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Organizational Transformation Is an Emotional Journey

• Andrew White,
• Michael Smets,
• Adam Canwell

Seven strategies to help leaders navigate the process.

It’s not news that organizational transformations are prone to failure. To understand the skills, mindsets, and capabilities behind successful transformations in today’s dynamic environment, EY and Oxford University formed a research collaboration to investigate what it takes to lead a successful transformation. One of the authors’ most important findings is that, in order for transformation to be successful, leaders must approach it in ways designed to mitigate emotional harm to — and drive emotional commitment from — employees. The workforce bears the brunt of failed transformations, and the emotional damage can be substantial as employees lose confidence in leaders and become skeptical of further attempts at transformation. Drawn from their research, the authors present seven ways for leaders to set their transformations up for success by prioritizing their employees’— and their own — emotions.

The road is littered with failed transformation programs that were set up in the traditional way: Leaders define objectives, design a project plan, agree on KPIs, and recruit the right people. As many executives, academics, and consultants can relate to, the rate of failure in transformations is still far too high, and one that organizations can ill afford in these disruptive times.

• Andrew White is a senior fellow in management practice at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where he directs the advanced management and leadership program and conducts research into leadership and transformation. He is also a coach for CEOs and their senior teams.
• Michael Smets is a professor of management at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. His work focuses on leadership, transformation, and institutional change.
• AC Adam Canwell is head of EY’s global leadership consulting practice. Adam has published extensively on leadership and strategic change. Adam has sold and delivered transformation programs across multiple industries in both the UK and Australia, working with FTSE 100 (or their equivalent) organizations .

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Emotional Self-Healing: How to Start Your Powerful Journey Today

Personal Development

E ach person is different when it comes to emotional pain and trauma. Some elements, such as death, affect all of us similarly, but even within that context, our reactions and the way we feel and deal with them are different. Self-healing is a process through which you acknowledge the emotional pain and trauma in your life and figure out a way to stop it from holding you back. Unlike a band-aid that can stop the bleeding and eventually the scar will go away, emotional pain and trauma is a long and slow process, and its appropriate “band-aid” doesn’t exist in a one-size-fits-all type of box. This article explores the concept of self-healing and proposes a few ways in which you can start your self-healing journey today.

What Is Emotional Pain

In a 2011 article published in the Journal of Loss and Trauma , researchers Esther Meerwijk and Sandra Weiss asserted that “a generally accepted understanding and clear definition of what is constituted by psychological pain do not exist.”

It’s an interesting study that explains the difficulty of defining emotional pain in a cohesive, easy-to-understand manner.

In the end, the authors do provide their view on a unified definition that states that “[…] psychological pain is being defined as a lasting, unsustainable, and unpleasant feeling resulting from the negative appraisal of an inability or deficiency of the self.”

Although it starts to sound a little easier to understand, it’s still far from a set of checkboxes that would answer the question, am I in emotional pain or not.

Since defining emotional pain is complex, dealing with emotional pain and trauma is equally challenging. You can’t truly solve a puzzle if you cannot describe the puzzle and how it works. Emotional pain is one of those puzzles because when you feel it, you know it’s there. But if someone asks you to describe it, you are lost for words.

In an article on emotional pain , Dr. Steven Stosny, Ph.D., explains that when you dwell on the causes of emotional pain, you will most likely exacerbate it rather than alleviate it.

It’s normal to think that if you were to find the cause of your emotional pain and thus assign the blame to that cause, the emotional pain would go away. However, self-healing doesn’t work that way. The more you attempt to cast the fault, the more you must shine a light on the pain and make it bigger. That’s the opposite of a self-healing journey and will lead to a life of resentment while the trauma persists.

How Emotional Pain Affects Us

When you suffer from emotional trauma, there’s little outside evidence about what is happening on the inside. That’s why often, people around you might brush off your emotional pain, which will make you feel even worse.

The truth is that emotional pain is not only just as real as physical pain, but many times it’s much more powerful and much more damaging.

The difference to physical pain is the clear answer to where and why. If your shoulder hurts, you get an X-ray. If the X-Ray reveals a tear, the doctor will give you an injection and immobilize your arm for a while. While both of those things will hurt, there is a plan in place to eventually remove the pain and make it all better.

With emotional pain, the cause is often unclear. With the unclear cause, the path to “all better” is not only foggy; it doesn’t even exist.

That lack of direction as to how to deal with emotional pain will only make the pain more prevalent and add a layer of helplessness to it.

When those kinds of feelings inhabit you, the mental pain will often translate into physical pain. Dizziness, headache, upset stomach, nausea, stiff muscles—those are just a few types of physical psychosomatic reactions in which emotional pain manifests in your body.

On top of that, emotional pain changes your behavior and attitude. You may find yourself angry , overeating, over-drinking, isolating or even self-harming.

This cocktail of feelings and reactions turns into an emotional tornado that keeps spinning, and spinning, and spinning. So, the question becomes, how can you get out of it?

What is Self Healing?

Self-healing is a process by which you work toward recovering from emotional pain and trauma. Although the “self” in the name is a driving force, that doesn’t mean that you must do it alone.

The self implies strong self-motivation and self-discipline , but the self-healing journey is often best accomplished alongside a supportive group. That group can be your family, friends, or professional help.

One crucial aspect of this journey is self-awareness . As in the example above, if you were not to feel the pain in your shoulder, you’d never get to the doctor, and your shoulder might remain damaged for good. Similarly, when it comes to emotional pain and suffering, you must at least be aware that it exists before you can do something about it.

Unluckily, that’s a tricky thing to do. Luckily, though, there’s a process in place that can get you there.

6 Stages of Self-Healing

As the complexity of emotional pain and trauma are apparent by now, self-healing is not straightforward. Although putting down six stages sounds simple enough, the reality is a lot more convoluted.

The stages are not an exact science; they’re not a computer program that you can run linearly for a determinate time. Instead, these stages happen differently for different people. They can last longer or shorter; they might go in this order or out of order.

The goal of the stages is to bring forward the awareness of a “possible” road to self-healing. Each person will create their own path using their understanding of where they are and where they want to be. It’s like a map, but everyone will approach it in their own way.

The idea here is to begin the self-healing process, which will scar the emotional pain and eventually remove the scar tissue. Once that has been at least partially removed, there will be new space for personal change and transformation, no longer shadowed by the effects of the trauma. The ultimate goal for that is achieving deep inner peace.

When grief sets in and transforms into long-lasting emotional pain resulting from trauma, your first reaction is to deny it. That is not uncommon, and it applies to almost everything that gives us discomfort. The first reaction is to pretend it’s not there in hopes that it might, in fact, not be real and it will go away.

Some people never leave this stage and spend their entire lives stuck in denial. They might deny that an abusive relationship exists because there can’t be any pain if it doesn’t.

Self-awareness and getting a sense of self-esteem is a way for people to start getting out of denial. By honestly examining what you fear might happen should you stop denying, you begin to open the door for leaving this stage.

When you no longer deny reality and understand that something is genuinely happening to you, the next thing that usually follows is anger. “Why me?” “Why is this happening?” “How can they let this happen to me?”

Those are questions that you ask in anger because you are upset at your suffering. Anger can manifest outwardly toward others or inwardly toward yourself. You might become vicious with other people, or you might self-harm.

Whereas anger is an essential step in the self-healing journey, spending too much time in anger might result in long-term resentment. The critical part is observing the anger, expressing it healthily, but being prepared to let go of it.

The next usual stage is bargaining, which is your way of trying to find a quick fix. It’s an “if only” kind of solution.

“If I do this, maybe he won’t do that, and so I won’t feel this way anymore.”

“If you come to counseling with me, I won’t file for divorce.”

“I only need to be lucky this one time, and things will turn around.”

“Please, God, if you can, just give her one more month.”

Bargaining is an attempt to regain control that has been lost. We often feel that nothing comes for free, so if we offer something or invoke something, we might get back an alleviation of pain.

You might find yourself bargaining for love, time with a loved one, financial security, or so many other things. This transitory natural stage provides a temporary escape out of denial and anger while the person in pain can adjust to the reality that is starting to set in.

Depression sounds like it could be one of the effects of emotional pain. To some extent, that’s true, but in the context of your self-healing journey, depression signals the beginning of acceptance. On the cusp of acceptance, there’s still resistance; you’re not yet entirely over the hurdle, but you’re close.

During this time, some of the effects of emotional pain exacerbate. You may feel intense sadness, difficulty sleeping, loss of motivation, inability to focus, and a general feeling of loss of self-worth.

Although the depression stage sometimes feels like it will last forever and become the ultimate end-point to that journey, it is also a transitory yet necessary phase.

At this stage, it’s essential to have a trusted group with whom you can feel comfortable expressing your feelings and discussing them without judgment.

It’s not easy to predict how long the depression stage will last, but by practicing daily feeling and expressing your emotions, you can ensure a smoother transition out of it.

The acceptance stage marks the point when you finally understand and accept the reality of the pain or trauma, and that reality cannot change. It means that you have been able to detach yourself from the claws of the past and everything that you regret about it. Similarly, the future doesn’t scare you anymore, and you are ready to move forward.

Note that acceptance doesn’t mean that you are “okay” with the loss, although its name might suggest it. You may never be “okay” with your mother not being alive or your spouse cheating on you. What matters is that you accept those realities for what they are, and you can move on without being paralyzed by their mere existence.

Acceptance is your ability to learn how to live with the present and how the present looks like. It is a process, though, and not the means to an end.

Forgiveness

Last but not least is forgiveness. Although acceptance gives you the freedom you need to unclench yourself from the claws of emotional pain and gain the wings you need to fly, resentment toward the cause of the pain might not disappear completely.

Think about a spouse who abused you or a man who hurt someone you love. Although you have accepted the reality, you may still hold a grudge toward those people.

When you truly forgive, you finally free yourself. That freedom is a bonus on your self-healing journey because it genuinely seals the grip that the person or event has on you.

Note that forgiveness cannot happen until you remove yourself from the cause of emotional pain and you go through the different stages of grief.

In other words, don’t mistake forgiveness for bargaining.

“I’ll forgive him and give him another chance. He promised it wouldn’t happen.” That’s not true forgiveness; it’s just another way of negotiating your emotions and giving control away.

Begin Your Self-Healing Journey

Emotional pain is one of the most difficult ailments that can affect you, and it’s extremely difficult to defeat. That’s mainly because ordinarily, you might not even be aware that it happened. You feel the effects but understand none of the causes.

That not only creates frustration and additional anxiety, it also blocks your way to breaking its chains.

Therefore, understanding the self-healing journey and going through those stages is critical for removing yourself from that emotional pain and moving on with your life.

It’s a tough and challenging road, but one that, once taken, will drive you to freedom .

Other Resources on Self-Healing

• 7 Ways to Heal Your Body by Using the Power of Your Mind, Backed by Science
• 10 Tips for Emotional Healing
• How To Emotionally Heal Yourself?
• Healing: 5 Steps To Transforming Emotional Pain

Now, before you go, I have…

3 Questions For You

• Are you currently living with emotional pain or trauma?
• Do you recognize yourself in any of the six stages of dealing with emotional pain?
• If you’ve defeated emotional pain before, how do you feel now?

Please share your answers in the comments below. Sharing knowledge helps us all improve and get better!

Hi there! I’m Iulian, and I want to thank you for reading my article. There’s a lot more if you stick around. I write about personal development, productivity, fiction writing, and more. Also, I’ve created Self-Growth Journey , a free program that helps you get unstuck and create the beautiful life you deserve. Enjoy!

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emotions, happiness, self-help

Lilian, I am ever so grateful this is amazing I am going to put you down as my nb1 on my social media’s you really put my mind at ease. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU,, I wish you nothing but the best in life ??

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17 Transformative Techniques to Become More Emotionally Available and Open

Does emotional availability feel like a distant concept out of your reach? 

You're not alone. 

Navigating our feelings and expressing them openly can be daunting. 

Yet, it is essential for forging deeper relationships and enjoying emotional health. 

Let’s unveil 17 practical strategies to enhance your emotional receptiveness and tear down the walls of fear and hesitation. 

We’ll explore the profound world of emotional authenticity, vulnerability, and connection, one step at a time.

Unraveling Emotional Availability: The Art of Being Present and Engaged

1. embrace self-acceptance, 2. practice mindfulness, 3. foster self-compassion, 4. develop emotional literacy, 5. strengthen your emotional resilience, 6. practice active listening, 7. cultivate empathy, 8. prioritize emotional self-care, 9. develop healthy coping mechanisms, 10. embrace vulnerability, 11. engage in emotional detox, 12. foster emotional agility, 13. seek professional help if needed, 14. cultivate patience, 15. practice regular reflection, 16. encourage emotional conversations, 17. build trust in relationships, final thoughts.

What does it mean to be emotionally available? 

At its core, emotional availability refers to the capacity to share your feelings openly, listen actively, and respond empathetically to another person's emotional experiences. 

It's about letting your guard down and allowing yourself to experience a full range of emotions without pushing them aside or burying them under layers of denial or defense mechanisms.

