Exercise and stimulants tend to heighten positive emotions. They don’t generally heighten negative ones, but that’s probably all to the good, right? Increased social interaction, both in terms of time and in terms of emotional closeness, tends to heighten both positive and negative emotions.
Have you tried leaning into an emotion?
If that doesn't make sense: You can practice noticing the effects of the emotion on your body and mind and see if you can do more of that. For example, you may notice how parts of your face move when you smile while happy and them let the movement go further. The corresponding mental part is harder to describe but works kind of the same.
As far as you can remember, have your emotions always worked this way? Did they used to be stronger normally?
I ask because in my own case, I had depression for years before realizing that's what it was, because it mostly manifested as a gradual dulling of my emotions. Different specifics (my emotions got suppressed even more with sleep deprivation), but even with therapy and meditation I didn't start feeling more like my old self until I started taking bupropion.
Are you on any medications that might dampen your emotions? Do you feel more emotions when sleep-deprived or are you better at getting in touch with them? Does it affect how good you are at noticing and identifying the emotions of others? Alexithymia might also be something to look into.
I've noticed when I don't get enough sleep, the emotions I feel the next day are higher variance - I'm a sadder sad person and a happier happy person.
I want more of this, since I prefer feeling emotions to not feeling emotions and generally enjoy higher variance in life due to novelty and stuff. What are some ways I can get this without being sleep deprived?
(Also would appreciate pushback! Think this may be wrong due to similar reasons to variance being bad in finance.)