Emodiversity. Emowhat!?

This research project builds on the idea that our evolutionarily older brain systems are not solely a source of immorality and selfishness, but when tuned by our goals, can contribute to moral and just behavior. Thus, human flourishing does not come from the suppression of aspects of the self, but rather through the integration of all relevant processes together into a unified response.
How happy brains respond to negative things, by Summer Allen and Jeremy Adam Smith

Today I finished the first week of my course “The science of happiness” (the great thing about these courses is that you can do them at your own pace). There were a few things I already knew and there were some interesting things I didn’t know.

One thing I had never heard of was emodiversity. Emowhat!?!? Apparently I missed something. Emodiversity is the variety and abundance of emotions a person has. Study shows that people with a high emodiversity are less likely to be depressed than people that are high in just positive emotions. Also, high emodiversity is linked to better health. So, it may be better for our overall happiness to feel negative emotions like anger at appropriate times than to try to deny them and feel happy all the time.

I think that all emotions are parts of us that have a reason for speaking up, whether we like to hear it or not. I actually believe that all of these parts have a good intention for us as well. Some of these parts just don’t know how to express themselves in a healthy way.
Like I said in Egowise, I feel it’s important to listen seriously to what all your parts have to say in a neutral way. Then, see what they say is real and/or helpful or not. Not scientific at all, but my own experience is that when I don’t listen they only tend to scream louder. And maybe it doesn’t work for everybody and maybe it’s worth a try.

Curious about your emodiversity? Don’t worry, of course they developed a test you can do. And of course I took it 🙂 . Much to my surprise it said I have an emodiversity of 99%!? I know I sometimes feel like I’m on an emotional rollercoaster, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t equal emodiversity 🙂 .