The hallmarks of emotional availability encompass a broad spectrum of behaviors and attitudes:

• Active Listening: This means truly hearing and understanding the emotions of others, not merely waiting for your turn to speak.
• Vulnerability: It involves the courage to convey your feelings and needs without fear of judgment or rejection.
• Empathy: This is the ability to feel with others, understanding their emotions on a deeply personal level.
• Responsiveness: Responding appropriately to others' emotions, providing comfort, and validating their experiences.
• Self-Awareness: It's about recognizing and understanding your own emotions, thus enhancing your emotional intelligence.

In essence, being emotionally available means being fully present — with yourself and others. 

It involves creating a safe emotional space where authentic communication can flourish, fostering deeper and more meaningful relationships.

How to Be Emotionally Available With These 17 Actions

Let's dive into the heart of the matter—your journey toward being a more vulnerable person.

These transformative actions will guide you towards a more empathetic, responsive, and authentic emotional life, empowering you to foster stronger, healthier connections.

Start with acknowledging and accepting your feelings, for they make you human. This isn't about always being pleased with your actions or emotions but about recognizing that they're a part of you. 

Self-acceptance is the cornerstone of emotional availability because it removes the fear of confronting and communicating your feelings. By accepting yourself fully, you lay the groundwork for openness with others, fostering a sense of inner peace that helps create secure emotional spaces.

Incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine can ground you in the present moment and heighten your awareness of your feelings as they arise. This enhanced self-awareness can prevent emotional build-up and facilitate better communication. 

Instead of reacting impulsively to emotions, mindfulness teaches you to respond thoughtfully, bringing clarity and balance to your emotional life. By consistently practicing mindfulness, you nurture your ability to articulate and respond to emotions clearly and compassionately.

Embracing self-compassion means treating yourself with kindness and understanding when confronting personal failings or mistakes. It can help eliminate the self-judgment that often stifles emotional expression. 

Acknowledge that everyone has imperfections and experiences challenging emotions. By cultivating self-compassion, you foster an environment where emotions can be freely acknowledged, accepted, and articulated, paving the way for increased emotional availability.

Being emotionally literate involves understanding and being able to articulate your own emotions. This skill makes it easier to recognize and manage your emotional responses. Start by naming your feelings and understanding what triggers them. 

Keep a journal to track your emotional journey, which can provide valuable insights into your emotional patterns. With increased emotional literacy, you gain control over your emotional responses, making it easier to communicate your emotions to others and build deeper connections.

Building emotional resilience involves enhancing your ability to bounce back from emotional hardships. It teaches you to handle stress and adversity more effectively, preventing emotional shutdown in challenging situations. 

Resilience doesn't mean ignoring negative emotions; instead, it's about accepting them and moving forward . Through activities like meditation, exercise, and seeking social support, you can fortify your emotional resilience, promoting transparency and willingness to engage emotionally with others.

Active listening is a crucial part of being emotionally available. It involves not just hearing but truly understanding someone else's feelings . When you listen actively, you're fully present and focused on the other person, devoid of any preconceived notions or judgments. 

This active engagement creates a healthy and receptive environment for them to express their emotions and signals their feelings are valued and understood. Cultivating this skill can foster trust and respect and deepen your emotional bonds.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. By putting yourself in someone else's shoes, you gain a deeper understanding of their experiences. It's more than mere sympathy—it involves connecting with others on a deeper emotional level. 

Cultivating empathy requires practice, tolerance, and open-mindedness, but the rewards are invaluable, leading to enriched emotional interactions and stronger, more genuine connections.

Your emotional health is paramount. By prioritizing emotional self-care, you ensure that your emotional needs are met, enabling you to be more present and available for others. This can involve a range of activities, from pursuing hobbies you love to setting healthy boundaries to seeking professional help if needed. 

By caring for your emotional health, you equip yourself with the strength and capacity to be more emotionally available to others.

Life is filled with ups and downs. Developing healthy coping mechanisms helps you navigate through these fluctuations without repressing or ignoring your feelings. Techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, or engaging in physical activity can prove helpful. 

When you manage stress and difficult emotions effectively, you maintain your emotional equilibrium, making you more available to connect with others.

Vulnerability involves the courage to express your feelings and needs without fear of judgment or rejection. It may feel risky, but it's a fundamental aspect of this mindset. Embracing vulnerability requires a shift in perspective—seeing it not as a weakness but as a strength that enhances authenticity. 

Learn to be more real and vulnerable, and you create deeper, more meaningful relationships, creating an environment of mutual trust and honesty that forms the backbone of emotional availability.

An emotional detox involves taking time to clear out unwanted or negative emotions that might be hindering your emotional openness. It's about acknowledging, processing, and letting go of emotional baggage that weighs you down. 

This might involve journaling, mindfulness exercises, therapy, or other reflective activities. You will cleanse your emotional palette, making room for positive and constructive feelings and enhancing your capacity for emotional connection.

Emotional agility is the ability to navigate life's emotional twists and turns with flexibility and resilience. It means being able to experience and accept all of your emotions, whether positive or negative, without getting stuck or overwhelmed. 

Developing emotional agility can involve practicing mindfulness, pursuing personal growth, and reframing your perspective on challenges. When you cultivate this skill, you become more adaptable and transparent in your emotional interactions.

Sometimes, the road to this kind of vulnerability requires professional guidance. Therapists and counselors are equipped with the tools to help you explore your emotions and overcome potential roadblocks. 

They can provide you with strategies to manage stress, build resilience, and improve emotional literacy. Don't shy away from seeking help—it's a sign of strength and a step towards becoming more emotionally available.

Becoming emotionally available is a journey, not a destination. It takes time to unlearn old habits and cultivate new ones. Patience is key in this process, and it's essential to give yourself grace as you navigate through this transformation. 

Remember, small, consistent steps can lead to substantial changes over time. Celebrate your progress, be gentle with your setbacks, and don't rush the process – patience will make your journey toward emotional availability smoother and more fulfilling.

Taking time each day to reflect on your emotions and your responses to them can be a powerful tool in your journey toward being more unguarded. This regular introspection can help you understand your emotional patterns, identify areas where you can improve, and celebrate your progress. 

It can be as simple as meditating at the end of the day. Incorporating reflection into your routine helps you enhance your emotional self-awareness, a fundamental step towards increasing emotional availability.

Creating a safe environment for emotional conversations is crucial in enhancing your emotional responsiveness. Encourage these discussions in your relationships, showing you're willingness to explore feelings together. 

This promotes mutual understanding and emotional connection. You not only become more emotionally available yourself but also encourage the same in others.

Trust is the bedrock of emotional availability. It provides a safe environment for you to express your emotions without fear of judgment or criticism. Building trust in your relationships involves being reliable, maintaining confidentiality, showing empathy, and being honest. 

The more trust you cultivate, the more emotionally available you can become, paving the way for healthier and deeper emotional connections.

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Why Is It Hard for Me to Be Emotionally Available?

The journey toward this openness is not always smooth sailing. You may encounter hurdles that make it difficult to reveal or receive emotions freely. Understanding these challenges is the first step to overcoming them.

Several factors could contribute to difficulties in being closed off:

• Past Trauma: Previous emotional wounds or traumatic experiences can create a fear of vulnerability, causing one to build emotional walls as a defense mechanism.
• Lack of Role Models: Not having had examples of relational openness during your formative years can make it challenging to understand and practice it in your own life.
• Fear of Rejection: The fear of being rejected or misunderstood can often deter one from sharing their emotions openly.
• Poor Self-Esteem: People with low self-esteem may struggle with being emotionally expressive because they may not value their own feelings or believe they're worthy of emotional connection.
• Cultural or Societal Expectations: Certain cultural or societal norms can stifle emotional realness, especially in those who've been taught to suppress their feelings.

Navigating these barriers can seem overwhelming, but it's important to remember that each step you take toward deeper connections, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction.

Overcoming these obstacles often involves self-reflection, patience, and sometimes professional help. Rest assured, the rewards of becoming more emotionally available—a more fulfilling relationship with yourself and others—are well worth the effort.

Embarking on the path of emotional availability is akin to a journey of self-discovery. It unveils the layers of your emotional being, fosters empathy, and strengthens your connections. Embrace this transformative process, for it's an investment in your emotional health, well-being, and the quality of your relationships.

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Emotional Journey Mapping: What it is + How to Create it?

A typical journey map is a visual representation of a person’s steps to achieve a goal, but an emotional journey mapping adds a new twist to this age-old technique.

Emotions are an excellent way to determine whether your customer is in a good, bad, or neutral mood while completing a purchase. This game-changer will teach you how to improve a journey map.

In this blog, we will learn what emotional journey mapping is and how to create one for your business. Let’s get started.

What is emotional journey mapping?

Emotional journey mapping is a way to understand and track how customers or users feel as they interact with a product, service, or brand.

The process involves finding the key touchpoints or interactions that the customer or user has with the product, service, or brand and figuring out the emotions that the customer or user may feel at each touchpoint.

The data is represented in a timeline or flowchart to discover customer experience regions that may create negative emotions and those that may be modified to increase positive feelings.

It can help businesses determine how to improve their customers’ experiences by understanding their emotional needs and want.

You may also check out this guide to learn how to build your own  Customer Journey Map .

Importance of emotional journey mapping

Emotional journey mapping helps businesses to understand customers’ emotions and experiences throughout their interactions with the company. Some key importance is given below:

• Emotional journey mapping helps companies identify customer frustration and uncertainty. This data can then be used to improve the customer experience.
• Using emotional journey maps, companies can better understand the unique emotional needs of various customer segments. It can be used to customize experiences for different customer segments.
• Companies can develop stronger, more meaningful relationships by understanding customers’ emotions and experiences throughout their journey. Here, we will discuss some key importance of the emotional journey map below:

How to create emotional journey mapping?

Emotional journey maps show customer journeys. Here, the focus is on user satisfaction rather than product engagement. Understanding a user’s feelings helps create effective improvements. To create an emotional journey map, follow these steps:

• Create user persona

Create a user persona to begin creating the map. Consider your users and create a persona for each segment. Not all of your customers will have the same requirements (or ways of meeting those needs). 

It is frequently preceded by user research. These personas can be developed using user interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, and prior user feedback.

• Create a scenario

We need a scenario that addresses users’ expectations and requirements to achieve their goal of creating emotional journey mapping. The scenario could be about interactions with people, events, or objects.

• Goals and tasks

The next step is to identify the goals and the tasks. A task is an action that the user needs to do in a certain amount of time or in a certain way. Each journey has a different set of goals and tasks. They provide structure for the rest of the customer journey map.

Example: A customer journey is a series of goals and tasks. Let’s say a family wants to go on vacation from place Y to place Z.

• Goal: The goal is to prepare for the trip from place Y to place Z.

Solution: supply a customer with a map of the place, hotels, restaurants, stopovers, etc.

• Task: The task is to rent transport to travel from place Y to place Z.

Solution : provide a quick and easy way to rent transport.

• Surveys or Interviews to gain understanding and real data

In this step, you need to ask questions to better understand your customers’ world, background, and experiences with your company. Surveys or interviews are the best options for knowing your customers’ thoughts. 

You can ask customers about their feelings related to their experience to learn how and why they felt a specific way at each touchpoint, stage, and interaction during their journey with you.

Actively listen and analyze how they communicate and how they convey their experience.

• Interpreting data

You can organize all of your customer data, such as conversations, experiences, emotions, thoughts, and actions, based on how similar, important, and relevant they are.

Create a team to identify trends in the data.  

Learn more about why understanding your Customer Journey transforms your CX program. 

Sort conversations by where customers are in their journey and what they are thinking and experiencing. After that, customers’ emotions can be identified.

• Line up data-based evaluation points

In this step, draw a line graph to show how a customer’s feelings changed at each touchpoint and interaction. Do this for each different persona you create. The customer’s highs and lows are displayed using emoticons and an emotion graph throughout the entire journey, from start to finish.

• Analyze and improve the journey

Look at both the good and bad parts of the journey to learn more and understand it. Highlight points and possibilities to improve the emotional journey mapping.

• Implementation

After analyzing your emotional journey map, it’s time to implement it into your business. Make sure you implement your journey map properly to get the most advantage.

• Review and Monitor emotional journey mapping

It’s time to monitor your emotional journey map after the implementation step. You have to monitor how your customers respond to your journey map. Observe all the small or big things on your emotional journey map and take action according to them. 

How can QuestionPro Cx enhance emotional journey mapping?

QuestionPro is survey software that allows users to create and distribute surveys to collect data about customer experiences and perceptions. QuestionPro CX can assist with emotional journey mapping by allowing you to create surveys that specifically target the various stages of a customer’s emotional journey. 

Surveys are used to collect data on a customer’s feelings and perceptions at various stages of the journey, such as the awareness, consideration, and post-purchase stages. This data can then be used to map the customer’s emotional journey and identify areas for improvement. 

QuestionPro CX also offers tools for analyzing and visualizing survey data, which can be used to gain insights and make decisions based on the customer’s emotional journey.

The goal of emotional journey mapping is to gain insight into how customers feel at various stages of their journey and identify areas for improvement to improve their overall experience.

It is a valuable method for understanding and improving the customer experience, and it can assist businesses in developing strong customer relationships.

Ow, it’s time to create your emotional journey mapping for your business. If you need any help regarding journey mapping, Contact QuestionPro!

QuestionPro is survey software that can be used to map emotional journeys. Users can use the platform to create and distribute surveys that target specific stages of the customer’s emotional journey.

