Your emotional GPS is old use THIS to upgrade 🗺️

Hey brother,

Picture a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan ...

Right after 9/11.

Hot as hell…

Heart pounding...

Adrenaline surging...

… And multiple threats closing in ...

Yet he remains calm, clear, decisive.

How? 🤔

He developed an emotional GPS that most men lack.

And today, I'm handing you that same navigation system.

Meet Robert Plutchik...

The psychologist pioneer ... who cracked the code on emotional intelligence [1].

He discovered something that changes everything:

Emotions aren't random.

They follow predictable patterns.

Like chemical cocktail reactions in your brain. 🧪

Think of it this way...

Your emotions are like ingredients in a kitchen...

Mix anger + disgust = Contempt (relationship poison) ☠️

Mix joy + trust = Love (relationship glue) 💕

Mix fear + surprise = Awe (spiritual awakening) ✨

But here's where most men mess this up...

They can't identify the ingredients.

... read that again.

It's like trying to cook blindfolded.

No wonder relationships explode! 💥

Enter Plutchik's Emotion Wheel:

Imagine a color wheel, but for feelings...

8 primary emotions at the core:

1. Joy
   

2. Trust
   

3. Fear
   

4. Surprise
   

5. Sadness
   

6. Disgust
   

7. Anger
   

8. Anticipation

Each emotion has intensity levels...

Like a dimmer switch:

Anger → Rage (high intensity) 🔥 

Anger → Annoyance (low intensity) 😤

And when emotions combine?

That's where the magic (or madness) happens...

The Deadly Combinations:

Contempt = Anger + Disgust [2]

The #1 predictor of divorce.

Shows up as eye-rolling, sarcasm, sneering ... Gottman found this destroys marriages in 5.6 years

Passive-Aggression = Anger + Fear 

When you can't express rage directly.

Comes out sideways as "forgetting" or silent treatment.

Common in men who learned "anger is bad"

Jealousy = Fear + Anger + Sadness 

The triple threat to relationships.

Activates all three alarm systems at once. 🚨 🚨 🚨 

Can spiral into obsession without awareness.

The Power Combinations:

Love = Joy + Trust 

The foundation of lasting bonds.

Releases oxytocin + dopamine cocktail. [3][9]

Can be consciously cultivated.

Optimism = Anticipation + Joy 

Your success accelerator.

Proven to extend lifespan by 7-8 years. [4]

Trainable through specific practices.

Awe = Fear + Surprise 

The spiritual reset button.

Shrinks ego, expands perspective.

Found in nature, art, human achievement.

Meet Michael...

A 45-year-old construction foreman...

Tough as nails on the outside...

But his third marriage was crumbling.

His pattern?

Anger + Fear = Explosive fights followed by stonewalling.

not a good combo...

He couldn't name what he felt...

So he couldn't change it.

He learned the wheel.

First week: He just observed.

"I'm at orange" (anger) "Now I'm at blue" (sadness)

Second week: He caught patterns.

"Every time she mentions her ex, I go straight to red"

Third week: He intercepted.

"I feel myself heading to contempt... switching to curiosity instead"

Six months later?

Marriage a lot better. Loving. Understanding.

Promoted to site supervisor.

His kids actually want to hang out with him.

All from a simple wheel. 🎯

... don't underestimate the power of its simplicity.

Your 30-Second Emotional GPS Check:

1. FEEL IT- What's the sensation in your body?
   

2. NAME IT - Where on the wheel are you?
   

3. TRACE IT- What triggered this?
   

4. CHOOSE IT - What emotion would serve better?

RANGES & TESTS:

Emotional Granularity Score: [5][10][11][12]

Don't beat yourself up ... if you can't identify your specific emotions.

This is a learned skill ... you were never taught in school.

The more "Granular" or ... detailed ... YOU ARE ...

... the better your emotional health will be.

How many emotion words can you use accurately?

The following is a general rule of thumb ... gives you an idea ...

of where you stand.

Low score?

Practice your "emotional granularity" skills.

• Low: 0-10 words (emotional blindness)

• Average: 10-30 words (basic awareness)

• High: 30-50 words (emotional intelligence)

• Elite: 50+ words (emotional mastery)

Test yourself: Write down every emotion word you know in 2 minutes.

Alexithymia Scale: (emotional blindness test)

Designed to measure a person's ability to ...

(1) Identify ...

(2) Describe ... and

(3) Process ...

their emotions.

Most men, including staff at Mens Health Secrets ...

didn't even know ...

such a scale exists.

Until now ... that is.

