I've always been very introspective, but had a hard time actually labeling and describing emotions as a kid. For me, getting better at it was simply a matter of long practice and determined observation of myself and others. It helps when I look at emotions as leaning toward actions and concrete desires. Ok, I know I'm feeling something---what does it cause me to want to do or experience? What does the feeling tie in with in my memory? I'll sift through ideas and try them on for size, experiencing them in my imagination and determining if those imaginary acts/experiences fit or help anything. Nowadays, it's pretty habitual and quick, but the cognitive process of it is still there.
As for identifying them in others, it's been another deliberately-learned thing through observation, reading, comparisons with myself, and sometimes just plain asking people I know. And I still don't always get it, lol. There too, it helps me to view emotions as simply indicators of a concrete need or desire. I'm a step-by-step problem-solver, I can't help it....But I've been able to use that approach, and my perspective on emotions, to help some NT folks figure out what's going on in themselves at times, and maybe even help them see potential paths to what to do about it. I really like "getting to the heart of a matter."
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"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was not made for this world." (C.S. Lewis)
07 Feb 2010, 9:00 pm
