Your emotions contain brilliant information. When you learn
to welcome them as your allies, they can reveal creative
solutions to any situation. For 35 years, empathic counselor
and researcher Karla McLaren has developed a set of practical
tools for the real-world stresses of family, career, and the
quest for personal fulfillment. In
The Language of
Emotions, she presents her breakthrough teachings for a
new and empowering relationship with your feeling
states.
Your emotions—especially the dark and dishonored ones—hold a
tremendous amount of energy. We’ve all seen what happens when
we repress or blindly express them. However, there is a
powerful alternative. In
The Language of Emotions,
you’ll learn to meet your emotions and engage with them to
safely move toward resolution and equilibrium. Through
experiential exercises covering a full spectrum of feelings
from anger, fear, and shame to jealousy, grief, joy, and
more, you will discover how to work with your own and others’
emotions with fluency and expertise.
When we relate to our emotions with respect and authenticity,
we can directly access our innermost wisdom, unfold the
deepest parts of ourselves, and heal our most painful wounds.
The Language of Emotions gives us a much-needed
resource for self-understanding and freedom:
- How to overcome addictions, distractions, and
unresolved trauma—the three primary impediments to
emotional ease
- Using the energy of anger to protect and restore
personal boundaries
- Step-by-step guidance in the five skills of the
empath (someone skilled in reading emotions)
- How to balance your “quaternity,” a metaphor for
the interplay of mind, body, spirit, and emotions
- Honoring sadness as a source of release and
rejuvenation
Joy, the natural response to beauty and communion
Praise
“In my graduate education in counseling psychology, I found
very little information about our emotions. Yet in my
work as a therapist and educator, I’ve seen that emotions are
key to healing. Karla McLaren’s book offers an
outstanding guide to the signals and messages emotions send
us, along with clear instructions for intelligent and
emotion-supporting actions we can take in response.
Karla has made a huge contribution to the well-being of us
all; The Language of Emotions will become required reading in
all of my courses.”—Nancy —Feehan, MFT, adjunct professor of
counseling psychology at the University of San
Francisco
“Karla McLaren’s unique, empathic view of emotions
surprisingly revalues even the most ‘negative’ emotions and
opens pathways to understanding the depths of the human
soul.”
—Michael Meade, author of
The World Behind the World
and
The Water of Life
“This book changed the way I relate to others, and to myself,
forever.”
—Gavin De Becker, author of
The Gift of Fear
Table of Contents
Part I: Restoring Your Native Language
- Introduction- Creating a Conscious Life
- My Empathic Journey- The Difficult Beginnings of
Empathy
- Troubled Waters – How We Got So Confused
- It Takes a Village – Surrounding Your Emotions With
Support
- Reviving Your Essential Nature – Making Room for Your
Central Self
- Avoidance, Addiction, and Awakening—Understanding the
Need for Distractions
- Unintentional Shamans—The Role of Trauma in Soul-Making
and Culture-Binding
- The Role of Emotions in the Resolution of Trauma—Water
Will Carry You Home
- The Steadfast Promise – Why Love is Not an
Emotion
- Building Your Raft—The Five Empathic Skills
PART II : Embracing Your Emotions
- Wading Into the Water – Awakening All of Your Emotions
- Anger: Protection and Restoration—Includes Rage,
Fury, and the Healing of Trauma
- Apathy and Boredom—The Mask for Anger
- Guilt and Shame—Restoring Integrity
- Hatred—The Profound Mirror—Includes Resentment,
Contempt, Disgust, and Shadow Work
- Fear: Intuition and Action – Includes Anxiety, Worry,
and the Healing of Trauma
- Confusion: The Mask for Fear
- Jealousy and Envy: Relational Radar—Includes
Greed
- Panic and Terror: Frozen Fire – Includes Healing
from Trauma
- Sadness: Release and Rejuvenation: Includes
Despair and Despondency
- Grief: The Deep River of the Soul
- Depression: Ingenious Stagnation—Focusing on
Situational Depression
- Suicidal Urges: The Darkness Before Dawn
- Happiness: Amusement and Anticipation
- Contentment: Appreciation and Recognition
- Joy: Affinity and Communion—Includes Exhilaration and
Honoring Happiness in Others
- Stress and Resistance: Understanding Emotional
Physics
- Emotions Are Your Native Language—The Fine Art of a
Life Well Lived