Frozen heart & emotions
Why Do We Need Emotions, Understanding, and Love From Raised Generations of Frozen Hearts?
Due to societal and business norms during the industrial age, our traditional strength was limited, suppressing qualities like sensitivity, empathy, and emotional expression.
Read on my website / Reading time: 6 min.
A famous Opinion Letter by Aneesh Raman and Maria Flynn “When Your Technical Skills Are Eclipsed, Your Humanity Will Matter More Than Ever” says:
“Our abilities to effectively communicate, develop empathy and think critically have allowed humans to collaborate, innovate and adapt for millenniums. Those skills are ones we all possess and can improve, yet they have never been properly valued in our economy or prioritized in our education and training. That needs to change.”
Quoting 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲: With male sensitivity, the situation is even worse. It has been socially forbidden and shameful for such a long time. Because of this, we have raised generations of emotionally blocked men asking for understanding and love from frozen hearts.
Blocked sensitivity can be the source of difficult personalities who perceive the world as dangerous and have a stronger desire to change it.
Overwhelmed with emotions and not knowing what to do with them, most simply block them out. Emotional blocks are associated with various types of psychological trauma.
Some trauma may have been responsible for names with negative connotations in human history that we will never forget.
We can shame them, but social rules are in control. Consequently, society has fostered rigid personalities, leading us to question why governmental bodies and corporate boardrooms are reluctant to aid communities, embrace diversity, and promote inclusivity for all. The more we understand this, the more sensitivity will be accepted, the more empathy will be allowed, and the more hand-holding will be available.
The good news is that things are already changing and here is why.
Sensitivity was considered a weakness in the era of Individualism and the traditional industrialized “world of things.” However, we are witnessing the birth of a new “world of senses” where connections to nature and social equality are re-ordered back, biodiversity and regenerative eco-technologies are much needed, and the planet serves as a single home for everybody. These days we value empathy and inclusiveness for the Future of Work, Collectiveness, where sensitivity enables emotional intelligence, creativity, and innovation. We could not survive in a world where economic growth has depleted planetary resources and world power structures are still fighting for the rest using old-fashioned games and solutions.
However, every end is a beginning, so we are witnessing the birth of a new order. The era of the Earth as the single home for everybody, resurgent nature, knowledge, and eco-technologies has already arrived.
Scientists from various disciplines, be it economics, anthropology, ecology, physics, or engineering, are all looking for the best solutions for post-growth paths. Entrepreneurs and earlier pioneers’ social propositions are rising, prioritizing the Experience economy where experience prevails over material purchases and, therefore, the economy decouples from natural resources scarcity. There is nothing more demanding these days than to become more and more sensitive.
Today we strive for creativity and innovation; it has become a trend. However, whether highly sensitive or not, a person can be creative first, being safe.
When we feel unsafe or insecure, we switch into survival mode.
Survival mode is an adaptive human body reaction that helps us survive danger and stress, while stressful stimuli cause a specific physiological and psychological reaction. This mode involves releasing stress hormones and activating our stress response systems, so we can’t be truly creative in survival. A sense of security means that we do not expect harm or pain, physical or emotional. Psychological safety is the understanding that we are in a safe space and is a crucial term for creativity and innovation.
Following much research and literature on psychological safety and its creation, especially in the workspace, I would like to draw your attention to the word “perception.” Perception is an individual characteristic, meaning how you perceive your world or psychological safety in our conversation. Perception is individually controlled, being personal.
To simplify, someone can be safe and unsafe in the same environment; it depends on individual perception.
Self-perception regarding paying attention to feelings, clarity of feelings, and restoration of mood is nothing but emotional intelligence. Moods and feelings based on initial emotions that, you guessed it, can be corrected or reworked. Indeed, it is still vital to maintain psychologically safe places, but not to forget about personal responsibility for emotional instability and vulnerability.
Connecting with our emotions and being able to recognize them is the first step to being able to transform emotional states. Attention to feelings refers to how people view their emotions, and clarity of feelings refers to how people think they understand and process them.
When we disconnect from selected emotions, we block access to the entire emotional keyboard.
But if we deeply connect to the chosen emotion, we will unlock the whole keyboard; this is a twofold technique. Therefore, any work on emotions will make us more sensitive.
Researchers define highly sensitive people as those more strongly affected by what they experience.
Therefore, we must unlock sensitivity virtuously to remain sensitive without becoming too vulnerable.
These days people are not afraid to be vulnerable and are starting to use that to show their true selves to others. To some extent, one can even say it has become a fashion to demonstrate vulnerability. It is becoming accepted in society after the pandemic crisis. However, the degree of vulnerability matters and people also appreciate vulnerable stories with happy endings, meaning that the hero overcame vulnerability and found a way to become emotionally stable.
Therefore, emotional intelligence has recently attracted public attention. Emotional intelligence promises to teach people to recognize emotions and deal with them. Some scientific papers confirm the connection between high clarity of feelings and a high ability to restore mood. It has also been stated that the ability to process emotions can be learned. Working with a professional should be a first choice, but once you succeed (work through the most difficult emotional blocks), your daily practice could become personal. We need others sometimes, but many sages consider emotional processing an individual practice. It was a process that connected them with sacred moments of unity with self. If the other person needed to be with you at that sacred moment, this is your choice.
The other trend is that emotional numbness, which causes loneliness and disconnection, cannot be considered a healthy part of life.
Once welfare was considered the norm of society, numbness helped overcome the problems of morality and social responsibility, helping to make informed choices in favor of personal gain at the expense of others.
An emotionally disconnected person could feel satisfaction; this is correct. However, welfare has been seriously questioned in favor of well-being. The concept of welfare focuses on the economic outcome that helps people get more money to satisfy more insatiable needs.
In contrast, well-being includes a broader family of variables such as health, home-work balance, or rich social relationships. This distinction is not consistently recognized, but it is important, indicating the need for a balanced wheel of a happy life, where economic significance is only a part. In addition, it was stated that we want economic equality and well-being for all.
Most of the suggestions for well-being are related to social responsibility and the ability to live with others in a community. The ability to feel another person, which allows us one day to predict the behavior of another and form larger societies, overcoming tribalism, becomes a priority.
It can be said that the chemistry of the human essence has changed because we gradually moved from pure satisfaction of needs and dopamine achievements to a mixture of oxytocin, which is responsible for caring, kindness, trust, and prosocial behavior.
That is why we need hearts to melt. We must bring back the genuine qualities of humanity into our community by focusing on effective communication, empathy, and critical thinking. Sensitivity isn’t a setback; it’s the gateway to self-awareness, understanding others, and nurturing collaboration, innovation, and adaptability during times of transformation.
Find me on LinkedIn, Goodreads, or website. Send me professional inquiries at Kirkus ProConnect.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
- The Gift of Sensitivity Book saves your precious time summarising 8 years of research & personal journey explaining the role of emotions, the crucial difference between sensitivity and vulnerability, and how to own a superpower for a future with extraordinary faculties such as creativity, originality, innovation, intuition, flexibility, and inclusiveness in times of technological acceleration.
- The Emotional Capital Newsletter informs you with a mosaic of perspectives and insights on how emotional depth can fuel transformation, expedite learning, and activate greater cognitive capacities. Here vulnerability meets strength and sensitivity is recast not as a liability, but as a potent asset.
- Notes of Sensitive Resurgent Practical Guide promotes you sharing your story and/or questions. Notes of Sensitive Resurgent is a practical “how-to” guide, with a target for understanding and experiencing what’s possible when we tap into our innate abilities. Let’s grow together!