QuestionPro can be a valuable tool for businesses looking to map their customers’ emotional journeys and improve their customer experience.

Try out QuestionPro today!

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Catharsis in Psychology

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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• Catharsis Definition

Therapeutic Uses of Catharsis

Catharsis in everyday language, examples of catharsis.

Catharsis is a powerful emotional release that, when successful, is accompanied by cognitive insight and positive change. According to psychoanalytic theory , this emotional release is linked to a need to relieve unconscious conflicts. For example, experiencing stress over a work-related situation may cause feelings of frustration and tension.

Stress , anxiety, fear, anger, and trauma can cause intense and difficult feelings to build over time. At a certain point, it feels as if there is so much emotion and turmoil that it becomes overwhelming. People may even feel as if they are going to "explode" unless they find a way to release this pent-up emotion.

Rather than venting these feelings inappropriately, the individual may instead release these feelings in another way, such as through physical activity or another stress-relieving activity.

The Meaning of Catharsis

The term itself comes from the Greek katharsis meaning "purification" or "cleansing." The term is used in therapy as well as in literature. The hero of a novel might experience an emotional catharsis that leads to some sort of restoration or renewal. The purpose of catharsis is to bring about some form of positive change in the individual's life.

Catharsis involves both a powerful emotional component in which strong feelings are felt and expressed, as well as a cognitive component in which the individual gains new insights.

The term has been in use since the time of the Ancient Greeks, but it was Sigmund Freud's colleague Josef Breuer who was the first to use the term to describe a therapeutic technique. Breuer developed what he referred to as a "cathartic" treatment for hysteria .

His treatment involved having patients recall traumatic experiences while under hypnosis . By consciously expressing emotions that had been long repressed, Breuer found that his patients experienced relief from their symptoms.

Freud also believed that catharsis could play an important role in relieving symptoms of distress.

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the human mind is composed of three key elements: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious . The conscious mind contains all of the things we are aware of.

The preconscious contains things that we might not be immediately aware of but that we can draw into awareness with some effort or prompting. Finally, the unconscious mind is the part of the mind containing the huge reservoir of thoughts, feelings, and memories that are outside of awareness.

The unconscious mind played a critical role in Freud’s theory . While the contents of the unconscious were out of awareness, he still believed that they continued to exert an influence on behavior and functioning. Freud believed that people could achieve catharsis by bringing these unconscious feelings and memories to light. This process involved using psychotherapeutic tools such as dream interpretation and free association.

In their book Studies on Hysteria , Freud and Breuer defined catharsis as "the process of reducing or eliminating a complex by recalling it to conscious awareness and allowing it to be expressed." Catharsis still plays a role today in Freudian psychoanalysis.

The term catharsis has also found a place in everyday language, often used to describe moments of insight or the experience of finding closure. An individual going through a divorce might describe experiencing a cathartic moment that helps bring them a sense of peace and helps that person move past the bad relationship.

People also describe experiencing catharsis after experiencing some sort of traumatic or stressful event such as a health crisis, job loss, accident, or the death of a loved one. While used somewhat differently than it is traditionally employed in psychoanalysis, the term is still often used to describe an emotional moment that leads to positive change in the person’s life.

Catharsis can take place during the course of therapy, but it can also occur during other moments as well. Some examples of how catharsis might take place include:

• Talking with a friend. A discussion with a friend about a problem you are facing might spark a moment of insight in which you are able to see how an event from earlier in your life might be contributing to your current patterns of behavior. This emotional release may help you feel better able to face your current dilemma.
• Listening to music. Music can be motivational, but it can also often spark moments of great insight. Music can allow you to release emotions in a way that often leaves you feeling restored.
• Creating or viewing art. A powerful artwork can stir deep emotions. Creating art can also be a form of release.
• Exercise. The physical demands of exercise can be a great way to work through strong emotions and release them in a constructive manner.
• Psychodrama. This type of therapy involves acting out difficult events from the past. By doing so, people are sometimes able to reassess and let go of the pain from these events.
• Expressive writing and journaling. Writing can be an effective mental health tool, whether you are journaling or writing fiction. Expressive writing, a process that involves writing about traumatic or stressful events, may be helpful for gaining insight and relieving stressful emotions.
• Various therapy approaches. Catharsis plays an important role in emotionally focused , psychodynamic , and primal therapies .

Remember that exploring difficult emotions can come with risks, particularly if these experiences are rooted in trauma or abuse. If you are concerned about the potential effects of exploring these emotions, consider working with a trained mental health professional.

Some researchers also believe that, although catharsis might relieve tension in the short term, it might also serve to reinforce negative behaviors and increase the risk of emotional outbursts in the future.

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or crisis, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline (formerly the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) is available 24 hours a day throughout the U.S. Call or text 988, or visit  988lifeline.org .

A Word From Verywell

Catharsis can play a role in helping people deal with difficult or painful emotions. This emotional release can also be an important therapeutic tool for coping with fear, depression, and anxiety. If you are coping with difficult emotions, talking to a mental health professional can help you to explore different techniques that can lead to catharsis.

Sandhu P. Step Aside, Freud: Josef Breuer Is the True Father of Modern Psychotherapy . Scientific American . 2015.

Encyclopeadia Britannica. Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytic Theory .

Breuer J, Freud S. Studies on Hysteria . Harmondsworth: Penguin Books; 1974.

Sachs ME, Damasio A, Habibi A. The pleasures of sad music: a systematic review .  Front Hum Neurosci . 2015;9:404. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00404

Childs E, de Wit H. Regular exercise is associated with emotional resilience to acute stress in healthy adults .  Front Physiol . 2014;5:161. doi:10.3389/fphys.2014.00161

Orkibi H, Feniger-Schaal R. Integrative systematic review of psychodrama psychotherapy research: Trends and methodological implications .  PLoS One . 2019;14(2):e0212575. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0212575

Bushman BJ. Does venting anger feed or extinguish the flame? Catharsis, rumination, distraction, anger, and aggressive responding . Pers Soc Psychol Bull . 2002;28(6):724-731. doi:10.1177/0146167202289002

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Emotional Journey

How users feel at each stage of the experience.

Jordi Olive Calderon

Angels Dimitri

What Is Emotional Journey ?

Emotional Journey is a powerful research practice to identify and visualize how users feel at each stage of the experience while they are using a product or service.

Mapping these metrics help the team to understand, test and deliver a positive experience for the users .

The emotions of the user can be captured by dots, emojis, pictures, colours, curves or other forms and shapes that represent the level of sentiment from each moment of the journey.

The Emotional Journey is usually used asan add-on to a User Journey Map or Service Blueprint practices.

Why Do Emotional Journey ?

Craft a better user experience:

• Understand users point of view
• Bring more humanity
• Identify faster the gaps on the journey where to improve the experience
• Reveal the ideal experience through the user’s eyes
• Understand what the users feel rather than what you think they feel
• Find new opportunities
• Empathise with the users
• Analyse the peaks and lows of the emotional rollercoaster

Improve business performance:

Ensure systems are customer focused

Knowledge of customers behaviours and needs

Drive ideation and innovation

Decide what should be the top priorities

Introduce metrics for what matters most for the customers

Eliminate where customer experience is most likely to fail

Imagine future service experience

Reflect customers needs and expectations while your business changes

How to do Emotional Journey ?

• Define what experience you want to map. User Stories and Prioritisation Matrix are useful practices that may help you to identify the user experience you want to address.
• Collect information from research and assumptions. It’s recommended to build a Persona or/and Empathy Map in order to visualise all the insights from the user perspective like their blockers, opportunities, needs, expectations, etc.
• If you identified more than one Personas then make sure you build an emotional journey for each of them because their journey and experience may be different.
• Start mapping the actions of the user during the journey in chronological order. It doesn’t have to be the entire journey, it may be just a part of it that you want to focus on during the experience.
• Use a line or curve graph to represent how the user feels during the journey.(↑Happy ↓Sad). It’s highly recommended to add a comment on what the user is feeling or thinking during the actions of the journey for a better understanding. You can add more than one comment per user action.
• Analyse the map and improve where it is needed based on the peaks and lows.

Notes & Observations

There are many different ways to build an emotional journey depending on the approach and the quality of the research.

You can first build the Emotional Journey and then use it to make the User Journey Map with Touchpoints, Pain points, Opportunities etc. or you can create it based on an existing Journey Map. The order of the practices doesn’t affect the final result.

Adding an horizontal line in the middle of the Emotional Journey will help you to see faster where the opportunity is.

It’s recommended to have one Emotional Journey per user. In case you’re using it for a Service Blueprint where different actors are involved then you can use the same space to represent the Emotional Journey for each of them. If this is the case, remember to use dissimilar colours to represent the different actors. (See the following example)

Having the User Story/Scenario, the Persona and his/her goal near the board helps to have a clear and common understanding of what the Emotional Journey is representing.

Emotional Journey can be used as a metric to compare As-is with To-be or Ideal User Journey experiences

It can also be used as a low fidelity experience prototype to test with users.

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Tears of Joy as an Emotional Expression of the Meaning of Life

Bernardo paoli.

1 Accademia Delle Tecniche Psicologiche, Turin, Italy

Rachele Giubilei

2 Istituto per lo Studio Delle Psicoterapie, Rome, Italy

Eugenio De Gregorio

3 Link Campus University, Rome, Italy

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

This article describes a research project in which a qualitative research was carried out consisting of 24 semi-structured interviews and a subsequent data analysis using the MAXQDA software in order to investigate a particular dimorphic emotional expression: tears of joy (TOJ). The working hypothesis is that TOJ are not only an atypical expression due to a “super joy,” or that they are only an attempt by the organism to self-regulate the excess of joyful emotion through the expression of the opposite emotion (sadness), but that it is an emotional experience in its own right—not entirely overlapping with joy—with a specific adaptive function. Through the interviews, conducted in a cross-cultural context (mainly in India and Japan), we explored the following possibility: what if the adaptive function of crying for joy were to signal, to those experiencing it, the meaning of their life; the most important direction given to their existence? The material collected provided positive support for this interpretation.

Introduction

The emotions we experience and express have an adaptive function. They allow us to live better in the surrounding environment and respond accordingly to specific circumstances (e.g., fleeing from danger in response to feeling fear). They are the result of a process, of a largely unconscious process of self-regulation, which modulates their nature, intensity and manifestations. Responses to emotions are almost never as violent and powerful as they could be; as such, it happens rarely that a person “loses their mind” completely ignoring internal and external feedback signals. Emotions are also involved in automatic regulation ( Matarazzo and Zammuner, 2009 ). We make conscious attempts to modify our emotions in order to align them with our goals and interests by asking ourselves whether it is useful to feel fear when facing a certain difficulty. Thus, we can cope with fear by changing the perspective we use to observe the situation. Emotional regulations mean that one is able to modulate their form or mitigate their urgency. More generally, it means that one is able to assess demands from the environment and one’s own resources, and to respond to them in a flexible and adaptive way. Emotions, properly modulated and regulated, improve social interaction and individual wellbeing. Crying is an emotional expression that has both a self-regulatory goal (decreasing tension and recovering psychological balance) and the purpose of attracting the attention of others and requesting their help and support. Crying can also be the emotional expression of the “opposite” emotion: it can occur in situations in which a person experiences great joy. The dimorphous expression of tears of joy (TOJ) is a unique, non-mixed experience: the person experiences only joy, and not joy mixed with sadness. TOJ occurs in very significant situations in people’s lives, especially in correspondence with the perception of a deep connection with others and with episodes of personal success.

These are the findings from the literature, and the starting point for our qualitative research. This research, which started in an unusual way—due to a journey in India and in Japan taken by one of the authors—sought to explore the cultural influence on emotions and emotional expression, and, above all, on the possible links between TOJ and people’s definition of the meaning of life (MOL). Regarding the first point, we know from the literature that there are cultural differences that regulate emotional expression. In collectivist cultures (which exalt “the good of the group before the good of the individual”) social rules seem to lead people to avoid the direct expression of emotions, especially negative ones, which can undermine group harmony; on the other hand, the rules of individualistic cultures (which exalt “the good of the individual before the good of the group”) seem to be more tolerant of the expression of strong emotions (e.g., anger), because of values such as self-affirmation. Interestingly, the emotional expression of crying tends to occur more frequently in democratic countries with individualistic cultures, where there is greater wealth and political freedom. As for the second point—the pivot of the research—the literature says that people who experience a higher level of meaningfulness in their lives are more likely to experience positive moods and greater wellbeing. So, what if the adaptive function of TOJ were to signal the MOL to those experiencing it? In the literature, these two themes have never been related to each other. The present study aims to investigate a possible connection.

