It's a bit of semantics but an important bit. Let say that every emotion is also on a scale Like a balance scale.
And lets take emotion #12 on the EGS. Disappointment .Now when we are just plain disappointed the scale is in balance. When it's a poignant disappointment. The scale tips downwards on the EGS. As compared to say mildly disappointed that would tip the scale upwards.
Our emotions are just that ours.We all have experienced them for ourselves in varying degrees.Lets say that you have experienced much disappointment so you probably have a very wide scale of your disappointment.As opposed to someone that has not experienced as much would have a much narrower scale. The wider the scale the more sensitive it becomes. Sounds like you feel this when scale is tipping downwards when something is poignantly disappointing, and when you a feeling of poignant optimism it tips the scale upwards. Personally @Grace I've seen how you have learned to work the scales on various emotions to your advantage. and some your still working on .
I am reminded of a time when I was a teenager ,working in a market .At the cash register was a scale that you lifted the produce to weight it .It had a tray that you sat the product in and it was open under . There was a little old lady that when she bought produce it would never exceed a certain weight!Then one day we caught her placing a thimble under the tray thus blocking the scale from weighing anything over that weight..Well she wasn't allowed to shop there any more but the point is Grace get a thimble if you feel that the scales aren't tipping in your favor.It's not cheating when it's your scale,more like a shortcut.
peace

Rather than thinking of the emotional guidance scale as being a ladder type, i prefer to think of it as being a circle

all feelings are useful in the dimension of duality, and by definition there is always a flip side to everything; for example in "joy" there is always a grain of sorrow. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the vibration. This is what i name horizontal energy.

The quality of vibration is on a vertical scale, like a ladder, the higher the vibration the closer it approaches perfection, the lower the vibration, the more discordant it becomes. Think of a symphony orchestra, the beautiful music it produces approaches perfection, then think of a young child bashing a tin drum, that's the difference, (though the child's mother would surely perceive this too as being a real symphony).

The whole range of horizontal energy can slide up and down the vertical scale, the two coexist perfectly.

27th march update

Imagine that all the 22 emotions on the emotional guidance scale are of equal value, it's now in perfect equilibrium; turn the disk 90° and we see a straight line. This is how the horizontal straight line is derived from the enneagram;

symbols 1,2,3 represent thought, word and deed and can be agglomerated to form one end of the scale - symbols 5,6,7 represent counterparts of thought, word, deed and can be agglomerated to form the opposite end of the scale. The horizontal line symbolizes the scale in equilibrium, the horizontal energies. The vertical energies are symbolized by the straight line joining 4(earth) and 8(sky). Aligning the whole structure we get

and this leads to the perfectly balanced human scale symbolized by

Humans are between sky and earth. There is a real measurable difference of potential(voltage), for example if your physical height is 1m70, the voltage between your head and feet is approximately 170 volts.

Emotionally allowing means the scale is in perfect equilibrium, each emotion has equal value, and the more we tend towards this perfect state of equilibrium, the higher up the vertical scale we can reach. In other words we become creators, because by a simple conscious thought we can alter the point of equilibrium of the scale.