Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings are Trying to Tell You

"This book changed the way I relate to others, and to myself, forever." --Gavin De Becker, author of The Gift of Fear

"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

"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

• 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

1. Introduction- Creating a Conscious Life
    
2. My Empathic Journey- The Difficult Beginnings of Empathy
    
3. Troubled Waters – How We Got So Confused
    
4. It Takes a Village – Surrounding Your Emotions With Support
    
5. Reviving Your Essential Nature – Making Room for Your Central Self
    
6. Avoidance, Addiction, and Awakening—Understanding the Need for Distractions
    
7. Unintentional Shamans—The Role of Trauma in Soul-Making and Culture-Binding
    
8. The Role of Emotions in the Resolution of Trauma—Water Will Carry You Home
    
9. The Steadfast Promise – Why Love is Not an Emotion
    
10. Building Your Raft—The Five Empathic Skills
     

1. Wading Into the Water – Awakening All of Your Emotions
2. Anger:  Protection and Restoration—Includes Rage, Fury, and the Healing of Trauma
    
3. Apathy and Boredom—The Mask for Anger
    
4. Guilt and Shame—Restoring Integrity
    
5. Hatred—The Profound Mirror—Includes Resentment, Contempt, Disgust, and Shadow Work
    
6. Fear: Intuition and Action – Includes Anxiety, Worry, and the Healing of Trauma
    
7. Confusion:  The Mask for Fear
    
8. Jealousy and Envy:  Relational Radar—Includes Greed
    
9. Panic and Terror:  Frozen Fire – Includes Healing from Trauma
    
10. Sadness:  Release and Rejuvenation:  Includes Despair and Despondency
     
11. Grief:  The Deep River of the Soul
     
12. Depression:  Ingenious Stagnation—Focusing on Situational Depression
     
13. Suicidal Urges:  The Darkness Before Dawn
     
14. Happiness:  Amusement and Anticipation
     
15. Contentment:  Appreciation and Recognition
     
16. Joy: Affinity and Communion—Includes Exhilaration and Honoring Happiness in Others
     
17. Stress and Resistance:  Understanding Emotional Physics
     
18. Emotions Are Your Native Language—The Fine Art of a Life Well Lived