The Adaptive Function of Emotions

From an evolutionary perspective, emotions help humans cope with and adapt to different situations in life (cf. Lazarus, 1991 ; Plutchik, 2001 ). When triggered, emotions simultaneously activate different systems—such as perceptual, attentional, and neurophysiological systems—that predispose people to certain behaviors ( Tooby and Cosmides, 2008 ). For example, anger stimulates the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and triggers a flow of energy adequate to support a dynamic response to the situation, which may be self-defense or decompression; fear, on the other hand, induces a state of neurophysiological activation that allows the individual to respond to the initial stimulus through attack, avoidance, or escape. In the literature ( Fredrickson, 1998 ; Ruini, 2017 ) it has been found that “positive” emotions play important adaptive functions, on par with “negative” ones. Specifically, emotions such as joy, interest, or satisfaction have the ability to modify styles of thought and action, and may expand and improve people’s cognitive, behavioral, and social skills, which will in turn become lasting resources for the future. Fredrickson (1998) further argues that the important adaptive functions of positive emotions lie in their ability to counteract negative emotions and their consequences, leading to improved mental and physical health and motivation to work for one’s wellbeing.

The Regulatory Function of Emotions: Emotional Self-Regulation

It has been widely attested in the literature that an individual’s ability to self-regulate their emotions is a key feature in maintaining social functioning, physical wellbeing, and mental health (cf. Gross and John, 2003 ). Emotional regulation can be defined as the ability to cope with, monitor, and modulate one’s own emotional experiences, and refers to behavioral and cognitive processes that coordinate the intensity, duration, and expression of emotions in response to internal and external stimuli ( Gross, 1998 ; Gross, 2007 ). For example, when we find ourselves in circumstances that trigger fear, we can divert our attention away from those elements of the situation that most disturb us and focus instead on other aspects we perceive as less dangerous in order to regulate the intensity of the emotion felt in that moment. Gross (2001) distinguishes between antecedent-focused and response-focused strategies: antecedent-focused strategies refer to what individuals do before the emotional response tendencies are fully activated (e.g., choosing not to frequent places or people perceived as disturbing in order to avoid the onset of unpleasant emotions); response-focused strategies refer to what people do when the emotional response is in progress (e.g., striving to appear calm rather than angry, thus suppressing the expression of the emotion felt). The different strategies can down-regulate or up-regulate emotional experiences: while down-regulation strategies tend to attenuate the emotional response, up-regulation strategies contribute to enhancing and prolonging it, whether it be a positive emotion triggered by a pleasant event, or a negative emotion generated by an unpleasant event.

Many works in the literature have focused on the regulation of negative emotions, while few studies have focused on understanding how people regulate positive emotions, such as happiness or pride. Positive emotion regulation refers to how humans modulate responses to stimuli in order to enhance and maintain the positive emotional experiences experienced at a given time ( Bryant and Veroff, 2007 ). Some studies (cf. Langston, 1994 ) show that, when experiencing very positive situations (e.g., victory in a competition; achievement of an important goal) people can implement behaviors designed to protect their state of happiness: for example, sharing good news with friends or relatives is a way to prolong the positive experience (capitalization). Positive emotional regulation strategies include savoring ( Bryant, 1989 ), which is the ability of humans to enhance and intensify positive experiences in their lives ( Bryant and Veroff, 2007 ). Bryant et al. (2005) theorizes three types of savoring: savoring in relation to an impending positive situation (e.g., anticipatory excitement before an enjoyable event); savoring that prolongs and reinforces the positive event experienced in the present moment (e.g., sharing the experience with people important to us); and savoring intense memories of positive experiences in order to relive the emotions associated with them (e.g., remembering the best moments of an event). Bryant and Veroff (2007) , identified several strategies that people use to enhance their savoring ability and that are expressed at cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal levels. These include: memory building, which consists in creating a lasting memory of an event (for example, taking a mental picture of an event, or taking a diary); self-congratulation every time we manage to achieve something important in our lives in order to amplify positive feelings; sharing positive emotion with others; comparing the experience lived with a worse one, to appreciate it more; attentional absorption, which means to stay focused and engaged in the present moment and in experience that we are living, without turning our thoughts to the past or future; sensory-perceptual sharpening, which consists in focusing on the sensory aspects that are stimulated in a certain experience (e.g., smells or sounds); behavioral expression, which covers all those physical expressions of happiness (laughing, jumping, clapping) that contribute to generating a positive cycle of pleasure; temporal awareness, for example, reminding ourselves that the experience will not last forever may spur us to enjoy it even more; counting blessings, i.e., experiencing gratitude for having had the opportunity to experience something positive; avoidance of kill-joy thinking, which refers to not focusing exclusively on negative aspects when we go through a difficult time. Use of savoring strategies is positively associated with variables related to individual wellbeing (e.g., self-esteem, life satisfaction, self-reported optimism), whereas lack of savoring skills is linked to depressive feelings, hopelessness, and anhedonia ( Bryant, 2003 ; Joormann and Stanton, 2016 ).

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation

Humans often seek to moderate their emotional states through the comfort and support of other individuals, thus engaging in a process referred to as interpersonal emotional regulation ( Zaki and Williams, 2013 ). When people listen to and support someone’s feelings by showing empathy, solidarity, and sharing, they are actually helping them to regulate the intensity of the emotions they experience. Zaki and Williams (2013) identify two different processes that can support interpersonal emotional regulation: response-independent and response-dependent. The latter is based on the quality of feedback received from the person with whom the emotion is shared; in other words, when people express their sadness or joy to another person, they are only satisfied if that person responds favorably to the request to share. If the interlocutor shows indifference, then emotional regulation does not succeed. Response-independent processes, meanwhile, do not imply that the person with whom emotional states are shared must respond in a particular way: the fact of having talked with someone about one’s emotions, giving them a label and identifying their source, is enough in itself to allow people to feel regulated. As is the case in self-regulation, different strategies can be used in interpersonal regulation, depending on the goal one wants to achieve for a given emotional state. We refer to down-regulation processes when people respond in a way that attenuates and minimizes the intensity of the emotional experience shared by the communicative partner, while also weakening behavioral responses ( Krompinger et al., 2008 ). In an experimental study, Pauw et al. (2019) asked participants to watch a video of a man crying over his partner’s cheating and asked them to record a supportive video message for him. Analysis revealed that when the situation required immediate emotional down-regulation (such as having to be ready to face an upcoming job interview), participants attempted to regulate the other through disengagement from the emotional experience by implementing distraction and suppression strategies. For example, by saying “Try not to think about her for now,” or “Don’t let your emotions take over.”

When, on the other hand, a person shares positive events with significant others (relatives, friends, partners) and they respond in a way that maximizes and prolongs the positive feelings and benefits experienced, we refer to the phenomenon of capitalization ( Gable et al., 2004 ; Gable and Reis, 2010 ; Reis et al., 2010 ). Gable et al. (2004) found that communicating positive situations with significant others is associated with increased wellbeing and daily positive affect. The authors also showed that if significant others respond actively and constructively to capitalization attempts, benefits increase: in couples, this translates into greater wellbeing in some important aspects of the relationship, such as daily marital satisfaction and intimacy.

Crying in Literature

Crying is one of the most common and universally recognized forms of expression through which people manifest and share their emotions. Crying results from the interaction between psychobiological, cognitive, and social processes (cf. Vingerhoets et al., 2000 ) and serves several functions. It has been suggested in the literature that crying may lead to a decrease in tension (cf. Vingerhoets et al., 2009 ) and promote the recovery of psychological balance ( Rottenberg et al., 2003 ; Hendriks et al., 2007 ), although the empirical evidence supporting these hypotheses is conflicting. Some authors have investigated the interpersonal effects of this emotional expression. For example, Hendriks et al. (2008) conducted a survey with the purpose of studying how individuals respond when faced with a crying person, and had participants read six short vignettes depicting social situations. Specifically, three vignettes depicted unpleasant situations (e.g., talking to someone at a funeral or causing a car accident), while the other three depicted pleasant situations (e.g., meeting someone who had just become a parent). In each vignette there was a main character for participants to identify with, and another person who may or may not be crying. In most cases, participants reported that if they were faced with a crying interlocutor, they would exhibit more emotional support and fewer negative feelings toward him or her. Crying could therefore serve as a means of attracting attention, conveying requests for help and support, stimulating others to provide emotional support and thereby facilitating social bonding ( Frijda, 1997 ; Kottler and Montgomery, 2001 ).

Cultural Differences in Emotional Expression

Several studies (cf. Matsumoto, 1989 , 1990 ; Safdar et al., 2009 ) have investigated cultural differences that may influence the display of emotions. In this regard, Ekman and Friesen (1969) ; Ekman (1972) proposed the existence of social rules, referred to as display rules, which govern the manifestation of emotions within different cultural groups, and which are learned by individuals through the socialization process. These rules direct emotional expression based on whether it is more or less acceptable within a given culture ( Matsumoto et al., 1999 ) and establish how, and in what context, a person should express their emotions. The studies by Ekman (1972) and Friesen (1972) provided the first, which has become a milestone in the history of psychology, provided the first evidence of the existence of the “display rules.” The authors highlighted how American and Japanese people have a different way of expressing their emotions depending on the context: if a stranger was present during the viewing of a movie with the participants, the Japanese (unlike Americans) tended not to express negative emotions, disguising them with smiles. The presence of a stranger activated a set of unwritten, culturally learned rules in Japanese participants that regulated the expression of negative emotions. Ekman and Friesen’s study was later resumed by Matsumoto (1992) , who compared the responses of American and Japanese people in reference to a task of facial expression recognition, finding results in keeping with those of previous studies. In the same research, Matsumoto found that Japanese participants were less able to recognize negative emotions than American subjects, while he found no significant differences in the recognition of positive emotions. To account for these differences, the author investigated cultural differences between the United States and Japan, focusing specifically on the concepts of individualism and collectivism. In cultures with an individualistic features (like most Western cultures), the primary values are those of individual autonomy, self-interest and success; it can be hypothesized that this is why levels of conformity to the group are lower and independence is greater instead: emotions can be experienced primarily as personal experiences, the expression of which is an individual’s right. In these cultures, for example, the manifestation of anger is tolerated and considered functional for the individual, as long as it is expressed in socially appropriate ways ( Eid and Diener, 2001 ). Collectivistic cultures, on the other hand, would foster a greater level of conformity within the group, and collective needs would tend to take precedence over individual needs. In general, these cultures seem to urge the individual to maintain cohesion and harmony in the group, rather than to foster individual affirmation ( Matsumoto, 1991 ; Noon and Lewis, 1992 ); where emotions are experienced as interactive experiences, reflecting the social context, their expression needs to be controlled. In particular, negative emotions may threaten group cohesion and are therefore discouraged. The expression of emotions such as anger or contempt would not be considered acceptable, as they threaten authority and harmony in the group ( Miyake and Yamazaki, 1995 ). Regarding positive emotions, in individualistic cultures there would be a great attention to the pursuit of happiness and its individual expression: not expressing positive emotions could be considered a failure, and unhappiness would tend to have a strongly negative connotation. Conversely, in collectivist cultures, display rules might also filter out the expression of positive emotions, as expression is sometimes considered undesirable (see Eid and Diener, 2001 ).

A study by Safdar et al. (2009) examined the display rules of seven basic emotions in three different populations: American, Canadian, and Japanese. The goal of the research was to compare the display rules of emotional expression, both across and within cultures. The authors hypothesized that Canadians and Americans showed more approval toward the expression of both negative emotions such as anger and disgust, as well as positive emotions such as happiness and surprise, than Japanese participants, and that all three populations did not show particular differences regarding the expression of emotions such as sadness or fear. In keeping with the first hypothesis, the results showed that Japanese subjects expressed fewer negative emotions than Americans and Canadians, and showed significantly lower mean scores in the expression of positive emotions than Canadians. It was also found that there was no difference between Japanese and North Americans in the expression of emotions of sadness or fear.

Regarding the emotional expression of crying, some authors have conducted cross-cultural studies (see Kraemer and Hastrup, 1986 ; Vingerhoets and Becht, 1997 ). Williams and Morris (1996) investigated the crying behaviors of 448 participants from Great Britain and Israel, and the results showed that Britons cried more frequently than Israelis and that women cried more intensely and more often than men. Van Hemert et al. (2011) conducted a study to examine the tendency to cry in 37 countries, including Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Oceania, and South America. Analyses showed that crying is not significantly related to perceived distress, but is related to subjective wellbeing; that is, happier countries report more expressions of crying. At for the frequency, the results also showed that crying occurs more frequently in democratic countries, with an individualistic culture, where there is greater wealth and political freedom.

