The Emotional Ladder and How It Can Help You

 

 

 

 

 

The concepts of The Emotional Ladder and the Choose Again method come from the book Super Attractor, written by New York Times Bestselling author Gabrielle Bernstein. In this book, Gabrielle openly refers to the Emotional Guidance Scale by Abraham-Hicks, where you can consciously lift yourself from a low mood to one where you feel a lot more positive. 

It’s a great way to help you to feel better when you believe there’s no reason for your funny mood, but you just can’t seem to shake it off. You know, when everything feels oppressive, or is annoying you? When you find that you’re snapping, and you’re having “one of those days”. 

What I really liked about the book is how it combines both methods to help elevate your mood so that you’re no longer stuck in a bad energy zone, where you might previously have struggled to feel good about what’s going on around you. 

The “Choose Again” Method

If you keep a journal, this is a really useful habit to get into and use alongside your journaling. 

Step 1 — Notice

The first thing to do is to notice when you are feeling bad. So, when you find yourself snapping, or feeling emotional, or angry, notice it. Get your journal out, and ask yourself: “Why am I feeling like this? What’s going on?” You can usually trace it back to something that’s happened, or something someone might have said earlier in the day to make you feel like that.

Step 2 — Forgive the Thought

Thank the thought for making you aware there was something wrong. In the book, Gabrielle gets you to say a prayer (e.g., “Thank you for revealing to me exactly what I don’t want, so that I can clarify what I do want”).

For example, if you’re feeling overwhelmed and spiralling out of control, you could say, “Ok, thank you for bringing these feelings of overwhelm to my attention, now I’m going to work out what I do want.” It’s about shifting your thought process, from feeling as though things aren’t going well, to being more positive about your situation.

Step 3 — Choose Again

Now, think about the most positive feeling or thought that can help you to reverse this level of emotion. This is where the Emotional Guidance Scale from Abraham-Hicks comes into play, which includes a range of labelled emotions from 1 to 22. 1 is the highest end of the emotional scale where the most positive emotion sits, and 22 is the lowest end of the scale and the most negative emotion. 

If you’re feeling angry — #17 on the scale — and have noticed it, and recorded it in your journal, you can now choose a more positive emotion to help you back up the scale. You want to avoid spiralling further towards Revenge (18), Hatred/Rage (19), Jealousy (20), Insecurity/Unworthiness/Guilt (21), or Fear/Grief/Desperation/Despair/Powerlessness (22). 

Climbing the Positive Emotion Scale

So, you might move up from Anger, to Discouragement (16). What thought could you choose right now to help you move up the scale? Perhaps you want to advance to Blame (15) or Worry (14). By choosing your thoughts, your anger becomes “I was disappointed (12) with the outcome.” Then, as you progress through your day, you might feel frustrated (10).  

So, as you can see, you’re climbing up the scale of emotions to more positive ones, which then help you to feel better about a situation. Before you know it, you’ve passed Boredom (8), into Contentment (7), Hopefulness (6), Optimism (5), Positive Expectation/Belief (4), Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness (3), Passion (2), to Joy/Appreciation/Empowerment/Freedom/Love (1). 

These emotions are much more than the one you started with. The point is to leave the lowest energy vibes behind as you climb the scale to positive energy. Because, when you reach those levels, you’re at your most powerful for attracting what you want. 

Take Action and Leave Negative Emotion Behind

On the other hand, if you spend a lot of time dwelling on negative emotions, you’ll attract more of that negative energy instead of what you actually want (money, partner, career move etc). The more you reach for joy (1), the more likely you are to attract what you want. 

It’s important to understand that you do need to be taking other action steps alongside practicing this way of thinking. You can’t just think joyful thoughts all the time and become a millionaire, as there are practical steps to take to reach those targets. But, if you are spending most of your days feeling depressed about the fact that you’re not a millionaire, you’ll give up instead of taking the positive action that you need to. 

So, you need to lift your mood to the point where you can focus on what you need to do to get there (yes, even when these actions are boring, hard, or repetitive). You’ve still got to keep moving forward. 

Does Changing Your Thought Pattern Really Work?

When I first came across this concept, I was a little bit dubious about whether it would work. But I can honestly say, it really does! When you realise that your thoughts are impacting on your actions and results, you can do something about it. You can’t do anything from a place of disempowerment. This is very much about empowering yourself and making yourself feel better about this, so try it yourself and see if it works for you.

If you’re interested in working on your money mindset, I have opened the doors to my Money Mindset Reset course. If you want to learn more about your money mindset and improving/getting rid of those blocks that are holding you back, then this course is made for you.

Money is so much more than the numbers, and your mindset around it underpins it all. 

 

 

 

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