So ... Learn it. Use it. Own it. [8]

Now, rate yourself:

• Difficulty identifying feelings: Rate 1-5
  

• Difficulty describing feelings: Rate 1-5
  

• Difficulty processing feelings: Rate 1-5

Score 12+ = High alexithymia risk (Affects 10% of men, linked to heart disease) [6]

The Military Connection:

Special Forces units now train with emotion wheels...

Because emotional intelligence predicts mission success better than IQ [7].

They discovered:

• Emotionally aware soldiers make 23% better decisions under fire
  

• Teams with high EQ complete missions 31% faster
  

• PTSD rates drop with emotional training

If it works in war zones...

Imagine what it does for your daily life-battles.

Your Week 2 Challenge:

Print Plutchik's wheel (Google it).

Stick it on your bathroom mirror.

Check in 3 times daily:

• Morning: Set emotional intention
  

• Noon: Course correct if needed
  

• Night: Review and learn

By day 7, you'll spot emotional combinations like a pro.

Tomorrow?

We dive into Viktor Frankl's discovery...

The one that kept him sane in Nazi concentration camps...

And can stop your emotional hijacking in 3 seconds flat.

It's called "The Stimulus-Response Gap"...

And it's about to change everything.

To your emotional GPS mastery,

Mens Health Secrets
–Live Past 100

P.S. Tomorrow I reveal Frankl's "3-Second Gap" technique that saved his sanity in Auschwitz... and how YOU can use it to stop any emotional hijacking before it starts. This one tool alone is worth the entire series.

P.P.S. Discuss any new wellness approaches with your healthcare practitioner first. This content provides educational and entertainment ... Edutainment ... value only.

P.P.P.S. >>> Go here to subscribe to our Mens Health Secrets YouTube Channel if you haven't yet... leave a comment... and level up your Mens Health knowledge to live longer.

P.P.P.P.S New Skool.com community coming online soon. Come break "virtual bread" and level-up… with other like-minded men age 40 and up. This is your tribe. Join now. Perks of joining now? It's Free for LIFE. Price activates Q2 2026.

Medical References:

[1] Plutchik, R. (2001). The Nature of Emotions: Human emotions have deep evolutionary roots. American Scientist, 89(4), 344-350. https://doi.org/10.1511/2001.28.344.  

[2] Gottman, J. M., & Levenson, R. W. (1992). Marital processes predictive of later dissolution: Behavior, physiology, and health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(2), 221-233. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.2.221

[3] Marazziti, D., & Canale, D. (2004). Hormonal changes when falling in love. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29(7), 931-936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2003.08.006

[4] Lee, L. O., James, P., Zevon, E. S., Kim, E. S., Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., Spiro, A., Grodstein, F., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2019). Optimism is associated with exceptional longevity in 2 epidemiologic cohorts of men and women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(37), 18357-18362. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900712116

[5] Barrett, L. F., Gross, J., Christensen, T. C., & Benvenuto, M. (2001). Knowing what you're feeling and knowing what to do about it: Mapping the relation between emotion differentiation and emotion regulation. Cognition and Emotion, 15(6), 713-724. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930143000239

[6] Taylor, G. J., Bagby, R. M., & Parker, J. D. A. (1997). Disorders of Affect Regulation: Alexithymia in Medical and Psychiatric Illness. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511526831

[7] Bar-On, R., Handley, R., & Fund, S. (2006). The impact of emotional intelligence on performance. In V. U. Druskat, F. Sala, & G. Mount (Eds.), Linking emotional intelligence and performance at work (pp. 3-19). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203763896

[8] Gaggero G, Bonassi A, Dellantonio S, Pastore L, Aryadoust V, Esposito G. A Scientometric Review of Alexithymia: Mapping Thematic and Disciplinary Shifts in Half a Century of Research. Front Psychiatry. 2020 Dec 10;11:611489. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.611489. PMID: 33362614; PMCID: PMC7758403.

[9] Fisher H, Aron A, Brown LL. Romantic love: an fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. J Comp Neurol. 2005 Dec 5;493(1):58-62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772. PMID: 16255001.

[10] Ozomaro B, Wein PY, Miller S, Ospina LH, Goodman M, Torous J, Kimhy D. Emotional granularity in health and psychopathology: A scoping review. J Psychiatr Res. 2025 Oct;190:277-295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.08.008. Epub 2025 Aug 11. PMID: 40816203.

[11] Hoemann K, Barrett LF, Quigley KS. Emotional Granularity Increases With Intensive Ambulatory Assessment: Methodological and Individual Factors Influence How Much. Front Psychol. 2021 Jul 28;12:704125. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704125. PMID: 34393942; PMCID: PMC8355493.

[12] Wilson-Mendenhall CD and Dunne JD (2021) Cultivating Emotional Granularity. Front. Psychol. 12:703658. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703658.