Tears of Joy

TOJ is a special form of crying which can occur when a person is completely involved in situations in which they experience great joy. TOJ is an emotional experience that has been little researched to date, so much so that it is not even mentioned in an atlas of 156 human emotions ( Watt Smith, 2015 ), and in the study conducted by Cowen and Keltner (2017) at the University of California at Berkeley—which identified 27 different interconnected emotions—it is not explicitly mentioned; it is shown in a video (this study made use of video recordings of different emotional expressions) within the category of the emotion of joy. The main studies in the literature that have focused on TOJ consider it as a dimorphous expression of positive emotions (cf. Aragón et al., 2015 ; Aragón, 2017 ; Aragón and Clark, 2017 ): the strong emotion felt (joy) is manifested through an expressive mode (crying) that refers to a different, or even opposite, emotional state (sadness, pain). An example of this is the tears shed by Olympic athletes after winning a gold medal: their joy is so enormous and uncontrollable that it triggers a crying reaction. The hypothesis put forward by the authors is that dimorphous expressions perform a regulatory function of emotional states: when individuals feel overwhelmed by positive feelings—so intense that they are perceived as unmanageable—they may respond through the expression of an emotion that has opposite value to the one experienced in order to compensate for its excess. In this regard, Aragón and Clark (2017) hypothesize that TOJ also function as a model of interpersonal emotional regulation. Through six experimental studies, the authors found that, when faced with joy expressed in a dimorphic way by significant others, people tend to provide down-regulation responses, thus dampening the intensity of the emotion and attempting to bring it to a level perceived as more manageable. Aragón (2017) again argues that dimorphous expressions cannot be identified with mixed expressions of emotion: as shown in their study, dimorphic expressions derive from a single evaluation of the event experienced, for which there is a single corresponding emotional experience, yet manifested through two recognized expressions, one with positive valence (smiling) and one with negative valence (crying). In contrast, mixed emotion expressions arise when an event stimulates positive and negative evaluations and emotions simultaneously (e.g., joy and sadness), which might then manifest in two emotional expressions of opposite meaning ( Larsen et al., 2001 ; Larsen and McGraw, 2014 ). For example, Aragón in their study (ibid.) shows participants a video of of a generous man willing to help others; the video also informs viewers that the man died young in a tragic accident. From the analyses performed, the researcher finds that those who watched this video reported paired positive and negative appraisals, emotions, and expressions (joy/sadness, smiling/crying), in contrast with participants who watched the same video but were informed that the man had lived a long time; these latter participants reported primarily positive appraisals and positive emotions. Aragón and Bargh (2018) also suggest that dimorphous expressions may represent certain motivational orientations: in particular, happiness expressed through expressions of anger may communicate experiences of appetitive nature, characterized by the drive toward a desired end state; happiness manifested through expressions of sadness (such as tears) may communicate consummatory states, characterized by the hedonic experience of pleasure when the desired state has been achieved. For example, a basketball player may manifest happiness through aggressive expressions while he is playing a game and scores a point (appetitive state); the same athlete may manifest joy through tears when the desired state has been achieved, or when the game has been won (consummatory state).

An initial taxonomy of experiences in which TOJ occurs was developed by Hoffman et al. (2013) . Through a systematic study using a sample of Indian adults, the researchers came to identify 15 main types of situations in which TOJ may occur: non-romantic affection; personal achievements; birth of a child; reunion; romantic love; identification with a movie/other medium; observing a child; reflection on one’s life; recovery of a loved one from illness/injury; personal recovery from illness/injury; aesthetic delight; material gain; individual religious experience; interpersonal laughter; witnessing an act of goodness. The research also found that the most frequently reported categories were those related to non-romantic affection and personal success, while religious experiences were reported less frequently. Subsequently, a more nuanced study conducted by Zickfeld et al. (2020) distinguished between four different macro-categories of positive tears: tears of affection (e.g., those shed during a wedding), tears of success (e.g., those shed for a sporting victory), tears of beauty (when one perceives something as extraordinarily beautiful), and tears of amusement (shed in situations in which one laughs so hard that one begins to cry). A number of international studies have investigated whether tears provoked by negative emotions show a different impact on mood compared to those stimulated by positive feelings, and have also tried to identify the possible functions of positive emotional crying. According to Ishii and Shinya (2021) , positive crying is more effective in calming one’s mood than crying triggered by negative feelings, while Hoffman et al. (2016) find that the frequency of joyful tears is significantly associated with reduced self-perceived transitory stress, physical wellbeing following joyful crying, and self-reported health perceptions.

The Meaning of Life in Literature

We conclude the literature review section by addressing the topic of MOL; the authors’ clinical experience has shown that patients tend to associate TOJ with the meaning of their lives. The literature (cf. King et al., 2006 ; Datu, 2015 ) shows that having a clear idea of the meaning of one’s own life is linked to people’s propensity to experience greater wellbeing and positive affect. In this regard, King et al. (2006) believe that it is the daily frequency of positive emotional states that may give meaning to a day or not. Other authors ( Emmons, 2003 ; McDonald et al., 2012 ; Machell et al., 2015 ) relate MOL to the achievement of one’s own goals: individuals attach great value to these activities, and their accomplishment gives meaning to one’s actions, thus also increasing the sense of self-efficacy and promoting the development and maintenance of wellbeing (cf. Diener, 1984 ; Emmons, 1986 ). Machell et al. (2015) investigated how people’s everyday events are able to influence their perception of meaning on a daily basis. The researchers asked 162 college students to complete daily reports in which they provided measures of: meaning in life, positive and negative social events and achievements, and positive and negative affects. The results showed that social events and positive achievements were correlated with higher perceptions of meaning, whereas social events and negative achievements were correlated with lower perceptions of meaning. Existence may also be infused with meaning through social relationships and contact with others. In this regard, Lambert et al. (2013) investigated which element of social relationships was most likely to promote a sense of MOL. In one study, which included American and Indian participants (the latter in smaller numbers), four methodologically different studies were conducted that found that a strong sense of belonging correlated with higher levels of perceiving life as meaningful, much more so than social support and social worth.

Methodological Background: Narratives and Narrative Psychology

Before describing the methodological approach of the research, we consider it useful to make a brief reference to the use of narratives, narrative psychology, and the biographical approach to the study of emotions and actions related to emotional manifestations. In recent years, the use of narratives in social research has become a popular and widely used approach in the humanities. Various models of narrative analysis have been developed from materials and research data based on biographies, biographical and narrative interviews, diaries, and—more recently—blogs and other web sources. Broadly speaking, narrative analyses are based on the philosophical assumptions of ontological relativism and constructionism ( Smith, 2013 ); these models imply a continuous interaction between the researcher and the external environment and view knowledge (including scientific knowledge) as a co-constructed and culturally-characterized product. Narratives are methods rooted in people and contexts, situations and cultures; in this sense, using narratives has theoretical implications, both regarding theory of method (how to use narratives) and theoretical elaboration resulting from the analysis of results (what to do with narratives). The reference to narrative constructionism here recalls a socio-culturally oriented approach that understands human beings as “meaning makers” who make use of narratives to interpret, mediate, and share their experience in story form ( Smith and Monforte, 2020 ); in this sense, a narrative is a story told by tracing cultural canons. The stories each of us tell about our experiences (including those elaborated from biographical experience) are based on a narrative structure ( Sarbin, 1986a ; Murray, 1995 ). The relationship between biography and self-narration is so close that real streams of study (such as narrative psychology) and research tools (such as biographical interviews) have become widespread in the history of psychology and psychological research. Mancuso and Sarbin (1983) argue that human beings think, perceive, imagine, and dream according to a narrative structure; each individual gives events an order and confers on them a plot which together lay the foundation for a narrative description of reality. Bruner (1990 , 2002) states that every narrative can be considered a mental model, a way of perceiving and organizing reality; in order to understand human behavior, it is necessary to bring out the individual’s ability to narrate. Our experience takes a narrative form because actions and thought (cognitive processes such as, for example, planning and memory) are guided by narrative structures: the narrative, in short, is our way of organizing social episodes, actions and their stories, as is widely attested by autobiographical studies ( Sarbin, 1986b ; McAdams et al., 1996 ).

Given these premises, in the present article we decided to use a qualitative and narrative approach to explore, through the interviews, the psychological and cultural factors that influence the emotional representation of joy in a particular circumstance, that is, when it is expressed through unstoppable crying: TOJ. The guidelines for analysis of the interviews were shared among the three authors of this article; two coded the texts and extrapolated the results; one acted as a supervisor. The entire work was guided by the qualitative research validity criteria described by Tracy (2010) , namely: (a) worthy topic (the topic of the research is relevant, timely, significant and interesting), (b) rich rigor (the study relies on sufficient, abundant, appropriate, and complex theoretical constructs, context issues and data collection and analysis processes), (c) sincerity (the study is characterized by a clear positioning of the researcher(s) in the field, transparency about the methods and challenges), (d) credibility (the research is marked by a thick description, concrete detail, and multivocality, (e) resonance (the research influences or moves particular readers or a variety of audiences through evocative representation of processes under investigation and shows transferable findings), (f) significant contribution (the research provides a significant contribution to the field), (g) ethics (the research considers situational and culturally specific ethical factors), and (h) meaningful coherence (the study achieves what it purports to be about, uses methods and procedures that fit its stated goals and meaningfully interconnects literature, research questions and findings, interpretations). The process of analysis, which leads to the elaboration of results from a qualitative study, is cyclical and iterative: the work of the researcher resembles a moving back and forth between each interview, between pieces of the same interview, giving greater emphasis to some linguistic forms and content today and to others tomorrow, once again under the banner of the complexity of qualitative work ( Smith and Monforte, 2020 ).

Research: Is There a Connection Between Tears of Joy and the Meaning of Life?

In the present research we wondered whether TOJ could be considered not merely an emotional expression, and therefore a sort of subcategory of joy, but a phenomenon with its own specific qualities; whether it was not merely an automatic emotional self-regulation but also fulfilled a specific adaptive function. The research hypothesis is that TOJ is an emotion that is not entirely superimposable with joy but that it accompanies and signals the most significant experiences in people’s lives, whereby the meaning of their lives is understood; its attainment constitutes the most ambitious goal that a human being can establish for themself in the orientation of their entire existence. To investigate this hypothesis we chose to use a qualitative method, through semi-structured interviews, to facilitate a free narrative of emotional experience in the respondents and to bring out potentially new aspects not yet investigated in the literature.

Participants and Interviews

Our qualitative approach was based on the collection of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 24 participants, of which 17 were from India, 6 from Japan, and 1 from England. The recruitment of participants may seem atypical. In fact, the entire research begun with interpersonal and friendly contacts with two cultural mediators who put one of the authors in contact with some interviewees (the interviews took place during a 6-month trip to India and Japan by one of the authors). At a later stage, the recruitment of the other interviewees followed a snowball principle, a strategy now recognized in qualitative research ( Heckathorn, 1997 ; Morgan, 2008 ). The recruitment has, therefore, followed a mix of snowball-like organization and casual encounters; both solutions are accepted in qualitative research and mixed methods. Specifically: 8 chance encounters (5 Indian, 2 Japanese, 1 English), 12 encounters organized by a professor of Periyar University (Salem, Tamil Nadu, India) with students from the Faculty of Psychology, and 4 encounters organized by a cultural mediator from Tokyo. Although not belonging to the two cultures Indian and Japanese, we decided to keep the interview with an English man within the group because of his interesting contribution to the topic of research. All interviews were audio-recorded and conducted in English. If the interviewee was unable to speak English, the presence of a language mediator was requested (5 interviews were conducted with the presence of a mediator). An informed consent form was signed by each interviewee. In order to respect ethical and privacy issues we decided to anonymize all participants, so that the parts of the interview reported in this article are attributed to interviews and not to specific individuals; moreover, male personal pronouns are used everywhere, regardless of the gender of the interviewees. Regarding the demographic characteristics of the respondents: 15 women (11 Indian and 4 Japanese) and 9 men (6 Indian, 2 Japanese, 1 English) participated. The average age of the respondents was 29.2. The mean age of the Indians was 23.2; that of the Japanese was 42.5. This difference is consistent with the different overall mean age of the two populations: in India 28.7; in Japan 48.6 1 .

Interviews were conducted following a semi-structured protocol. The interview guide can be found in Appendix . As can be read in the interview guide text, the questions about TOJ were placed at the beginning of the interview, while those about the MOL were placed at the end, in order to reduce the possibility the interviewee associated the two topics only because they were treated one after the other. The interview was conducted in a style open to dialogue and following the narratives of the interviewees, so that it was possible to better understand the specificity of the socio-cultural context in which they lived. The approach used made it possible to co-construct a shared narrative between interviewee and interviewer while adhering to the cultural and local context in which the emotional expression was taking place. The value of co-construction in the data collection phase described by Bruner (1990) constitutes the main theoretical-methodological reference for the research.

Qualitative Data Analysis

The semi-structured interviews were subjected to a qualitative content analysis through a coding procedure for narrative themes ( Ryan and Russell Bernard, 2003 ; Braun and Clarke, 2006 ). Prior to content analysis, each interview was transcribed, and the interviewees’ transcripts reviewed by a language facilitator. Next, in each of the transcribed interviews, an attempt was made to identify emergent themes. In the tradition of the qualitative approach, a theme is important because it captures something significant about the data as it relates to the research questions ( Braun and Clarke, 2006 ). We used MAXQDA software to perform computer-supported qualitative content analysis ( Kuckartz, 2013 ; Kuckartz and Rädiker, 2019 ) to filter the structure of our transcripts and then code them. In the first step, major themes were identified through reading the interviews. This led to the identification of the main content analysis categories (codes and code sets):

• 1. Tears of joy (TOJ);
• 2. Meaning of life (MOL);
• 3. Personal characteristics.

After identifying the parts of the interview pertaining to each of these three thematic areas, we proceeded to extend the analysis, extrapolating segments of text from the transcripts which had specific, recognizable contents relating to the main topics:

• 1. TOJ: frequency, trigger events, description, situations in which it happened, situations in which it didn’t occur, tensions before, family/friends/social conflict, inner conflict.
• 2. MOL: whether life has a meaning or not, trigger events, what is the MOL, related concepts, connection between TOJ and MOL.
• 3. Personal characteristics: self-description (hard or soft), ways of experiencing emotions (whether they can or can’t control their emotions), whether they speak about themself in the third person, personal/professional realization.

