Thank you, Veronilka, for another excellent essay on what I believe is important ideas on making us more Human. I am especially glad to read about the necessity of our Emotions, which need to come out of the closet. All of them.
I have been fighting a lonely fight for 30
years, after my own personal awakening through writing and reading, saying our Emotions are part of who we are. We should not fear or manage or bury them (only to resurface), but appreciate and understand them. Our society still has a long way to go to accepting Human Emotions, and seeing how they are essential to us.
And if health is on a continuum, and I agree it is, the suppression of one aspect that makes us Human explains a high degree of mental dis-ease in our society.
Thank you, Perry. I am delighted that you connect with this aspect of Consciousness, which is the most challenging one for many.
Whenever I work with someone in a therapy sessions, this is what I need to check out first. If the emotional experience is a major stumbling block (i.e. the person refuses to face their own difficult emotions) I can only offer a few simple techniques to alleviate the situation, but we can never go to a deeper place where true healing is possible.
So I am always grateful for anyone who 'gets it'! So pleased to see that this resonates with you 💙🙏
Very true. As important as physical health is, emotional health is equally so; they are interlinked. If your physical health is amazing but your emotional health is deficient, then you will likely not even feel the benefits of the former.
Thank you; I find Veronika's writing feeds my imagination and opens creative channels of thought and communication that are inherent in all of us, but require nurturing.
What an important chapter, I had so many thoughts as I read this, and found myself wishing Substack had an internal notes function so I could highlight and comment right into the text!
I thought about my mom quite a bit throughout. She became a therapist herself because “I didn’t understand emotions and wanted to know why humans have them.” My brother and I always scratched our heads at this Spock-like proclamation, as if our mom could only experience/understand emotion through some cognitive function. Now, later in life, we’re pretty sure she (and other family members) have high functioning autism and she was legitimately not able to connect to another’s experience through empathy. In a strange way, this may’ve made her an even better therapist but often made a sense of feeling “seen” as her daughter a bit muddy.
As someone whose entire experience of life is watery and sensual (thank you for identifying the many beyond the big 5!) I wholly embrace emotion as vital to saludogenesis!
Thank you for such a profound and thoughtful feedback, Kimberly. Yes, I believe emotions, and how they have been driven towards near extinction over many generations, are at the core of our traumatised culture and 'mental health crisis'.
As a highly emotional/ sensitive being myself I was forced to focus on these inner creatures as a matter of survival, which has enabled me to understand and work with them in deep and transformative ways.
It has also made my work as a therapist difficult, especially in the beginning. During my internship year with a practicing homœopath/ tutor, I remember bursting into tears as a patient was telling her story (too much empathy!). For the development of Synchronosophy, not shying away from working through my own emotions, from the most subtle to the most gut wrenching, it's been a great gift.
Given the extent of emotional trauma in our society, I believe, we are just at the beginning of our collective healing journey, waiting for pioneers like you and me (and other skilled surfers of the Inner Ocean) to nurture salutogenesis.
Another great write. Step by step Synchronosophy is being revealed to the world. When I was doing my Ph.D at Henley Management College in the 1980s, there was research into 'how CEOs actually make important decisions' (and hence justified their salaries -- nowhere near today's mega payouts by the way). Anyway the results, expected to show serious rational analysis, revealed ultimately that 'gut feeling' played the most significant part, because rational analysis could not assimilate and hold 'all the facts' and then based on that, make a 'rational decision'. So emotions and 'gut feeling' (Instinct & Intuition) came to the rescue, as it were.
I guess this shows too that the role of the Intellect (rational mind) is limited, and needs to play the part it's most suited for as a team member along with the other seven faculties of Consciousness. For 500+ years, the Intellect has been overloaded, has had too much expected of it, not least because the Instinct (emotional reality) was suppressed. And of course when the Inspiration, Intuition, Imagination and other Faculties are brought into the picture of decision-making, then the smooth teamwork of the inner world creates greater coherence -- and could quite possibly lead to experience of the outer world as a much kinder place.
