CHAPTER 1
Emotions Are Contagious
This book teaches you a method of calming people who are upset, whether they are angry, afraid, sad, or any other type of upset feeling. It is a way of defusing an unnecessary conflict or a way of showing caring for another person, and everything in between. You could be dealing with a family member, friend, co-worker, stranger, or someone on the other side of a heated issue.
We call this method anEAR Statement™, which you can use in person, on the phone, or on live calls on your computer, such as Zoom or some other virtual platform. It is a simple verbal calming method that anyone can learn, although it does take practice. It’s a way of connecting with another person’s experience and giving something of yourself, whether it’s your empathy, your attention, or your respect.
The fundamental principle of an EAR Statement is that emotions are contagious—both positive and negative emotions. Therefore, this first chapter will explainhow emotions are contagious, so that the rest of the book can explainwhat you can do to turn negative emotions into positive ones for yourself and those around you.
We All Get Upset Sometimes
We all get upset sometimes. It’s part of what makes us human. The beauty of our emotions (all of them, positive and negative) is that they help us survive and thrive together. This is largely because we can influence each other with our emotions. Emotions help us work together. Emotions get us help from others when we are in distress. With emotions, we can calm each other down or stir each other up. We can turn each other on and turn each other off, simply by the emotions that we show to others. In other words, our emotions are contagious.
This little book is about how we can help each other calm down. This is an important part of all relationships and interactions with anyone, especially in today’s world. There’s a lot of stress, anxiety, anger, polarization, depression,
