The Emotion Ranger
This week is all about achieving balance in our mental ecosystem. We don’t want to eliminate the Big Five primitive emotions. Neither do we want to be overrun by the Great Five positive emotions.
Balance is everything. Just enough of the Big Five to keep us safe. And just enough of the Great Five to keep us happy and productive.
In this sense, each of us is a wildlife ranger responsible for ensuring balance in our own mental ecosystem. Whenever the system gets out of balance, we must identify the problem quickly and act to restore balance.
Thus, we get to this week’s…
Special Wednesday 5-minute action Take an emotion safari from the perspective of a ranger
Previous safaris were always taken from the perspective of a passive observer: First just looking for the Big Five, and later also trying to spot the Great Five.
We were just training awareness of these interesting creatures inhabiting our minds. But now, after we got to know them pretty well, we’re ready to take on more responsibility.
Spotting imbalances early on is very important because it’s much easier to correct a small imbalance than a big one. This emotion safari habit can therefore become a very effective early warning system.
Most people will find that their mental ecosystem has too many of the Big Five and too few of the Great Five. Thus, next week will be dedicated to building environments that automatically repel the Big Five and attract the Great Five.
In preparation, please take a couple of safaris from the perspective of the emotion ranger. Assess the balance in your mental ecosystem and identify your most important imbalances.
See you tomorrow for the wrap-up of this week’s topic.