Each interview segment featuring the above-described topics was (re)coded so as to detect, with greater precision, the specific narrative theme around which the discourse of the interviewees was built; for each theme the corresponding segment was identified and defined (coded). More dense segments (articulate, complex, polysemic) were coded with more than one code.

A first reflection concerns the different responses to the project among Indian and Japanese participants. A certain ease in recruiting Indian interviewees was contrasted by a greater difficulty in recruiting people that were happy to be interviewed by a foreigner in the Japanese context. In Japan, on several occasions the initial openness to the project was followed by disinvestment; during the interviews—due also to the difficulty of communicating in English—even those most open to dialogue showed some resistance to talking about emotional issues. What we observed is consistent with established findings in the literature about Japanese people’s reticence in expressing their emotions with strangers ( Nakane, 1970 ; Matsumoto, 1991 ). The different emotional investment in the interviews between Indian and Japanese participants can also be seen through the different richness of the codes attributed during the qualitative analysis: the interviews of the Indian participants have an average of 34.9 codes attributed to each interview (limited to the themes of TOJ and the MOL); in the case of the Japanese participants the average number of codes per interview is 13.5. Another interesting finding is that almost all Japanese interviewees, specifically all those from a predominantly mountainous prefecture bordering Tokyo, initially confused the interviewer’s description of TOJ with a different type of emotional experience that they claimed they had experienced many times: feeling sadness inside and showing joy externally (the exact opposite of what happens with TOJ). This cultural duty to repress one’s negative emotions in favor of preserving group harmony is a finding consistent with what has been described in cultural anthropology texts (cft. Nakane, 1970 ).

The interviews indicate that the Indian participants have generally experienced TOJ a few times, while the Japanese participants report that it has happened to them only once. In general, however, TOJ is a known experience, but not one experienced it with particular frequency; this could be due to the young age of most of the interviewees ( Table 1 ). It is also significant to note that the participants who said they had never cried for joy were also more likely to describe themselves in a “hard” and confident way (e.g., “I have a different set of priorities,” “I’m very good at deleting people,” “I have been able to shield my personal ambitions. I’m very ambitious”). The reported contexts in which TOJ have been experienced are: with relatives, during a birthday, at university/school, during a competition, receiving news, doing hard work/solving a problem, at the birth of a child, in a religious building, in nature, during a political election, during a wedding, helping someone, cooking, watching a video, alone. The main triggers recognized by respondents were: achieving a result, pride for others, birth, positive surprise, acceptance by the family, a child being given his/her name, spiritual wonder, wedding, solving a critical situation, feeling part of a group ( Table 2 ). Consistent with findings in the literature ( Hoffman et al., 2013 ), the achievement of a personal success (winning a school or a sport competition, gaining access to a university or a job) is a major trigger of TOJ. Again, the fact that there is no co-prevalence of TOJ experiences associated with family life moments may depend on the young age of many of the respondents. The terms used to describe the TOJ experience were: instantaneous, instinctive, unexpected, incomprehensible, significant, powerful, emotional, shocking, overwhelming, relevant, with a big impact; experience of greatness, of change, of ecstasy, of victory, of achievement; insight, deep understanding, sense of responsibility; feeling loved, happy, proud, alive, free, important, special, on the right track. The three terms that stand out the most are “happiness,” “unexpected,” and “achievement”: the triggering event was unexpected, just as the strength of the reaction upon the achievement of an important goal for their life and career was also unexpected. Consistent with this, the main emotional tensions that the interviewees experienced before the TOJ were related to not knowing if they would be able (or if their family members would be able) to achieve a certain goal (“When you decide to participate in something, especially a competition, you always want to win, you know, there is always this ambition, desire behind. But you also know that you doubt yourself”), but also a sense of constraint due to a commitment made to oneself or one’s family (“I was feeling so stuck”), which was followed by a sense of liberation ( Table 3 ).

Frequencies of coded category “Tears of joy”.

Frequencies of coded category “Triggering events”.

Frequencies of coded category “Tension before tears of joy”.

Achievement of Goals as the Main Cause of Tears of Joy

In particular, a strong correspondence was found between TOJ at the achievement of an important goal and the tension of not knowing if one would be able to achieve it; it is also curious to note that the three full words that appeared together most frequently in the interview texts are “[I] don’t know.” We might advance the hypothesis that the unexpected happiness of TOJ becomes more easily accessible to those who strongly desire to achieve a goal but are not fully sure of their abilities. We also found a co-presence of codes between TOJ caused by the realization of an important goal and the presence of an internal conflict (“So I tried to get some job, but mentally I am not in a normal stage”), the description of oneself as able to control one’s emotions (“I told you that I don’t cry very easily. So if I do get good news in front of people, I am just happy”), and the description of the meaning of one’s own life as “helping/having a good impact on others” (“So it’s our duty to live the life to the fullest and have a good life if possible helping others. Being good with others”).

Meaning of Life: Connection With Tears of Joy

“Does life have meaning? If yes, what is the meaning of your life? Do you think life has meaning in and of itself, or are we the ones who put it in there?” When the interview was coming to a close and this question emerged, it always caught the interviewee off guard. It looked like the topic was not as common for them, and the answers were often more succinct than when the topic of emotions was addressed. Similarly, when asked if they saw any connection between their experiences of TOJ and their definition of MOL, an expression of surprise returned: they had never thought about it before, but yes, they did see a connection; respondents, both Indian and Japanese, leaned toward yes: life has meaning ( Table 4 ). The MOL was defined according to the following categories: helping, having a positive impact on others, loving, having good relationships, achieving important goals, doing one’s best, having ambition, following the flow, happiness, a sense of wholeness, being healthy, worshiping God, being creative, and having experiences. Similar to the experiences of TOJ most commonly found in the literature, the terms that occur most frequently for defining MOL are “help/having good impact,” “love/good relationship,” “achievement/ambition/doing the best you can”: having good connections with others, and achieving personal life goals. We cry for joy for reasons connected to what we believe to be the main meaning of our lives. When asked to elaborate further on what they meant by “meaning of life” respondents used expressions such as: doing something good, connecting with others, God, death, making a difference, having an influence, finding the reason behind, one’s dignity, deciding for one’s dreams, improving oneself, changing one’s perspective, positivity, doing with what one has, something non-materialistic, personal ambitions.

Frequencies of coded category “Life has a meaning or not”.

As we have said, there is a connection between TOJ and the MOL for respondents. However, not all respondents answered this question; those who did mention it leaned toward yes ( Table 5 ). So much so that, even in the analysis of the relationship between codes, there is a strong co-presence between those who said “Sometimes I have cried for joy” and those who said “Yes, life has a meaning” ( Table 6 ).

Frequencies of coded category “Connection between TOJ and MOL”.

Shared segments between tears of joy and meaning of life.

Discussion and Conclusion

Through this research, participants had the opportunity to talk about their emotions. Conducting interviews allowed them to name unusual emotional manifestations, and link them to specific events in their lives. The use of narrative methods highlighted some typicalities of the dimorphous emotional expression of TOJ. This is an experience that has been lived by almost all of the interviewees, though not with particular frequency. The Indian participants reported having experienced TOJ a few times, while the Japanese participants reported more frequently that it had happened to them only once; this could be due to the cultural tendency, typical of Japanese people, to favor a greater control of emotional expressions. In this sense, those who reported never having cried for joy also tended to describe themselves as inflexible. The typical profile that emerged during the interviews is of a human being who cries for joy a few times, and who does so—consistently with the findings in the literature—when achieving an important result in their life. In addition, this is often when achieving an important result which they were not sure they would be able to achieve. The emotional experience of TOJ is completely unexpected for the person experiencing it and the triggering event is unexpected (e.g., the person did not expect that they would win a competition). The strength of the joyful reaction experienced upon achieving an important life goal is unexpected too. It was interesting to note that respondents spoke of an emotional tension—experienced prior to the TOJ—mainly due to not knowing whether they (themselves or a family member) would be able to achieve a given goal. Thus, it seems that the unexpected happiness of TOJ is more easily accessible to those who strongly desire to achieve a goal but do not feel completely confident in their abilities. The typical profile that emerged during the interviews is also a person who believes that life has a meaning; this person also believes that there is a strong connection between the MOL and the episodes in which they experienced TOJ. Both Indian and Japanese participants argued that—as is consistent with findings in the literature—the meaning of life corresponds with, on the one hand, having good relationships with others, helping them and having a good impact on them, and on the other hand in doing one’s best and accomplishing important goals. The main reasons why people cry for joy seem to have a close connection to the themes that people report when describing the meaning of their lives.

Given the data collected from the research, we believe we have identified some elements to support the hypothesis that TOJ can be considered not only a dimorphous emotional expression of joy, but also as an emotion in its own right with specific characteristics; moreover, the literature goes in the direction of indicating an increasing number of human emotions that are interconnected and have multiple nuances. The possible adaptive function of TOJ could be to direct people toward a higher level of wellbeing by pointing them to the types of experiences that make their lives meaningful. We conclude by pointing out that the present research contains all the typical limitations of qualitative research, including a very small sample of respondents and a greater freedom for both the interviewer and the respondent to “let oneself go” during the dialogue; so much so that some topics of the research were not discussed with all respondents. We hope that in future more space will be given to the study of TOJ and dimorphous emotional expressions, and that the connection between TOJ and people’s definitions of the MOL will be further investigated using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants.

Author Contributions

BP designed the research, conducted the interviews, contributed to the interviews’ coding, and wrote the research section and the conclusions. RG conducted the literature research, transcribed interviews, contributed to the interviews’ coding, and wrote the literature sections. ED identified the methodological approach, contributed to the data analysis and interpretations, and wrote the methodological section. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

Rohit Bajaj (India): review of the interview transcripts of Indian interviewees. Sachiko Ogata (Japan): language mediation with Japanese interviewees. Kadhiravan Subramanian (India): Interview facilitation at Periyar University of Salem. Jack Coulton (England) and Caine Meyers (Canada): language review. We would like to thank Auriemma Vincenzo (Italy) for the invitation to participate in this special issue, and the two reviewers for their precious suggestions aimed at improving the paper’s quality.

Text of the Semi-Structured Interview

I am an Italian psychologist. I’m going around the world to collect interviews on some psychological topics that relate to life, relationships, and important choices. Can I give you an interview? It will be completely anonymous. I will record the interview, which will last about 45 min. At the end I will ask you to sign a privacy form in which I declare the total protection and secrecy of your personal information.

The purpose of this interview is twofold: on the one hand to collect some information for research that I am conducting at the international level, on the other hand to help the interviewee to reflect on important aspects of his/her life on which, if anything, he/she had never thought before.

The first part of the interview is dedicated to emotions, and to one emotion in particular: tears of joy. This is a particular emotion because, on the one hand, if you look at the person’s face, he or she seems to be crying with sadness, but inside, instead, they feel joy. Have you ever experienced this type of emotion? (If the person didn’t understand what the emotion was, some typical episodes in which people cry for joy were suggested, such as at the birth of a child, or during a wedding, or winning a competition. If the person still did not understand, two pictures of people crying for joy were shown: Fedez and Chiara Ferragni at the birth of Leone, and Javier Zanetti with the Inter jersey raising his hands to the sky). How many times have you experienced this emotion? Could you describe some episodes in which it has happened? What did you feel at that moment? The fact that you cried with joy in those very situations, what does that say about you?

Going in the opposite direction, I’d like to talk about a different kind of emotion: boredom. Do you find yourself bored? How many times a week or month does it happen to you? If it happens to you every day, what percentage of the time does boredom happen to you during a day? In what situations does it happen to you? Why do you find yourself in those situations? What does it say about you that you are bored in those situations? Do you have any strategies you put in place to try to manage boredom? Which ones work best?

As I mentioned at the beginning, I’m a psychologist, and also a psychotherapist; that’s why I’m so interested in emotions. Are you familiar with psychotherapy? Do you know what it is and how it works? What is the image that people in general have of psychotherapy? What problems do you think people bring to psychotherapy?

In psychotherapy, especially in the kind of psychotherapy I use—Brief Therapy—there is a lot of focus on the effective and ineffective strategies that people put in place. So I’d like to know about two moments in your life: a first instance where you were really proud of the way you handled the situation; and a second instance, on the other hand, where you were not very proud of the way you handled the situation. Would you like to tell me about these two episodes? What strategies did you implement in the first case? And in the second?

Now there are the last two themes, somewhat unrelated to the previous ones, on which I would like to know your point of view. The first theme is about the meaning of life. What is the meaning of your life? Have you ever asked yourself that before? In your opinion, does the meaning of life exist in itself or do we invent/choose it? Is there any connection between the episodes in which you cried for joy and the meaning of your life? Finally, the last theme. Do you remember a story, fairy tale, nursery rhyme, or song from your childhood that your parents, or caregivers, used to put you to sleep? Would you like to tell/sing it to me?

1 www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/

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Emotional Journey

Analyse how the user perception changes throughout a service experience., applied for.

Service Staff

also called

Journey Map

related content

Empathy Map

The emotional journey is an extension of the usual experience journey map (or customer journey map) that associates an indication of the emotional status of the user at each stage of the experience. The emotion can be represented by a curve floating from moments of frustration to delight, or by adding emojis and pictograms to the specific steps of the journey.

