Atlas of the Heart : Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

I think that’s the biggest watch-out with irony and sarcasm: Are you dressing something up in humor that actually requires clarity and honesty?

Vulnerability is courage in you and inadequacy in me.

I’m drawn to your vulnerability but repelled by mine.

In these challenging moments of dissonance, we need to stay curious and resist choosing comfort over courage.

e prone to depression or rumination, nostalgia tends to be associated with negative emotional outcomes.

the process of labeling emotional experience is related to
greater emotion regulation and
psychosocial well-being.

Our ability to accurately recognize and label emotions is often referred to as emotional granularity.

Language is our portal to meaning-making, connection, healing, learning, and self-awareness. Having access to the right words can open up entire universes. When we don’t have the language to talk about what we’re experiencing, our ability to make sense of what’s happening and share it with others is severely limited. Without accurate language, we struggle to get the help we need, we don’t always regulate or manage our emotions and experiences in a way that allows us to move through them productively, and our self-awareness is diminished. Language shows us that naming an experience doesn’t give the experience more power, it gives us the power of understanding and meaning.

a quote from the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that I came across in college: “
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

People will do almost anything to not feel pain, including causing pain and abusing power;

Very few people can handle being held accountable without rationalizing, blaming, or shutting down; and

Without understanding how our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors work together, it’s almost impossible to find our way back to ourselves and each other. When we don’t understand how our emotions shape our thoughts and decisions, we become disembodied from our own experiences and disconnected from each other.

I’m not responsible for your emotional reaction to that accountability.