NO.1 Umbrella Emotions
People who struggle to control their emotions are often guilty of the same bad habit to experience dozens if not hundreds of unique emotions on a daily basis. Each one combines personality, context, and experience to create a mental state that you need to you as an individual. Now, despite our incredibly emotional diversity, many people group their feelings into a few simplistic categories. These umbrella emotions cancel out the important quirks of each individual feeling. For example, you might say I feel bad to describe just about any negative emotion. But think about all the different emotions that are summed up by the word bad. In this one umbrella category, you’ve got everything from disappointment to sadness to apathy. Yep, they’re all negative, but that’s pretty much the only thing that they have in common. They’re triggered by different events, they’re prevented or resolved in their own unique ways. Each individual word can even be broken down further into dozens of more specific feelings. Sadness could mean you’re lonely, but you could just as easily be sad about a missed opportunity or the loss of a loved one. When you use umbrella emotions, you’re neglecting the real problem. It’s nearly impossible to figure out what’s wrong, because you don’t know how you’re feeling about it. Well, hey, let’s say you feel bad when you don’t get a promotion at work, you assume you’re just upset because you weren’t chosen for the position. But weeks go by and those negative emotions won’t leave you alone. So, you dedicate tons of time and effort to ensure that your picked for the next promotion. And when that day comes, you end up getting the job only to realize that you’re feeling just as sad as you were before. If you had put away your umbrella, you would have noticed that you weren’t sad about the missed promotion at all. You were feeling unfulfilled in your career. So, instead of dedicating all that time toward your current job, you should have been looking for something that would have made you happy. Now, this sounds simple, sure, but most people can’t wrap their heads around their emotions. it’s much easier for them to group their feelings into four or five different categories. But their brains are so much more complex than that. If you want to master your emotions, then take the time to identify these three things: What do you feeling? Where does it come from? And why are you feeling it? This simple step will award you more emotional intelligence than the vast majority of people in the world today.
Umbrella n.伞，雨伞，阳伞；综合体，总体；保护伞，庇护；（有众多附属小机构或小群体的）伞形组织；（战斗机或高射炮构成的）掩护幕，防空火网；（动）（水母）伞膜 adj.（大的组织）包括许多小团体的；（词汇）总称的，总括的
diversity n.多样性，多样化；不同，差异
simplistic adj.过分简单化的；过分单纯化的
cancel out 取消；抵消
quirks 怪癖
summed up 概括；总结
apathy n.冷淡，无兴趣
neglecting 疏忽
promotion 提拔
dedicate v.致力于，献身于
tons of time 大量的时间
only to 结果却
put away 收起
unfulfilled adj.未满足的，未实现的；壮志未酬的
award v.授予，颁发；判给
NO.2 Positive Rumination
A single negative event can overshadow a week’s worth of positivity. After something bad happens, you might feel this lingering sense of negativity. Whether it’s guilt or embarrassment, that negativity infects almost everything that you do afterwards, even the things that you love won’t feel nearly as fun, because you can’t get that negative experience out of your head. So, how do we pay less attention to the bad and more attention to the good? Well, a 2003 study challenged two groups of participants to keep daily records of their behaviors and experiences, one group paid special attention to the positives while another focused on the negatives. After weeks of keeping detailed records, researchers measured the well-being of each participant. They discovered that writing down positive experiences has the most significant impact on your mood, because participants were more conscious of the good, they spent less time worrying about the bad. So, if you’re falling down an emotional hole, then start keeping records of the positive things in your life. If you’re consistent, you can stabilize your mental state in no time.
rumination n.沉思；反刍
overshadow v.使黯然失色，使相形见绌
lingering adj.拖延的，迟迟不结束的
embarrassment 尴尬
infects v.感染
measured v.测量；（指尺寸、长短、数量等）量度为；估量，判定（重要性、价值或影响等）
well-being n.幸福，安康；（国家的）繁荣
falling down 陷入
stabilize v.（使）稳定
in no time 很快地，立刻
NO.3 Challenging Patterns
If you’re learning how to draw, which is a better way to start: should you only draw one thing, or should you practice drawing hundreds of things? Hmm, repetition does have its place, but expanding your arsenal will give you more experience and flexibility. When it comes to your emotions, many people lack the perspective to overcome challenges. They stick to the same patterns, places, and routines for their entire lives. While this offers safety and organization. It narrows your view of yourself. It really deprives you of the experience you need to gain that perspective. You’ll struggle to honestly reflect on who you are, because you’ve never faced anything that you’re not comfortable with. To build your emotional intelligence, you need to force yourself out of your comfort zone, travel somewhere new, commit yourself to a job or hobby that’s scares you, interact with a community that’s different from the one you know. These new experiences will improve your emotional health by giving you a better understanding of who you are.
