emotions are decisions - after a successful job interview, you feel happy. Your state determines the conclusion you draw about the situation.

Behavior is emotion - being self confident, will look in the eye, shake someone's hand firmly.

Any emotional state can be accessed from broadly tow categories: the Body End or the Mind End of our bodymind.

The Body End

• Search for the context where you naturally experience the emotion (e.g. on stage I want to be clown, ..)
• Activate external behavior: body posture, gestures, voice, etc
• Activate internal sensations: breathing, warmth, muscle tension, etc

The Mind End

• Activate beliefs, values and internal representations. This includes those of situations where we naturally experienced an emotion and even where we imagine what it would have been like if we had experienced it or would be like if we do.