This was known in the 1980s! Forty years ago. Thank you for the reminder 💙🙏
Around the same time 'emotional intelligence' became all the rage, presumably when those same CEOs began to justify their mega salaries by presenting themselves as mega-empaths (aka 'philanthropists' = mega impostors)
Hi Veronika. Of course, I read your work with awe. There is sooooooo much here; I realise when I start I will need to come back ... again and again ... as I keep saying.😊 Your mention of toxic positivity jumped out to me. My experience of toxic positivity has been people projecting an expected emotional response; usually no emotional response, because they cannot manage their own emotions or they haven't any experience or reference of the depth of the emotion themselves; or they merely parrot the culturally conditioned expectations which just add to trauma. Urrghhhhh to toxic positivity that is projected, and of course manifests as people suppressing their show of emotions because they have been given the message that it is wrong. Thank you again for framing the complexities and the offer your writing extends to us.💜😊🙏🧚🏼♀️
yes, we inadvertently project what we haven't processed. But processing is impossible while upholding cultural expectations of 'positivity at all cost' (which inevitably turns into its negative counterpart).
I know, every chapter contains enough material for at least three... But I wanted to give a 'comprehensive' overview of all the aspects that feed into Synchronosophy. To build a strong basis.
Thank you so much for being here and enjoying the read. 💙🙏 It truly means a lot to me and nurtures future chapters 💙🙏
I adore this project, Veronika. I need to take more time to dive in properly and engage. So many wonderful layers of language and literature, nature and place.
This is amazing. The topic of emotional intelligence and suppression is something that needs to be taught at schools.
My first thought in re: emotional suppression is social media, which on the face of it seems to amplify emotions, but I feel in actuality, dampens it. Perhaps it's the over stimuli or the unnatural way of consuming human interactions and their emotions.
Secondly, Asian culture is very much tied to "saving face" or not showing your hand, so to speak. In some ways, it's brilliant because it teaches you to control your emotions, but in other ways, it seems to greatly suppress it. I suppose it depends on the person, but collectively it can be damaging, as extremes in any direction is not healthy.
Lastly, I'm reminded of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and Elinor's habit of suppressing her emotions in an effort to be strong. But, of course, at the end, when we realize how very deeply she feels things, it is truly a crushingly beautiful moment of emotions.
Thank you so much for your encouraging words, Lani! 💙🙏
Social media, yes well, it's artificial intelligence encouraging artificial emotions, I would say. 1st, you can't offer genuine critique, or 'negative emotional feedback' without being called out as a 'troll'.
2nd, fake positive emotional expression is encouraged, even when it's coercive, manipulative, and narcissistic, all good in the name of gaining followers.
I can't say or write anything about Asian culture (obviously). From my visits to Asia, and having had a close Japanese friend for over a decade (+ a Japanese sister in law, + a Mongolian daughter in law) I am aware of emotional suppression in Eastern cultures too, of course. But I don't know about the history. That might be something for you to explore?
Hmmm, you're giving me homework. Hahahhaa. I'd be interested to hear different takes on this, so I'm going to ask folks at work, as I work with a mix of expats and Khmers, what they think on the topic. And maybe I'll get into the internet-kind of research, too. 😝
Thanks Veronika. Had to wait til today to go deep with this. As kids here in Canada they tested us on IQ- intelligence quotient often at early grades. They took the kids with the highest scores and put them in special class, skipped them ahead and put some special school. In later years, we all ended up in the same high school and the same courses. Interestingly enough, those kids that were pulled often never fit in. Emotional Quotient or EQ was just as important if not more important by the time high school arrived, and on into life.
I’ve also been able to witness this in the working world, as I’ve been in various forms of leadership over the past 30 years. EQ wins for teams and ultimately the success of most ventures. Emotional intelligence is definitely lifelong learning, arguably, lifetimes learning. I’m looking forward to leaning into what you are sharing.
What is intelligence? How does it link to consciousness?
Thank you, Jamie, for sharing these valuable experiences and insights!
I would say Consciousness is intelligent by nature. It's our human ancestors who have tried to reduce that intelligence to the intellect... and eventually realised that intellect actually doesn't function very well, so they pulled 'emotional intelligence' out of the bag.
Human emotions were intelligent all along. Using the intellect to suppress them has proved to be the dumbest idea of some 'intellectuals'. That's why relearning 'emotional intelligence' is now such a big deal. Maybe even lifetimes, as you say.
