Intentionally think thoughts and take actions that enable you to choose the next highest feeling on the scale and make decisions from higher emotional states.

With self-awareness we can change our inner conversation about what we are feeling and create different outcomes in conversations with others. To create conversations for change we must be able to process ourselves and others through emotions.

Each of the following states of being is distinctly tied to one of the seven core emotions...Freedom, Passion, Enthusiasm, Positive Expectations, Optimism, Contentment, Boredom, Pessimism, Frustration, A sense of being overwhelmed, Disappointment, Doubt, Worry, Blame, Discouragement, Bitterness, Vengefulness, Hatred, Jealousy, Insecurity, Guilt, Unworthiness, Grief, Depression, Powerlessness, Inability to concerntrate

You will be more emotionally aware when you are able to see the connection between the symptoms and what you are doing now. As yourself, "What feeling is underlying my current actions?" This is a way to become aware. Self-awareness is the first step in emotional intelligence. We cannot self-regulate if we are not aware of what we are feeling.

...seven core emotions show up chemically in the body: Love, Joy, Hope, Sadness, Envy, Anger, Fear

We can experience an emotional hijack as a result of change, or we can self-regulate and catch ourselves before we head into an emotional uproar.

It takes consistent and focused practice to become emotionally intelligent. People who learn from their experiences have significantly higher emotional intelligence than those who do not recover. When we do not recover, we get stuck in that emotional pattern and re-create it again and again. We talk about it too much and do not move on.

Many people are stuck emotionally and do not even realize it.

When people fight about something, the subject of the argument is rarely the real issue. The real issue is about vulnerability, connectedness, safety, trust or love - which are all emotional states.

To move up the emotional ladder, you have to stop judging your own emotions. This is a key to getting unstuck emotionally, too. You can stop oscillating in a stuck emotion by being aware.