Add a more qualitative dimension to the analysis of the functional experience.

remember to

Give it enough space in the map, to immediately guide the journey understanding.

case studies

Example by Yang Hai

Designing an indoor wayfinding system for hospitals

Visualise and address key emotional moments in the user journey

description

Rochester Regional Health challenged Ally agency to conceptualize a better indoor wayfinding system for hospitals driven by augmented reality technology. Being a highly complex space, such a problem pushed designers to consider an intuitive and sensitive end to end solution. They identified and visualized key emotional moments in the user’s journey in order to craft an experience around it.

what is interesting

The approach helped identifying in the first phase of the user’s journey the need to provideconfidence in exploring the hospital (to find the check-in spot). Right after, the second moment needs to provide instead more freedom in moving around, as the level of anxiety is decreased after the check-in registration.

Example by Spotless

Understanding the treatment journey and empathising with breast cancer patients

How to collect patients feelings and guide the conversation around treatment and post-treatment pathways

Journey maps allow us to see an end-to-end experience as a holistic journey. This tool can help designers make sense of complex systems and processes, as well as visualising the more human elements of a journey, e.g. what they are feeling at each moment.

For one of our health clients, we decided to use this tool in an unconventional way. Typically, it’s used within the sense-making phase, after all the research has been conducted. In this case we wanted to use it as a research method itself, getting patients to fill out their own individual emotional journeys to gain a personal insight into their experiences with Cancer and to help guide the conversation around their treatment and post-treatment path.

As we had a tight timeline, we needed to think of a research plan that was effective and quick, yet sensitive to our participants’ experiences and diagnoses. We decided to use these emotion maps as individual exercises within a group workshop with eight patients. It allowed us as researchers and designers to understand each individuals experience of cancer in 1-on-1 chats, but then bring the discussion together as a group to find commonalities/differences within the groups collective experience.

Through this engagement, we found several pain-points, such as a general need for less medical and more layman’s terminology and patients wanting full transparency and control of their medicine and potential side effects. Spotless found that there was a need for communication beyond clinical treatments and not only targeting the patients but also to the carers and the support group surrounding them.

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Design Method Toolkit

Filter methods.

Emotional journey

An emotional journey is a visualization that maps and illustrates a user’s emotional experience through the experience of interacting with an organization, product or brand..

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2 DAYS - 1 WEEK

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1. Organize a space, materials and participants for the session. 2. Define the activity for which you want to map out the emotional journey. For example, it could be a person’s ride on the subway while heading home. 3. Collect the internal insights of the team, based on previous research and experiences. 4. Map out the journey and mark the different touch points where the user comes in contact with the product/service/brand/organization. 5. If you have developed various personas, make sure that you develop a journey for each of them. Each experience will be different. 6. Use a line graph to mark underneath the journey to mark the moments users feel excited and moments where they feel frustrated. 7. Analyze the results of mapping the journey.

When you need to identify how people feel during the experience of using your services.

Allows the design team to understand where to improve the experience.

Emotional journeys depend on good research.

A mapped out overview of how someone feels while doing something. A look inside the ‘emotional rollercoaster’.

Analyse the peaks and lows, improve where needed.

BROWN, Tim. Change by design. 2009.

With their permission and cooperation, the participants and Healing Justice allowed 60 Minutes cameras to capture the emotional journeys of participants over the course of three days. 

Stahl and producer Shari Finkelstein spoke to 60 Minutes Overtime about their earlier reporting on the program's founder and the unique approach they took to produce their story.

"Eyewitness"

Healing Justice's founder, Jennifer Thompson, is herself a rape survivor and was involved in a wrongful conviction case. 

In 2009, Stahl and Finkelstein reported on Thompson's experience and the flaws of eyewitness identification procedures in the criminal justice system for a story called "Eyewitness."

On July 28, 1984, when Thompson was just a 22-year-old college student, she had gone to bed early and fallen asleep. While she slept, a man shattered the light bulb near her back door, cut the phone line and then broke into the apartment. 

"I remember kind of waking up and turning my head to the side and saying, "Who's there? Who is it?" And I saw the top of someone's head kind of sliding beside my mattress. And I screamed and I felt a blade go to my throat," Thompson told Stahl.

During the assault, Thompson closely studied the features of the attacker, taking note of any details that could help police identify him. 

Three days later, Thompson was asked to view a photo lineup by police. She picked up one of the photographs, of a man named Ronald Cotton, and identified him as her rapist. The police later presented her with a physical lineup, and she identified Cotton again.

"What was said to me afterwards was, 'That's the same person you picked out in the photo lineup'… I thought, 'Bingo. I did it right. I did it right,'" she told Stahl.

Thompson said she was "absolutely certain" that Cotton had raped her. She testified against him at trial. Cotton was sentenced to life in prison, plus 50 years. 

But after serving 11 years in prison, he was exonerated after a DNA test proved he was innocent. A man named Bobby Poole was identified by DNA as the actual rapist, who had attacked Jennifer that night and allowed Cotton to spend 11 years behind bars for his crime. 

Thompson was devastated when she realized Cotton had served time for a crime he did not commit. But she still saw Cotton's face when she dreamed about that horrific night.

She asked Cotton if he would meet her. She apologized to him, and Cotton forgave her. 

"The minute he forgave me, it's like my heart physically started to heal," Thompson told Stahl.

60 Minutes producer Shari Finkelstein said studies have repeatedly shown that, when the actual perpetrator is not included in the photo or physical lineup, eyewitnesses will often pick the person who looks most like the assailant. Bobby Poole was not in either of the lineups police showed Thompson. 

That's exactly what Stahl did in 2009 when she was shown a simulated crime scene and then a lineup that did not include the perpetrator. Stahl picked a man who looked to her like the perpetrator. She was convinced he had committed the crime.

"She did what many crime survivors do, which is picked the person who matched her memory as well as it could. But it wasn't the same guy. And that's exactly what happened in Jennifer's case," she told 60 Minutes Overtime. 

And once that initial misidentification is made, Finkelstein explained, it can become compounded: the victim can become even more convinced that the wrongly accused is the actual perpetrator. 

"They've seen the photograph. Then they see the person in a physical lineup. Then, they see the person in the courtroom…Again, and again, and again, that person's face becomes the face in their mind," she explained.

Filming "Healing Justice"

Finkelstein stayed in touch with Thompson over the years and became aware of the Healing Justice program as it started. When she heard about the retreats, Finkelstein began to imagine how to produce a 60 Minutes story. But a lot of considerations would need to be made.

"It took a long time to kind of work that all out…for them to be comfortable with the idea of having cameras in one of these retreats," Finkelstein said. 

"What they're dealing with is so emotional and personal, and all of these people have suffered tremendous trauma. And eventually, we figured out a way to make it work," Finkelstein said.

With their permission, Stahl conducted on-camera interviews with all the participants, nine in total, both before and after the retreat.

"Shari didn't know which of the pairs, the victim and the wrongfully accused, were going to have a change happen in the retreat," Stahl said.

For that reason, Finkelstein wanted to interview each of them, and then film every minute of the group sessions and activities that occurred over the weekend. 

60 Minutes photographers Don Lee and Tom Fahey arranged four cameras around the circle of participants in the group sessions, with one camera on tracks so that it could move quietly and unobtrusively, and film members of the group on one side of the circle as they spoke. Another camera was positioned to capture participants on the other side of the circle. Two fixed cameras filmed the entire group and Jennifer.

60 Minutes editor Dan Glucksman was able to make reels of the sessions in a four-squared grid. As he, Stahl, Finkelstein, and associate producer Collette Richards worked on the story, they could watch reactions from other members of the group as they happened.

"We could see, 'OK, when Loretta is having this particularly emotional moment, someone else is shaking their head in sympathy,'" Finkelstein explained. 

One participant in the group, Loretta Zilinger White, who was raped when she was 15 and involved in a wrongful conviction case where the real perpetrator was never caught, had an emotional and tearful first interview with Stahl before the retreat. 

"She can't get the face of the wrongfully accused out of her mind and her eyes. She knows that he was exonerated by DNA evidence…but she cannot get his face out of her brain, that he did this," Stahl said. 

Another participant, Raymond Towler, was wrongfully convicted for the rape and assault of two children. After 29 years in prison, a DNA test proved his innocence. But after not being believed for so long, he could not shake the fear that people might continue to think he was guilty.

Late one night, while transferring footage from the day, 60 Minutes photographer Tom Fahey called Finkelstein, who was back in her hotel room. He told her that Zilinger White and Towler were having an intense conversation. He asked her if he should try to film it. Finkelstein told him to see if they were comfortable, and, if they were, to start rolling. 

"[Tom] was able to capture one of the moments that was really at the heart of the experience that they had," Finkelstein said.

At the end of the retreat, all nine participants sat for a final interview. 

Stahl told 60 Minutes Overtime that Zilinger White had gone through an emotional transformation and appeared to be "another person" in the final interview.

"The pain that she had been exhibiting seemed to have been lifted… I was able to see, and feel, and experience with her a person who went from misery to joy," Stahl said.

Finkelstein said Thompson would say that there is no "magic fix" that can happen in a three-day retreat and noted that Thompson herself told Stahl that she will "always be healing." 

"I think she would say that about everyone. But this gives them a lot," Finkelstein said.

The video above was produced by Will Croxton. It was edited by Sarah Shafer. 

Will Croxton is a digital producer at 60 Minutes.

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What Is an Emotional Affair?

They may be in the eyes of the beholder, but there are some bottom lines..

Posted April 3, 2021 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

When I see couples in which one partner feels like the other is having an emotional affair, the conversation often goes like this (of course, any mix of genders is possible):

She: I was looking up something on your phone and stumbled on text exchanges between you and Whitney from work. What’s up? He: Oh, she is just a friend. She’s going through a hard time in her relationship with her boyfriend so I was offering her some support. She: But you’re talking about us, about how you feel the same at times – that I don’t understand how you feel, that I overreact. We’ve never even talked about that. He: I’m just trying to help her feel better. She: But you’ve never said that to me. He: It’s nothing. No big deal. I bet you talk to your girlfriends about me when you go out with them for drinks. She: Sure, but this feels different. She’s another woman. He: She’s a friend. It doesn’t mean anything. She: It does to me. He: You’re blowing this out of proportion.

What’s going on here?

It's easy to get into an argument about whose reality is right—the start of an emotional affair vs. supporting a friend: What did you say? Why is this a problem? Stop micromanaging me or making a big deal about nothing. Why are you blowing this off? And it's easy to get into a heated emotional debate about what constitutes an emotional affair and what does not: How and why would it feel different if it were two guys talking? Is it about friendship and empathy, about blowing off steam about your partner, or something else?

Or is it about the couple's relationship? Feeling like your partner is having an emotional affair really is in the eyes of the beholder but our perceptions are shaped by our pasts. She, for example, may be particularly sensitive to her partner talking to another woman because she had past partners who cheated on her or because one of her parents had a long-term "close friend" that no one really talked about.

Similarly, his reactions to her may be molded by his past experience: that he is particularly sensitive to talking with her about things that bother him because his history has been that when he does, he receives criticism or anger or micromanaging and so he holds back.

Emotional affair red flags

All this being said, are there red flags for emotional affairs? Here's my list. Compare and contrast them against your own:

• You never talk about the relationship. He never mentions this friend from work. This implies secrecy, or wanting to keep it secret. This may be driven by worry that the other person will overreact, or a sense of guilt or excitement about the secrecy itself. Why haven't you mentioned this person before with your partner?
• There is anticipation. You get excited about talking with this person—it’s special, you’re getting attached, there may be sexual chemistry and there may be fantasies fueling this.
• You are sharing intimate information about yourself that you wouldn’t share with your partner. This is not about complaining about how your partner can be a slob at times around the house to your guy or girlfriends, but something deeper. Often these conversations replicate what you as a couple had and were able to do (or maybe never were able to do) at the start of your relationship. You found someone with whom you felt safe, with whom you could lean into a relationship that is emotionally different from guy or girlfriends' chats, with whom you could open up and feel understood.
• There is an intimate response back; you bond around common problems. The difference between an emotional affair and say, therapy , in which you do the same type of intimate sharing, is that therapy isn't a balanced conversation: The therapist isn't equally disclosing. What ramps up the connection is that the other person not only acknowledges your feelings but shares theirs in a way that, again, is different from friends. You feel special, more understood. And if you are having similar problems—common struggles in your relationship, troubles at work—the bond becomes deeper: This is someone who understands what I am going through.
• You know this would bother your partner if they knew but you do it anyway. Now some folks may be clueless that their behavior would bother their partner, but that is often not the case—that, yes, if my partner knew about what we were talking about they would feel hurt, but they suspect it but ignore it. Again: Why? If you care about your partner, and even if you feel that what you’re doing isn’t wrong, why would you continue to do something that you know might hurt them?

The theme running these red flags is the secrecy and withholding, the depth of conversation, the anticipation, and the excitement. But what an emotional affair has in common with a physical affair is that it is a possibly bad solution to an underlying problem: the conversations, and the relationship, are telling you about something missing in your life that you need. It may be about communication in the relationship: I don’t feel safe talking to you about things because you blow up or don’t listen or are critical. It may be about a lack of common interests. It may be about feeling special, appreciated, understood, or having someone to empathize with and listen to.