arsenal n.武器；军火库
stick to 坚持，信守，不改变
deprive v．剥夺，使丧失
NO.4 Natural Immersion
Sometimes a casual stroll outside is all that you need to control your emotions. A 2016 study found that walking is one of the most effective ways to stabilize your mood. Just like how exercise lifts your spirits, physical movement decreases stress by neutralizing sporadic neural activity. In other words, when your brain is drowning and negativity, a short walk can pull you to safety. That same study found that walking is especially useful for diminishing boredom and fear. If you’re not careful, these two negative emotions can consume your life. The more you pay attention to them, the worst they get. Boredom turns into hopelessness and low self-esteem, fear quickly transforms into frustration and anxiety. Before you know it, your goals, habits and relationships start to suffer. When you’re stuck in this negative headspace, it feels like you need something major to claw your way to freedom. But the truth is, little activities like walking can completely shift your mentality. This technique becomes even more therapeutic when done in the right context. So, instead of walking through your house or around your neighborhood, try to immerse yourself in nature, walk through a green belt or go on a hike. Replace work in technology with trees, water, and natural beauty. Placing yourself in this new context will improve your mood and unravel mental stress. Your brain often decides its base mental state by taking cues from the surrounding environment. Just think about how productive you are at your desk at work, versus your bed at home. If you’re like most people, sitting in your bed makes you lazy and lethargic, but it’s not because you’re any more tired than normal. Your brain simply associates your bed with relaxing activities. Your desk at work, on the other hand, put your brain in a more productive environment which unconsciously changes your behavior. Context moderates your emotions in the exact same way. A change in scenery might be all that you need to get your feelings under control. Natural settings work wonders on suffocating emotions like anger and doubt. So, if you find yourself losing your temper, nature gives you a place to relax and to let off steam. When you have to make an important decision, a walk through the wild helps you see more clearly. Your emotions will give way to rational thought and creative problem solving. By the end of your walk, that initial problem may not even bother you anymore. So, don’t waste any more time feeling stressed and helpless, a little activity and a change in context will help you regain control of your emotions.
immersion n.（做某事的）专心，投入
a casual stroll 随意的散步
lift v.举起；升高
movement n.移动，转移；（具有共同思想或目标的）运动
neutralizing v.[化学]中和（neutralize 的 ing 形式）
sporadic adj.偶尔发生的，零星的；（疾病）偶发的，非流行性的
neural adj.神经的，神经系统的
drowning v.淹没；（使）[外科]淹溺；浸没（drown 的 ing 形式）
boredom n.厌烦，无聊
frustration 沮丧
stuck in 被困在某个地方或处于某种困境中
headspace n.[军] 顶端空间；[化学] 顶部空间
claw v.抓
therapeutic adj.治疗的，有疗效的
green belt 绿化带
hike n.徒步旅行，远足
unravel v.（使）解开，（使）松开；弄清
versus prep.（比赛或诉讼中）以……为对手，与……竞争；与……相对，与……相比
lethargic adj.无精打采的，懒洋洋的；昏睡的
moderates v.主持；减轻
scenery n.风景，景色；舞台布景
work wonders 产生神奇的效果
suffocating adj.令人窒息的；使人呼吸困难的
temper n.坏脾气，暴躁脾气
let off steam 放掉多余的蒸汽；花掉多余的精力；发泄强烈的感情
give way to 让位给
NO.5 Expanding The Vocabulary
How does your vocabulary affect your emotions? Believe it or not, learning new words helps you identify specific feelings. It’s much easier for you to conceptualize each emotion when you know the right word to pair with it. Expanding your emotional vocabulary helps distinguish between similar feelings it. Just take these two emotions, annoyance and frustration. On the surface, well, they sound exactly the same. But they’re not. Annoyance requires an object, you’re annoyed by someone’s loud music, you’re annoyed with your younger sibling. Frustration, on the other hand, comes from your inability to achieve a goal. For example, you might be frustrated that you can’t finish your presentation. Learning as little as one new word a day can transform the way that you analyze your feelings.
conceptualize vt.使概念化 vi.概念化
pair v.使成对，配对
distinguish v.使有别于；看清，认出；区别，分清
annoyance n.烦恼，气恼；令人恼火的事
frustration n.懊恼，沮丧
sibling n.<正式>兄弟姐妹
inability n.无能，无力，不能
NO.6 Emotional Resilience
To master your emotions, you have to recover from mental setbacks. Psychologists call this emotional resilience. People who haven’t developed resilience struggle to bounce back after any kind of failure. When something goes wrong, they’re overwhelmed by negative emotions, it gets to the point where they start losing control. If you’re not careful, this can lead to aggression, risky behavior, and substance abuse. It also cripples motivation and productivity, bringing your goals to a standstill. So, how do you develop emotional resilience? Practicing mindfulness like writing down positive experience is one strategy. Another is to start doing cognitive reappraisal training. This means learning to reinterpret the stressful stimuli in your life, it’ll teach you how to react, cope and learn in a healthy and productive way. Emotional resilience is a skill that you’ll need for the rest of your life. So, don’t wait to start reinterpreting your mistakes.
resilience n.恢复力，复原力
setbacks n.挫折；周折（setback 复数）
bounce back 迅速恢复 重新振作
overwhelmed v.（情感）难以禁受；使应接不暇；淹没，漫过
aggression n.好斗性，攻击性；侵略，侵犯，挑衅
substance abuse 药物滥用
cripple v．使残废，使丧失功能
standstill n.停止，停顿
mindfulness n.关注，留心，警觉；正念
cognitive adj.认识的，认知的
reappraisal n.重新评价；重新估计
reinterpret vt.重新解释
stimuli n.刺激（物），促进因素
NO.7 People Watching
To the untrained eye, people watching as just something that you do when you’re bored. but it actually improves your social intuition. Social intuition is how you understand other people’s emotions. For example, when you notice your friend’s eyebrows are angled downward, your social intuition tells you that your friend is angry. People watching teaches you to read complex emotions through body language, you learn what signals to look for you hone in on the most informative parts of the body, like the mouth and the hands. You can even try to predict what they’ll do next. And the more you practice, the better you’ll get. So, how does this help you actually master your own emotions? When you identify them in other people, you learn to recognize those emotions in yourself. You also get a boost in emotional expression. You learn to communicate through your words, faces and other forms of body language. As simple as it sounds, people watching will enhance your emotional intelligence inside and out.
intuition n.直觉力；直觉感知，直觉知识
eyebrows n.[解剖]眉毛（eyebrow 的复数）
angled downward 向下的角度
hone v.磨练，训练（尤指技艺）
informative adj.提供有用信息的，增长见闻的
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