We Are The Emotions That We Communicate

Our emotional brain is faster than our rational brain, and that is why we are defined as emotional beings. These emotions also have other fundamental qualities for communication, such as that we cannot hide them in our face, that the brain is capable of interpreting them, or something even more critical: that they are contagious. Therefore, are we what we are, or are we what we communicate?

Emotions are contagious as a natural process, the result of millions of years of our evolution; Thus, it is the emotions that we have that generate more emotions in the people with whom we communicate. Therefore, if we want to communicate a positive message, we must first feel positive emotions.

Normally we strive to improve our words and body language to communicate, believing that these will be the tools that cause the greatest impact on our interlocutor, without stopping to understand that our state and emotion will be the determining factor to generate something in the person in front of us .

In addition, although we can train the dissimulation of an emotion, in no case will we be able to eliminate it completely; and this is directly related to communication, because internally, we have an extraordinary machine (our brain) that allows us to interpret the meaning of these emotions (1).

Thus, this article defends an idea of ​​communication based on not making three fairly common mistakes: communicating without emotion, communicating without meaning, and communicating without a message.

COMMUNICATION WITH EMOTION

Before language and words, we already had emotions; and we expressed them to survive. When a mammoth came to attack us, it was our emotional expression of fear that alerted our companions to defend us. Exactly the same thing happens today, what we communicate with our emotion is captured by our interlocutors, and therefore the question would be: Do we feel what we communicate? Do we know what we communicate? And it is that in the eyes of the listener, we are not what we are, but we are what we communicate; specifically, the emotions we communicate.

COMMUNICATION WITH MEANING

The sense leads us to unexpected emotional states. When we talk about the greatest motivation in our life (a belief, a child, a project, an idea…) we reach an emotional state of ecstasy that is reflected in our communication, in our eyes, in our face, in our body; in short: in our emotion. The sense for something transports us to a higher emotional state. When Martin Luther King spoke and convinced, it was not only because he was a good speaker (which he was also) but because he spoke with a sense that led him to an emotional state that he transmitted through the expression of his emotions (2). Therefore, if what we communicate makes sense to us, it will have a greater emotional impact on our recipients.

COMMUNICATION WITH MESSAGE

“Course to be a good father, taught by a person without children” ; Although it can have an incredible theoretical base, normally, the lack of real experience, reduces the commercial credibility of the attendees… And the teacher’s communication!

“Course to be a good father, taught by a mother with fourteen excellent children” , in addition to the credibility that emanates, normally, your communication will be much more truthful to speak from experience, a cause that makes our emotional intensity greater. It is not the same to speak of a shocking event that we saw on the news, than of an event that we have experienced; And that when communicating is expressed emotionally, so it is contagious with more power.

In summary; We are getting used to picking up messages from other people because we believe that they sell more, cause more impact or have more credibility; When the really fundamental thing, for a good sincere communication, would be to speak from our emotions, giving it our meaning and relating only our experience.

Next, the TEDx conference, where the idea is developed a little more:

For more information on this topic, it is advisable to consult the studies of Paul Ekman.
For more information on sense, see Viktor Frankl’s research.