Synchronosophy teaches us not only communication with our Faculties but also how they communicate with each other ~ in incredibly intelligent ways. A lot of understanding happens in the relationships between them (and emotions are all about relationships).
What a great call to swim in 'the inner ocean', I love it. Glad to see you as an ally doing martial arts with 'positivism' and pointing out the sameness of feeling outcast in childhood because of feelings resulting in a habit to cast ourselves out because of emotions. Living beside our-self comes to mind ;)
Emotion, from from Latin emovere "move out, remove, agitate'; or even better... out (e- or ex) to move... feeling that could not be felt before, connected to a story in the past, which was stored in the bodily energetic vault.
What we won't feel can't heal in our spirited body-world 💦
I feel so grateful to receive your newsletters... oh yeah, and Sophie won't be fooled 🤣 she'll serve synchonies in our ocean 💜 thank you thank you thank you Veronika. I'm still playing with the new word I learned from you and made a link to you in my latest newsletter👍to pass it on.
How wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing. 💙🙏 I'm exited that you're excited.
Yes, having (barely) survived as outcasts to ourselves for far too long, it is time to grab the living experience that is rightfully ours ~ feelings and all. Our life literally depends on it. 🫶
A very well-researched and well-written piece. Quite enlightening as well; I certainly never thought about senses beyond the basic five, and these concepts of emotional sensing or instinct are so interesting.
The reason for this limitation to the 'basic 5 senses', I assume, is the focus on the physical, which has ruled science for so long. Ironically, even at the physical level, many sensory perceptions have been completely ignored, presumably they couldn't be measured as brain activity?
To discover a whole other (+ much bigger) range of senses is an exciting adventure. I'm thrilled, you enjoyed this little initiation into the inner realm of Sentience.
Thank you, Veronilka, for another excellent essay on what I believe is important ideas on making us more Human. I am especially glad to read about the necessity of our Emotions, which need to come out of the closet. All of them.
I have been fighting a lonely fight for 30
years, after my own personal awakening through writing and reading, saying our Emotions are part of who we are. We should not fear or manage or bury them (only to resurface), but appreciate and understand them. Our society still has a long way to go to accepting Human Emotions, and seeing how they are essential to us.
And if health is on a continuum, and I agree it is, the suppression of one aspect that makes us Human explains a high degree of mental dis-ease in our society.
Thank you, Perry. I am delighted that you connect with this aspect of Consciousness, which is the most challenging one for many.
Whenever I work with someone in a therapy sessions, this is what I need to check out first. If the emotional experience is a major stumbling block (i.e. the person refuses to face their own difficult emotions) I can only offer a few simple techniques to alleviate the situation, but we can never go to a deeper place where true healing is possible.
So I am always grateful for anyone who 'gets it'! So pleased to see that this resonates with you 💙🙏
Very true. As important as physical health is, emotional health is equally so; they are interlinked. If your physical health is amazing but your emotional health is deficient, then you will likely not even feel the benefits of the former.
Love the article and your comment. Very enlightening. Thank you
Thank you so much, Syreeta for reading and joining in the communal pondering 💙🙏
Thank you; I find Veronika's writing feeds my imagination and opens creative channels of thought and communication that are inherent in all of us, but require nurturing.
What an important chapter, I had so many thoughts as I read this, and found myself wishing Substack had an internal notes function so I could highlight and comment right into the text!
I thought about my mom quite a bit throughout. She became a therapist herself because “I didn’t understand emotions and wanted to know why humans have them.” My brother and I always scratched our heads at this Spock-like proclamation, as if our mom could only experience/understand emotion through some cognitive function. Now, later in life, we’re pretty sure she (and other family members) have high functioning autism and she was legitimately not able to connect to another’s experience through empathy. In a strange way, this may’ve made her an even better therapist but often made a sense of feeling “seen” as her daughter a bit muddy.
As someone whose entire experience of life is watery and sensual (thank you for identifying the many beyond the big 5!) I wholly embrace emotion as vital to saludogenesis!
Thank you for such a profound and thoughtful feedback, Kimberly. Yes, I believe emotions, and how they have been driven towards near extinction over many generations, are at the core of our traumatised culture and 'mental health crisis'.
