Emotional energy and moods.

Emotions involve a lot of mental and organic activity, so they are comparable to energy sources that translate into impulses to indicate what is happening around us. This emotional energy can be said to be like electricity, whose impulses motivate us, move us, inform us and keep us alert in order to respond to the stimuli, prepare us before different situations with the aim of adapting to them.

Emotional energy, renewable energy source.

Like all energy efforts, it has its limits and is exhausted, fortune is that it is capable of regeneration. We could say that emotional energy is a source of renewable energy. Like the wind, like the sea, like the sun, it only needs the tools and conditions necessary to produce new energy, either positive or negative.

The more tired we are the more depressed we feel, the more problems we find where there were none and the more irritated we get. The emotional energy is with the deposit in the reserve. People do not have a sneak gasoline, like cars, that warns us when the emotional fuel runs out. What we can do is develop our emotional intelligence to learn to control when we must throw gas back to the reservoir of emotions and thus avoid getting thrown in the middle of the road.

>> Related article: The theory of multiple intelligences, by Gardner.

It is important to be able to control our emotions to guide the energy they release and the tension they produce, and thus prevent our surveillance capacity, our cognitive performance and our personal and interpersonal well-being from being affected by the lack of fuel in the reservoir. emotions.

What is the tool you use to charge your mobile phone’s battery? The charger. Well, just as to charge the mobile we have a tool, to control our emotional energy we have the emotional intelligence, which fortunately can be developed throughout our lives.

Knowing our emotional intelligence requires a capacity for self-observation. Our mood is influenced by the energy and tension that are generated from the constant use of our emotions that try to respond to all the stimuli that come to us. Usually, these sensations are of low intensity but when the stimulus that causes them is intense enough it can overwhelm and block us. Moods move us to throw that gas we lack and regulate the tension, but we must learn to control how to do it because a gasoline car will not run on gasoline.

Sometimes you have to expend energy, sometimes recharge it and sometimes regulate it. For example, when we are depressed we may feel the need for someone to trust us with comfort or encouragement. However, in these situations it is very common that the lack of control of energy makes it difficult for us to separate the (tired, hungry …), the cognitive (nervous, distracted …) and our own emotions ( Frustrated, anxious, irascible …). There is no self-regulation.

>> Recommended article: The emotions roulette, by Robert Plutchik.

Basic states of energy and tension.

The American psychologist Robert E. Thayer (1935-2014) studied in depth the states of mind from a biopsychological perspective. Thayer identified four types of basic states of energy and tension that may favor or disrupt our emotional intelligence. Two of them can negatively influence our performance and personal well-being: tense energy and tense tiredness; While the other two can serve to strengthen us and improve our competition: calm energy and calm fatigue.

Tense energy.

High voltage and high energy. It is a state of mind characterized by a sense of pleasant excitement and power. Physical energy is high even when tension and fatigue are also high. In this state, the person tends to strive to achieve what he proposes but without reflecting on what he does. The physical tension can cause the loss of attention to other needs, own and of the others and finish arriving at a state of total exhaustion.

When we feel involved in a project or work and do not stop to eat or sleep, leaving aside other perhaps more important obligations.

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Quiet energy.

Low voltage and high energy. The serenity and the feeling of dominion over us prevails. The tension does not exist and we are overwhelmed by optimism, pleasant body sensations and we feel vigorous, with fullness and well-being. In this state we have the energy reserves at the top, both mentally and physically as our capabilities increase, we are more vital and creative.

We could say that it is the closest thing to what, in organizational psychology, is known as flow state.

Tired tiredness.

High voltage and low power. Feeling of general fatigue, feelings of fatigue, discouragement, nervousness that can deplete our self-esteem and make us feel incapable in our labors. The body and the mind ask us for a rest throughout the day, that if we do not give it to us it will make us spend a bad night.

Those cases in which your daily agenda is up to tasks, which are not all of your devotion, and you come home with the batteries discharged. However, you do not get to fill your battery and the next day you have to start the day again without having recharged mentally or physically.

Quiet fatigue.

Low voltage and low power. In this case, tiredness is pleasant, relaxed. It is the moment when you can allow yourself to rest with a clear conscience. When you get home after a long but productive day of work and you throw yourself on the couch to watch your favorite series.

It seems obvious to say that what we have to foster are states of calm energy and calm fatigue, trying to make the tense states minimal throughout the day. Getting our emotional equation to fit something like this:

(Tranquility x Energy) – (Stress x Tiredness) = Motivation.

During the day for mobiles we have external batteries to charge them, what is your external battery of emotional energy charging?

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Sources:

Cooper R. K y Sawaf A(1998) Emotional Intelligence in Leadership & Organizations. Nueva York: Grosset/Putnam

Thayer R.E. (1989). The Biopsychology of Mood and Arousal. Nueva York: Oxford University Press.

Thayer R.E. (2001). Calm Energy. Nueva York: Oxford University Press.