Forget the labels and avoid the arguments over whether it’s an emotional affair or not; that's not the real issue. The real issue is that your partner isn’t happy and is feeling threatened and that, for you, something is missing from your life and relationship. Focus on that—what you both need to feel better and more connected.

Bob Taibbi, L.C.S.W., has 49 years of clinical experience. He is the author of 13 books and over 300 articles and provides training nationally and internationally.

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10 years and counting: MI skipper Hardik Pandya recalls his emotional IPL journey

Ipl 2024: hardik pandya took to social media to share his emotional journey with the mumbai indians ahead of the 17th edition of the league. hardik will be playing his 10th ipl season and will be leading the 5-time champions for the first time..

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• Hardik Pandya shared his emotional journey with Mumbai Indians
• Hardik to lead Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024
• Hardik will be playing his 8th IPL season for the Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians captain, Hardik Pandya shared an emotional post on his Instagram account ahead of the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League. Hardik, who will be playing his 10th IPL season this year, expressed gratitude to be back with the team that has always resided in his heart. The star all-rounder will be leading the 5-time champions in the IPL 2024. He replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain of Mumbai Indians after he was traded back to the team from Gujarat Titans.

'IPL gave me everything'

"The IPL has given me everything. IPL gave me my identity. Otherwise, I would still be in Baroda, where I am from. But not this Hardik, some other Hardik would have been there," Hardik said in the video.

"In my 10th IPL season, grateful for the journey, for the growth, for everything that's come my way. And to be back with a team that's always been in my heart, Mumbai Indians," Hardik's caption read.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hardik Himanshu Pandya (@hardikpandya93)

Will Hardik carry MI's legacy successfully?

After a successful stint with the Gujarat Titans for 2 years, where Hardik led the team to a title win in IPL 2022 and runners-up position in IPL 2023, he returned to Mumbai Indians. He will be playing his 8th season for the franchise and will look to prove his captaincy credentials for them. Hardik will be returning after recovering from an ankle injury that he suffered during the ODI World Cup match against Bangladesh on October 19, in Pune. He has putting in the hard yards.

IN THIS STORY

Style & Beauty

From Love, Bonito to Our Second Nature: Singapore entrepreneur Velda Tan's fashion journey

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She was a co-founder of Love, Bonito, but stepped away in pursuit of slower fashion with Our Second Nature and Atlas Kind, where clothing is “not just a product, but also an emotional connection with customers.” 

Our Second Nature founder, Velda Tan. (Photo: Velda Tan)

This audio is AI-generated.

Velda Tan is one of those people who makes you feel like you’re speaking too quickly. We’re in a cafe chatting about her two decades in the Singapore fashion scene, and while my questions are coming fast and furious, the 36-year-old’s answers are measured, and her tone gentle and thoughtful. When she says that after eight years of running a fast fashion business, she felt like she was burned out and needed a break, you believe her. Not because you think she couldn’t keep up with fast fashion’s frenetic pace, but because you get an inkling that someone like her might thrive better in a slower and more mindful setting.

“I realised what my strengths and weaknesses are quite early on,” said Tan. “And it felt like the fast fashion model isn’t what I'm aligned with. I know my weaknesses are in things like operations and fulfilment, and that innately, I’m a creative person.”

HOW LOVE, BONITO CAME ABOUT

Those familiar with the history of the Singapore fashion scene for the millennial generation and after will know that Velda Tan, along with her sister Viola Tan and friend Rachel Lim , started a blog selling their pre-loved clothes for extra pocket money in 2005, and how that grew into BonitoChico, a pioneer of local online retail.  

I felt that I threw myself into this industry, quite accidentally.

“ When we first started in 2005, it was so manual,” laughed Tan. “There were no automated systems at all – we had to go to the ATM to transfer money or check on payment, and stick stamps on packages and go to the post office to mail them. It was also quite taboo to shop online. I remember when I wanted to buy something from the US, and my mum was like, ‘Are you sure it's safe? Is the parcel going to come?’”

With BonitoChico, the trio started making overseas trips, such as to Bangkok wholesale markets, to buy clothes to sell on their website. The need to automate became clear when they were sending out thousands of orders manually, emailing each customer and checking their bank accounts for individual payments.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Love, Bonito (@lovebonito)

In 2010, Love, Bonito was born, from the entrepreneurial threesome’s desire to create their own affordable and accessible fashion label for the Asian market. An automated system that tracked orders, payment, warehousing and shipping allowed dresses, shirts and pants to move at breakneck speed, and saw the brand scaling new heights.

AT A CROSSROAD

Unfortunately, by 2013, Tan suffered a burnout, and the distinct desire to try something else. “After eight years, I was at a crossroads,” she said. “The business grew to a size which I felt was too big and too fast for me. Innately, this wasn’t what I was meant to do as a creative. I promised my parents when I left school in my second year of university to focus on the business that if I don’t succeed, I will go back to school.”

She packed her bags for London, dabbled in F&B and floristry, and finally came full circle by enrolling in fashion courses in Central Saint Martins. “I did fashion marketing, merchandising, pattern-making – things and technicalities in fashion that I wanted to understand. Because I felt that I threw myself into this industry, quite accidentally,” said Tan.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Collate (@collatethelabel)

Two years later, in 2015, she was ready to throw herself back into the industry, not so accidentally this time. She launched Collate The Label, which focused on occasion wear with more premium prices, with a show at Singapore Fashion Week.

“One of the challenges I had with Collate was getting people to recognise it as a local designer label, said Tan. “Because of our positioning and price point [over S$200 for a dress], it wasn't so suitable for the market at that point.”

STARTING OUR SECOND NATURE

Collate ran for about two years, and Tan quickly pivoted to her next label, Our Second Nature (OSN), launched at the end of 2016. Taking with her all the learnings from operating a fast fashion business and then a mid-range label, she seems to have hit a sweet spot on the spectrum of discount to designer with this brand focused on classics with a soft modern twist. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Velda Tan (@belluspuera)

Our Second Nature now boasts two stores – a 1,100 sq ft boutique in Chip Bee Gardens and a newly-renovated 4,000 sq ft store in Great World City, which carries womenswear, menswear, kidswear and home and lifestyle goods. 

“The experiment with Collate eventually birthed OSN, and it was really about being on the ground, and engaging with customers through social media, learning and retrying, and relearning,” said Tan, who is the creative director of the label and heads the design team. “I wanted to create something which isn’t fast fashion but is still accessible.”

Our prints became a signature and with every print collection, we want to tell a story, and take people on a journey.

"With OSN, the key was really the connection with our customers. Everything that we put out there is to try to create that bond between consumer and brand. Our prints became a signature and with every print collection, we want to tell a story, and take people on a journey. We want our clothing to be not just a product, but also an emotional connection with customers, to enrich and elevate everyday lives.”

Part of Our Second Nature’s winning formula requires that collections drop far less frequently than fast fashion brands, and their popular dresses, tops and skirts with abstract and arty prints are often sold out, with customers put on waitlists. This is deliberate.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Our Second Nature (@oursecondnature)

“We have four to five prints and about eight major collections a year,” explained Tan. “So new products drop every one-and-a-half months. With fast fashion, you’d get drops every week, or even every day. For us, it’s really about being authentic and exercising some sort of restraint, to not put out too many designs and products that won’t add value to our customers’ lives, and not to stock too many of the same item, to avoid wastage and leftover inventory.”

FORAY INTO SUSTAINABILITY

Which brings us to Atlas Kind, Tan’s foray into more sustainable ways of consuming fashion. “It started off being a small step within OSN to educate ourselves, but the sustainable collection took off,” said Tan.

“It was surprising to us that we had a group of customers who wanted to be even more thoughtful in their purchases. We took it as a sign to try something totally new, for a chance to have more focused messaging about sustainability with a new brand.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Atlas Kind (@atlaskind)

The new label occupies a sizeable shop space with its own unique aesthetic beside OSN at Great World City, with price points that are slightly higher, at S$109 for a top, compared to S$60 to S$79 at OSN.

T he elevated prices are because the garments have a longer production cycle, due to the more tedious process of finding sustainable materials such as deadstock fabrics and organic dyes, making sure that details such as zips, buttons and packaging are from sustainable sources, and that the factories they work with have fair wages and good trade practices.

Tan’s gentle and non-aggressive approach to business extends to her personal life. With her entrepreneur husband Frederick Yap, 36, they are “super chill” parents to two girls, six-year-old Ellery and 16-month-old Eleyna. 

SEASONS IN LIFE

“I feel like in different seasons of life, you have different priorities,” shared Tan. “And with my two children being still very young, I want to spend more quality time with them. I guess I could do even more with the business, like launch more brands or be more ambitious, or open more stores and expand to different markets, but I think the conscious choice is really to find balance and time for family.”

When asked why she is so open about her fertility and pregnancy challenges on Instagram (she’s shared deeply personal stories about IVF and a miscarriage), Tan said: “Social media is where everybody highlights the positive things in their lives. I think it can get quite toxic, seeing people doing things that you're not, and feeling that you've not accomplished anything. I wanted to show that you can be vulnerable on social media. What I went through [with my fertility issues] was really isolating, but through my peers, I felt less alone.”

“There are many women going through the same thing, and sharing helps. I also host regular online and offline support groups – we have a platform called Fertility Support SG, where we share information about assisted reproductive technology in Singapore, where you can get grants and subsidies, etc. My goal is for everybody to walk away feeling less alone.”

I might want to bring Collate back.

As for her plans for the future, Tan emphasised that she has no desire to open too many stores (“I think for Singapore, at most three”) or expand too quickly overseas (“It’s always been just pop-ups, and with foreign sales coming up to about 15 per cent, and the US market being our biggest market after Singapore, I do think that it's time for us to reach out to communities elsewhere”). 

Strangely, she has a dream to go backwards, in a way. “I might want to bring Collate back,” she said. “Maybe the market is ready now and it’s the right time and place. Fashion comes in cycles and brands also have their life cycles. Collate is more about occasion wear, for events and weddings, and there might be a gap in the market for a Singapore brand. Ong Shunmugam does very well in that category but I think there is still space. Collate The Label is something that is of sentimental value to me.” 

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Watch Tyla and Travis Scott's Steamy Dancing in "Water (Remix) Video

The South African singer's debut, self-titled album arrives on Friday.

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Tyla and Travis Scott ’s “Water (Remix)” has officially received the music video treatment.

The visual sees the two stars circling and dancing together against various backdrops. The remix first dropped last November, and the video arrives just days before Tyla shares her debut, self-titled album.

View this photo on Instagram

Back in December, a few weeks after releasing the Scott-featuring collaboration, the South African artist revealed to Complex that she didn’t think a remix of “Water” was necessary —at least, not until she discovered that the Utopia rapper was interested.

"I didn't really think of doing a remix. I was like, ‘Nah, like, let's just have “Water,” it's cool, whatever.’ But then people were reaching out and I was like, ‘Oh my word, oh my word,’" Tyla told Complex. "And I started getting excited and then Travis reached out and I literally couldn’t… like, I could not say no; his music is crazy. So after he reached out, we sent him that open verse and he came back and he killed it, you know, he killed it."

Tyla is also set to include appearances from Tems, Gunna, Skillibeng, and Becky G.

Watch the "Water (Remix)" video up top.

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Pope Francis Addresses Migrants’ Plight in Emotional Message

Pope Francis sent an emotional message this Thursday to migrants crossing the inhospitable Darién jungle in Panama on their way to the United States, urging them never to forget “their human dignity”. The pontiff’s message was read during a religious event held at the migrant shelter in Lajas Blancas, in the jungle province of Darién, bordering Colombia.

“Migrant brothers and sisters, never forget your human dignity,” Francisco stated in his letter, read by the apostolic nuncio Dagoberto Campos Salas in front of dozens of migrants.

“I too am a son of migrants who left in search of a better future,” said the Argentine pope with Italian ancestors, whose message was delivered to the shelter by the nuncio and bishops from Costa Rica, Colombia, and Panama.

“Do not be afraid to look others in the eyes because you are not discarded, but you are also part of the human family and the family of the children of God,” the pope added.

In Lajas Blancas, about 250 km by road east of the Panamanian capital, one of the shelters installed by the Panamanian government, along with international organizations, operates to assist migrants crossing the inhospitable jungle.

This jungle, 266 km in length and 575,000 hectares in area, has become a corridor for thousands of migrants who, from South America, try to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.

In 2023, a record number of 520,000 travelers crossed it, facing risks from wild animals, such as venomous snakes, swift rivers, and criminal gangs.

The NGO Doctors Without Borders recently denounced that these criminal groups raped an average of 16 migrant women per day in February, while the previous month there were three cases per day.

So far this year, nearly 100,000 migrants have crossed the jungle , according to official Panamanian figures. Almost two-thirds are Venezuelans, followed by Ecuadorians, Haitians, Colombians, and Chinese.

The son of a railway worker of Piedmontese origin and a housewife, Francisco recalled that his parents faced “times when they were left with nothing, even going hungry; with empty hands, but a heart full of hope”.

In the letter, which concludes with his usual message “pray for me”, he also assures that migrants are “the face of a mother Church that walks with its sons and daughters, in whom she discovers the face of Christ”.

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