<aside> <img src="/icons/book_blue.svg" alt="/icons/book_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Framework is significantly modified, but original Source: Thanks for the Feedback (p. 150-159)

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emotional-waveforms.png

Our reactions (to feedback, to unexpected interruption, to any information) can be thought of as containing three variables:

  1. Baseline: refers to the default state of well-being or contentment toward which you gravitate in the wake of good or bad events in your life.
  2. Swing: refers to how far up or down you move from your baseline.
  3. Sustain or Recovery: refers to duration, how long your ups and downs last.

If you think of this as a waveform with an x and y axis, swing is the amplitude of your crests (highs) and troughs (lows), recovery is wavelength. Recovery (wavelength) from positive events may be shorter than recovery from negative events. All of us respond to our environment with a semi-regular curve.

We can use this metaphor to notice when we're dipping into a trough, notice what triggers us, and notice how we get back up to baseline or up toward a peak. Then, we can design our lives around a new waveform.