Decoding Emotions for Better Mental Health

Simplified emotions

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A character from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice remarks, "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Shakespeare often explored emotions in such interesting and novel ways, as this line eloquently captures a bit of our shared human fragility and articulates a deeper dive into the realm of human emotions.

When I work with clients on issues from anger management to trauma, initially they experience what I would call an "emotional blur," struggling to express their feelings in a way that adequately represents what is happening inside. This can be frustrating for anyone. And, yet, many times, situations may cross our paths without the added tools like introspection to communicate our experiences meaningfully.

As an example, a manager may notice a dip in team morale, initially identifying it as general job stress attributed to the demands of the job itself. But, later, they receive some unexpected feedback about employees feeling underappreciated. The manager, after reflecting and processing this more, decides to address this precise feedback with targeted appreciation efforts and finds in the next survey that morale has improved. In this case, there is intentional introspection, intentional action around differentiation within the experience, and, ultimately, better management outcomes as a result. In this case, there was emotional granularity applied.

So, What Is Emotional Granularity?

Emotional granularity (EG) is the ability to make fine-grained distinctions within an emotional experience. According to researchers Smidt and Suvak (2015), EG refers to individual differences in the specificity of one's emotional experiences and representations. It’s the ability to make refined distinctions between similar emotional states.

Differentiating between happiness and sadness, for instance, is relatively easy, as happy emotions are positive and, thus, behaviorally activating, while sad emotions have lower activation levels and behaviors become less animated. However, distinguishing between something like anger and frustration requires EG. Subtle differences between these states can also significantly impact the way we deal with things. EG can be considered then a crucial imperative for psychological adjustment and amplifying better mental health. Thus, we can learn to zoom in and differentiate our emotional content to modulate our behaviors around a variety of experiences (Keating & Cook, 2023). EG can help clarify our understanding of such felt experiences by slicing through emotional complexity with enhanced precision for better emotional response outcomes.

Why Increasing Your Potential for Emotional Granularity Is Good for You

People who are low in EG typically report their experiences in global terms, using simplified emotional labels like feeling sad or angry. I remember counseling an individual who had survived a tragic incident, and when asked about their experience, they said they were "feeling a lot of things, like confusion, fear, and anger, but generally feeling bad, overall." In this, they were struggling with the complexity of their emotions and words, using very discreet emotional terminology to try to communicate hard emotions. People who may be lower in EG will typically use simpler emotional words like happy or sad due to frustration or lack of lexiconic resources that might better depict what they are feeling.

Conversely, people higher in EG may depict their experiences in more precise terms, using more specific emotional labels. They may describe a terrible sadness that is followed by anger, due to feeling powerless. This ability to differentiate emotions actionably through such processing can provide greater transparency to the one experiencing the issue. It can also open up more aligned potentials in communication, where one can more accurately describe their true feeling states. Recent studies reveal that EG does vary over time and may also be improved (Hoemann et al., 2021). For instance, research indicates one of the primary issues in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the lack of clarity and emotional awareness, which can increase a person's vulnerability in regard to PTSD (Karimpourvazifehkhorani et al., 2025). For some, a condition known as alexithymia can exacerbate the issue even further.

EG, however, helps us tailor our emotional responses to situations, making our brain's predictions more efficient and thereby allowing for better mental energy management (Hoemann et al., 2021). This further allows us to reserve vital glucose energy needed for important mental processing tasks.

Let's explore some additional ways EG may improve mental wellness:

• Well-being: Improving your EG has been shown to have a positive impact on overall well-being. By being able to identify and differentiate your emotions, you gain greater insight into your emotional life. This self-awareness fosters better emotional regulation, allowing you to respond to stressors more effectively and maintain emotional balance. Furthermore, it enhances your ability to experience and savor positive emotions, enriching your overall quality of life.
• Resilience: EG contributes to resilience, the ability to bounce back from adversity. When you can accurately identify and articulate your emotions, you are better equipped to process and cope with challenging experiences. This precision allows you to implement specific coping strategies tailored to your emotional needs, enhancing your ability to navigate difficulties and recover from setbacks.
• Social connectedness and relationships: EG also plays a crucial role in fostering social connectedness and strengthening relationships. By understanding and communicating your emotions more precisely, you create deeper and more meaningful connections with others. This skill enables you to express empathy, validate others' feelings, and navigate social interactions with greater ease. As a result, your relationships can become more fulfilling and supportive.

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How to Improve Your Emotional Granularity

We can learn to improve our EG in several ways:

1. Keep a daily "emotions journal." Record not just what you feel but also the specific emotions (e.g., "anxious," "joyful," "overwhelmed"), noting triggers and reflecting on their intensity and changes over time. This practice can help you become more aware and intrinsically elevate the narrative about your emotional experiences.
2. Expand your emotional vocabulary. Broaden your emotional vocabulary by learning new words to describe your feelings. Instead of just saying you feel "happy" or "sad," try using more specific terms like "content," "elated," "frustrated," or "disheartened." Explore literature or poetry from various cultures to help you discover new words for emotions and broaden your emotional understanding.
3. Engage in mindfulness. Practice mindfulness by noting your emotional state throughout the day. Observe and label emotions as they occur, enhancing real-time awareness. This practice helps you identify and manage your emotions in real time more effectively.
4. Shift your perspective. When experiencing an emotion, view the situation from different angles. Ask how others might perceive the same event and what emotions they might feel. This exercise helps by injecting some cognitive defusion or perspective into the event so that we recognize and begin to better understand the complexity within our emotions.

As you practice these techniques, you'll begin to notice improved subtleties in your EG. You'll be able to articulate a wider range of emotions and improve emotional regulation, making it easier to manage emotions and respond to real-time situations more calmly and thoughtfully. The ultimate payoff will be in your mental health, relationships, resilience, social connectedness, and overall well-being.