What is emotional plasticity?

There is no doubt that, among all the mental capacities that distinguish us from other animals, that of Thinking in abstract terms and representing complicated ideas in words is one of the most incredible.

However, something even more incredible is that we not only use these abstract concepts to name what surrounds us. In addition, we are able to think about how we think and how we feel. Possibly we are part of the only species.

What happens is that we take this for granted and do not stop to examine the potential it has, its implications. That is why few people are familiar with emotional plasticity, our ability to adapt to each situation through emotions and feelings.

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What is emotional plasticity?

Emotional plasticity is our ability to not limit ourselves to experiencing emotional states passively, but rather make them part of our adaptation strategies to the challenges of the day to day.

Keep in mind that neither emotions nor feelings exist simply to enrich our subjective experience of what it is to live. They are there because they fulfill a function: to guide our behavior towards objectives that usually suit us at all times.

For example, the mix of fear and stress that we often experience hours before an exam will make it more We are likely to brush up on knowledge, which under normal conditions would be an unattractive effort. Emotions drive us to action, whether we realize it or not. The question is... Do we take advantage of it?

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Learning to adapt to the environment

The concept of emotional plasticity is derived from another that comes from the neurosciences, neural plasticity. This last process has to do with the way in which these nerve cells "learn" to connect with each other following patterns that are useful to us under certain circumstances.

For example, when we learn to read certain neurons that are activated when a part of the arm is in a certain position, they begin to be associated more effectively with those that are activated when a part of the thorax is in the position that facilitates this movement.

In the same way, it has been seen that in many patients who have suffered lesions in the brain the parts healthy children learn to perform the functions performed by damaged or missing. There are even people who despite being born without large portions of their brain, develop and live relatively normally.

So human beings we can use emotions as supports, resources to guide our actions effectively. Although we tend to think that rationality makes us get closer to the objectives and that they are emotions and feelings that keep us away from these (such as obstacles or elements that distract us from what is important), this is not what to be like.

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Some useful strategies

Here are some examples of how you can take advantage of emotional plasticity.

1. Sense of completion

Human beings tend to feel much better when we realize that we have accomplished a goal. However, each of these goals can be broken down into small milestones, steps that need to be taken.

So, when you find yourself faced with a task so complicated and lengthy that it is intimidating, break it down into small sub-objectives, each of which can be completed in an hour or less. In this way you "force" yourself to meet those small goals. manageable to be able to feel good when you have reached the end of each one of them.

2. Empathize to connect

Meeting new people can be intimidating and complicated, but those chilly moments at the start of a Conversation with strangers can happen quickly if we send the appropriate signals that allow empathize.

Tell a short story that is interesting and talk about how we are and how we feelFor example, it is often used to engage others in stimulating dialogues in which each one speaks honestly. Of course, make sure that the topic of that mini-story is relevant.

3. Create narratives to better understand things

There are many things that although they are boring, we need to study and learn them. To facilitate the study, make up narratives that contain that relevant information. This is an example of emotional plasticity because our tendency to empathize can cause we are interested in the experiences of the fictional characters in these stories, memorizing the data related to these stories more easily.

4. Forms of resilience

Resilience is our ability to recover psychologically after going through crisis or tragedy. Although it may not seem like it, this almost always involves forms of emotional plasticity.

Simply focus on those goals that you associate with the feeling of building something useful. The desire to progress and the satisfaction that comes from moving towards a goal will make us stop obsessing over problems (to some extent, artificial) that used to frighten us and tie us to the past.

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