We can increase our emotional intelligence by expanding our vocabulary for emotional words. This is the core idea of the theory of emotional granularity put forth by neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett. During a road trip through southern Utah and western Colorado my wife and I expanded our ability to articulate our feelings of wonder and delight. We invented the word "awe-gasm" to describe the visceral ecstasy evoked by the natural splendors of the mountain west.
This podcast is based on an article of mine that appears in the Winter 2021 edition of 3rd Act Magazine.