The Emotional Body: The Intersection Between Embodied Emotional Awareness, Empathy, Alexithymia, Well-Being and Altruism

Abstract

Emotion regulation and empathy are critical components for human social interaction and may help determine who is resilient when faced with challenging psychosocial situations and who may be vulnerable. Recent evidence has shown that emotional regulation involves awareness of emotional states that are associated with topographical bodily sensations and awareness of these sensations may be associated with other pro-social factors, such as empathy. However, there is a paucity of research that investigates the relationship among emotional body awareness and various other psychological constructs. The present research study developed a questionnaire instrument to measure embodied emotional awareness (EEA). Our results indicate that enhanced EEA of fear is associated with higher levels of empathy, lower alexithymia, altruism and psychological well-being. Perception of these emotion-triggered bodily sensations may play a key role in understanding and treating various psychological disorders as well as improving mental and physical health in fear-inducing situations.