Choosing Emotions: D. Earl Johnston Explores Emotional Literacy, Language, and the Power of Defining What We Feel
- Best Ever You
- a few seconds ago
- 7 min read
What if one of the biggest missing pieces in emotional wellness, emotional intelligence, and mental health conversations is something surprisingly simple: language?
For years, people have talked about emotional regulation, emotional intelligence, stress management, healing, and self-awareness. But according to author D. Earl Johnston, many people are still operating with an incredibly limited emotional vocabulary, often without realizing it.
In his book Choosing Emotions: Thinking with Your Head and Acting with Your Heart, Johnston explores what he describes as the first fully cross-disciplinary reference defining 272 emotional states, drawing from thousands of years of philosophy, psychology, science, linguistics, spirituality, literature, and human experience. The result is what some are calling an “emotionary” — a practical and thought-provoking exploration of the language, experience, and meaning behind human emotions.
At Best Ever You, we believe emotional wellness, self-awareness, resilience, growth, and meaningful conversations matter deeply. In a world where so many people feel emotionally overwhelmed, disconnected, overstimulated, or uncertain about how to express what they are feeling, this conversation offers a fascinating perspective on the role emotional language plays in helping people better understand themselves and each other.
Bestselling author and BEY Founder, Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino sits down with
bestselling author D. Earl Johnston to discuss emotional literacy, the connection between language and human behavior, why defining emotions matters, and how expanding emotional vocabulary may help people navigate life with greater clarity, awareness, understanding, and intention.
Doug, your work explores a fascinating idea. For someone new to your book, what do you most want them to understand about “Choosing Emotions”?
The book is essentially the most comprehensive consumer-facing reference on emotions in the English language, and it is also the first to add how emotions feel to experience in addition to how they look to others, which has been the standard approach. Given that people often have difficulty expressing their emotions, having the quotes and experiences of 1,800 people from all walks of life adds a whole lot to understanding. So the book has been nicknamed as the first ‘emotionary.’
You raise the question of whether emotional literacy is possible without clearly defining emotions. Why do you believe this gap exists?
The average person believes there are only between 8 and 28 total emotions – and yet we show that there are easily in the low hundreds of everyday emotions as referenced by numerous people in their everyday lives. The gap appears to arise from emotions being applicable to ALL human activity, while the sciences prefer to limit their definitions to only the aspects that apply to their own discipline. The APA Dictionary of Psychology omits 25% of the everyday emotions in the book—so does the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. Each discipline defers out of politeness to the next and the gap has not been closed. Until now.
You’ve identified and defined 272 emotional states. What surprised you most during your research process?
The book started with research on the word/emotion ‘depression’ when we realized that quotes from people who had experienced and survived depression could be extremely helpful to understanding depression – and what to do. The research expanded over 9 years to cover 272 emotional states as described by over 8,000 quotes and phrases from people who actually experienced them. Their insights became treasures. The emotions covered include both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ emotions, as well as ‘emotional states’ (such as OCD and ego) and ‘contributing conditions’ (such as nutrition, hydration, and beliefs). I found several emotions and emotional states were different from what I understood – such as trauma and others.
Many people are familiar with basic emotions like happiness, anger, or fear. How does expanding our emotional vocabulary change the way we understand ourselves?
There is now virtual unanimity in both the arts and sciences that we think and process best through the use of words. Even top theoretical physicists think in words, not square root signs or numbers! Across 13 academic disciplines from literature to art to psychology to neuroscience to physics, the top thinkers agree that the issues of life are resolved in words, and so having access to an expanded emotional vocabulary is a very good thing,
You describe emotions as an “operating system.” Can you explain that concept in a way readers can apply to their daily lives?
As a teaching device, it is easy to compare our emotional system to the biological equivalent of a computer Operating System. Just as a computer operates by using peripheral devices to feed data to a central processor, which then processes the data and issues commands, so, too, does our emotional system operate by assembling data from touch and the senses to allow us to process and then issue commands to our body parts. In this way, our emotional system serves as our navigational system to get through life. We react to data (a hot stove) but we can also choose and make decisions to advance our lives - such as through wonder, excitement, curiosity, and love. At our best, we are choosing and not merely reacting – and so the title became Choosing Emotions.
The idea of emotions as the “gears of life” is powerful. How do emotions actually translate into behavior?
