Emotional Keys
A typical, modern piano has 88 keys. The lower notes are on the left. And the higher notes are on the right. Imagine what a song would sound like if only the high notes were played (let’s put aside the obvious fact that some songs are written to only use high (or low) notes!). It wouldn’t sound very good, would it? The low notes provide harmony, depth, and structure. We don’t say that the low notes are “bad” and the high notes are “good.” They’re equally important. Playing both high notes and low notes creates an amazing sound tapestry.
Like a pianist, we all play an emotional keyboard every day. Our basic emotional keys include happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. In a 2017 study, researchers identified 27 unique emotions. And each unique emotion has many nuanced variations. That’s a lot of emotional keys!
Because most people aren’t skilled emotional pianists, their daily, musical compositions “sound” dissonant - always trying to avoid the low notes and only focusing on the high ones. There’s no harmony.
What if you could get to a point where you didn’t just acknowledge the existence of both high notes and low notes (that’s easy to do), or spend your time fighting to get to the right side of the keyboard, but you actually enjoyed playing ALL of the notes? How would that change your life? Would you be a better mother, father, student, entrepreneur, athlete, etc.?
I used to spend my days banging on the low notes and hoping I could tap a few high notes once in a while. My emotional music didn’t sound very good. It was out of tune and ominous. Once I learn to interact with my emotions, like other sensations (hot, cold, etc.), life became less complicated. The dissonant noise I used to produce turned into a song I enjoy listening to on a regular basis.
We’re all emotional pianists. We’re just at different skill levels. Are you a beginner or a virtuoso (or something in between)?
PS - I help people find their inner Beethoven. Shoot me a DM and we can have a conversation to see if my program is a good fit for you.
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