Emotions link our feelings, thoughts, and conditioning at multiple levels, but they may remain a largely untapped source of strength, freedom, and connection. The capacity to be intimate with all our emotions, teaches Robert Augustus Masters, is essential for creating fulfilling relationships and living with awareness, love, and integrity. With Emotional Intimacy, this respected therapist and author invites us to explore:
- How to deepen our emotional literacy and become intimate with all our emotions
- The nature of emotional disconnection and what to do about it
- How to identify our emotions, fully experience them, and skillfully express them
- Illuminating, resolving, and healing old emotional wounds
- Gender differences in emotional intimacy and expression
- Steps for bringing greater emotional intimacy and depth into our relationships
- In-depth guidance for those facing depression, anxiety, and shame
- Why "blowing off steam" may make us feel worse, and the nature of healthy catharsis
- The difference between anger and aggression, shame and guilt, jealousy and envy
- Individual chapters for fully engaging with fear, anger, joy, jealousy, shame, grief, guilt, awe, and the full spectrum of our emotions
There are no negative or unwholesome emotions only negative or harmful things we do with them. Through real life examples, exercises, and an abundance of key insights, Masters provides a lucid guide for reclaiming our emotions, relating to them skillfully, and turning them into allies to enrich and deepen our lives.