The community is debating the validity of the 'Emotional Guidance Scale,' a model that attempts to rank emotions on a linear spectrum from negative to positive in order to better manage them.

noli's read

The majority of stakeholders reject this hierarchy, noting that human emotions are too complex and intertwined to be reduced to a simple straight line. Scientifically, research in the psychology of emotion (notably the work of Lisa Feldman Barrett on the theory of constructed emotion) supports this critique: emotions are not fixed entities on a scale, but contextual brain constructions. It has been proven that attempting to classify emotions as 'good' or 'bad' can paradoxically increase stress, whereas emotional acceptance is linked to better well-being (meta-analysis by Ford et al., 2018, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). The idea that one can move up or down at will on a scale of feeling is therefore widely considered an oversimplification. There is no empirical evidence validating such a scale as an emotional regulation tool. The community is generally skeptical, or even wary, of this approach, which it judges to be simplistic or associated with dogmatic belief systems.

the sources

1. 1r/Meditation