As a highly emotional/ sensitive being myself I was forced to focus on these inner creatures as a matter of survival, which has enabled me to understand and work with them in deep and transformative ways.
It has also made my work as a therapist difficult, especially in the beginning. During my internship year with a practicing homœopath/ tutor, I remember bursting into tears as a patient was telling her story (too much empathy!). For the development of Synchronosophy, not shying away from working through my own emotions, from the most subtle to the most gut wrenching, it's been a great gift.
Given the extent of emotional trauma in our society, I believe, we are just at the beginning of our collective healing journey, waiting for pioneers like you and me (and other skilled surfers of the Inner Ocean) to nurture salutogenesis.
Another great write. Step by step Synchronosophy is being revealed to the world. When I was doing my Ph.D at Henley Management College in the 1980s, there was research into 'how CEOs actually make important decisions' (and hence justified their salaries -- nowhere near today's mega payouts by the way). Anyway the results, expected to show serious rational analysis, revealed ultimately that 'gut feeling' played the most significant part, because rational analysis could not assimilate and hold 'all the facts' and then based on that, make a 'rational decision'. So emotions and 'gut feeling' (Instinct & Intuition) came to the rescue, as it were.
I guess this shows too that the role of the Intellect (rational mind) is limited, and needs to play the part it's most suited for as a team member along with the other seven faculties of Consciousness. For 500+ years, the Intellect has been overloaded, has had too much expected of it, not least because the Instinct (emotional reality) was suppressed. And of course when the Inspiration, Intuition, Imagination and other Faculties are brought into the picture of decision-making, then the smooth teamwork of the inner world creates greater coherence -- and could quite possibly lead to experience of the outer world as a much kinder place.
This was known in the 1980s! Forty years ago. Thank you for the reminder 💙🙏
Around the same time 'emotional intelligence' became all the rage, presumably when those same CEOs began to justify their mega salaries by presenting themselves as mega-empaths (aka 'philanthropists' = mega impostors)
Hi Veronika. Of course, I read your work with awe. There is sooooooo much here; I realise when I start I will need to come back ... again and again ... as I keep saying.😊 Your mention of toxic positivity jumped out to me. My experience of toxic positivity has been people projecting an expected emotional response; usually no emotional response, because they cannot manage their own emotions or they haven't any experience or reference of the depth of the emotion themselves; or they merely parrot the culturally conditioned expectations which just add to trauma. Urrghhhhh to toxic positivity that is projected, and of course manifests as people suppressing their show of emotions because they have been given the message that it is wrong. Thank you again for framing the complexities and the offer your writing extends to us.💜😊🙏🧚🏼♀️
yes, we inadvertently project what we haven't processed. But processing is impossible while upholding cultural expectations of 'positivity at all cost' (which inevitably turns into its negative counterpart).
I know, every chapter contains enough material for at least three... But I wanted to give a 'comprehensive' overview of all the aspects that feed into Synchronosophy. To build a strong basis.
Thank you so much for being here and enjoying the read. 💙🙏 It truly means a lot to me and nurtures future chapters 💙🙏
Hoooooooooray Veronika, “processing is impossible while upholding cultural expectations of positivity at all costs”.
It’s my pleasure to be here … So much to learn.💜🙏🧚♀️
Thank you for your work 😊
I adore this project, Veronika. I need to take more time to dive in properly and engage. So many wonderful layers of language and literature, nature and place.
Thank you so much, Kathleen! I look forward to your precious thoughts and feedback 💙🙏
This is amazing. The topic of emotional intelligence and suppression is something that needs to be taught at schools.
My first thought in re: emotional suppression is social media, which on the face of it seems to amplify emotions, but I feel in actuality, dampens it. Perhaps it's the over stimuli or the unnatural way of consuming human interactions and their emotions.
Secondly, Asian culture is very much tied to "saving face" or not showing your hand, so to speak. In some ways, it's brilliant because it teaches you to control your emotions, but in other ways, it seems to greatly suppress it. I suppose it depends on the person, but collectively it can be damaging, as extremes in any direction is not healthy.