Just as a cyclist riding a 25-speed bike can change gears for different types of terrain, we too can shift from one emotion to the next. We often do this without even thinking, but the practical analogy holds very clearly: ‘Determination’ to meet a challenge; ‘Fear’ to plan around a problem; ‘Excitement’ to look forward to fun; ‘Wonder’ to help assess something new and beautiful.
You also refer to emotions as a kind of “Rosetta Stone.” How do emotions connect across cultures, disciplines, and human experiences?
Emotions represent the Rosetta Stone of human behavior. Happiness may have different words in different languages, but we all smile when we are happy and frown when we are sad, and drop our jaws in surprise. The behaviors are very similar across all languages, and emotions thus represent the common language of behavior.
You introduce the idea of emotions as an “adverbial driver” of behavior. What does that mean in practical terms?
An accidental discovery of the book was when I realized that every action has an emotional component to it. For a person simply walking across a room, you might say that it is a non-emotional event – but there must be an emotional driver of some sort behind the motion. You are either walking lazily across the room, or excitedly across the room, or sadly across the room, or otherwise. But emotion = ‘energy in motion’ and so there is an emotional component driving the motion. When I articulated that, it was of interest in the field of linguistics because it has not been expressed that way before. I used the term ‘adverbial driver’ to describe the scene because in linguistics an adverb represents ‘how’ something happens, which is where emotion enters as the ‘driver.’
For someone who wants to better understand and navigate their emotions, where is a good place to begin?
An easy and beautiful way to frame it is how the noted UCLA clinical psychiatrist Dr Daniel Siegel expressed it: ‘Name it to tame it.” Those are in my view 5 of the most meaningful words in the English language. If you can name what is on your mind precisely, you get unstuck – whether this is a difficult situation or a happy situation, your mind frees and you experience a release. Charles Kettering, one of the namesake benefactors of the famous Sloan-Kettering Cancer Clinic in NYC, was not a physician himself. He was actually an inventor for General Motors who held 186 patents. His own quote was ‘A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.” From Shakespeare forward to Nobel physicists, there is a unanimity to understanding that it is the adequacy and precision of words that gives us answers, release, and happiness. Emotions thus have two navigational functions: 1) Protect us and 2) Help advance our lives. Protection is #1, and advancement is #2. Adequacy of words is key to that navigation. Vocabulary is the key to emotional literacy and advancement.
If someone is feeling overwhelmed or disconnected from what they’re experiencing, how can having clearer emotional definitions help them regain a sense of clarity?
A: I am not a therapist but the literature clearly reflects that therapists often encounter patients who struggle for the right words to describe their situation. So it is far better to have more words – and more precise words – such as the 8,000 quotes and phrases covering 272 emotional states – as presented in the book. A patient struggling to describe his/her anxiety can readily point to any one of 20-40 quotes from others who have suffered from anxiety and say – ‘Yes that one – that’s it! That is exactly how I feel!” And be on their way to relief. As the well-known TV personality Jon Stewart has described it: ‘The enemy is noise. The goal is clarity.”
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What makes this conversation with D. Earl Johnston so compelling is the reminder that emotions are not simply reactions people experience randomly throughout life. They are deeply connected to how people think, communicate, behave, process experiences, build relationships, make decisions, and understand themselves.
In a time when conversations around mental health, emotional wellness, burnout, anxiety, stress, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence continue to grow, Johnston raises an important question: How can people fully navigate emotions they may not yet have the words to describe?
At Best Ever You, we believe self-awareness and emotional growth often begin with honesty, reflection, and meaningful conversation. Sometimes clarity starts with simply naming what we are feeling. And as Johnston suggests, having more precise emotional language may help people feel less stuck, more understood, and more connected to themselves and others.
Pause.
Breathe.
Choose.
Choose curiosity .Choose awareness. Choose language that helps you better understand yourself and the people around you.
Because when people gain greater emotional clarity, they often gain greater compassion, connection, and peace as well.
About D. Earl Johnston
D. Earl Johnston is a former corporate executive, testifying expert and
world champion sailor. Over a multi-decade career spanning banking,
private equity and litigation consulting, he developed a sustained
interest in language, motivation and emotional definition. Choosing
Emotions represents nine years of research across disciplines and
traditions. For more information, visit https://choosingemotions.com/