Lastly, I'm reminded of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and Elinor's habit of suppressing her emotions in an effort to be strong. But, of course, at the end, when we realize how very deeply she feels things, it is truly a crushingly beautiful moment of emotions.
You're amazing, Veronika!
Thank you so much for your encouraging words, Lani! 💙🙏
Social media, yes well, it's artificial intelligence encouraging artificial emotions, I would say. 1st, you can't offer genuine critique, or 'negative emotional feedback' without being called out as a 'troll'.
2nd, fake positive emotional expression is encouraged, even when it's coercive, manipulative, and narcissistic, all good in the name of gaining followers.
I can't say or write anything about Asian culture (obviously). From my visits to Asia, and having had a close Japanese friend for over a decade (+ a Japanese sister in law, + a Mongolian daughter in law) I am aware of emotional suppression in Eastern cultures too, of course. But I don't know about the history. That might be something for you to explore?
I must read Jane Austen!
Thank you for a lovely compliment 💙🙏
Hmmm, you're giving me homework. Hahahhaa. I'd be interested to hear different takes on this, so I'm going to ask folks at work, as I work with a mix of expats and Khmers, what they think on the topic. And maybe I'll get into the internet-kind of research, too. 😝
no pressure 😎
🤣🤣
Thanks Veronika. Had to wait til today to go deep with this. As kids here in Canada they tested us on IQ- intelligence quotient often at early grades. They took the kids with the highest scores and put them in special class, skipped them ahead and put some special school. In later years, we all ended up in the same high school and the same courses. Interestingly enough, those kids that were pulled often never fit in. Emotional Quotient or EQ was just as important if not more important by the time high school arrived, and on into life.
I’ve also been able to witness this in the working world, as I’ve been in various forms of leadership over the past 30 years. EQ wins for teams and ultimately the success of most ventures. Emotional intelligence is definitely lifelong learning, arguably, lifetimes learning. I’m looking forward to leaning into what you are sharing.
What is intelligence? How does it link to consciousness?
Thanks!
Thank you, Jamie, for sharing these valuable experiences and insights!
I would say Consciousness is intelligent by nature. It's our human ancestors who have tried to reduce that intelligence to the intellect... and eventually realised that intellect actually doesn't function very well, so they pulled 'emotional intelligence' out of the bag.
Human emotions were intelligent all along. Using the intellect to suppress them has proved to be the dumbest idea of some 'intellectuals'. That's why relearning 'emotional intelligence' is now such a big deal. Maybe even lifetimes, as you say.
Synchronosophy teaches us not only communication with our Faculties but also how they communicate with each other ~ in incredibly intelligent ways. A lot of understanding happens in the relationships between them (and emotions are all about relationships).
What a great call to swim in 'the inner ocean', I love it. Glad to see you as an ally doing martial arts with 'positivism' and pointing out the sameness of feeling outcast in childhood because of feelings resulting in a habit to cast ourselves out because of emotions. Living beside our-self comes to mind ;)
Emotion, from from Latin emovere "move out, remove, agitate'; or even better... out (e- or ex) to move... feeling that could not be felt before, connected to a story in the past, which was stored in the bodily energetic vault.
What we won't feel can't heal in our spirited body-world 💦
I feel so grateful to receive your newsletters... oh yeah, and Sophie won't be fooled 🤣 she'll serve synchonies in our ocean 💜 thank you thank you thank you Veronika. I'm still playing with the new word I learned from you and made a link to you in my latest newsletter👍to pass it on.
How wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing. 💙🙏 I'm exited that you're excited.
Yes, having (barely) survived as outcasts to ourselves for far too long, it is time to grab the living experience that is rightfully ours ~ feelings and all. Our life literally depends on it. 🫶
A very well-researched and well-written piece. Quite enlightening as well; I certainly never thought about senses beyond the basic five, and these concepts of emotional sensing or instinct are so interesting.
Thank you so much, Bethel 💙🙏
The reason for this limitation to the 'basic 5 senses', I assume, is the focus on the physical, which has ruled science for so long. Ironically, even at the physical level, many sensory perceptions have been completely ignored, presumably they couldn't be measured as brain activity?
To discover a whole other (+ much bigger) range of senses is an exciting adventure. I'm thrilled, you enjoyed this little initiation into the inner realm of Sentience.