Understanding your emotions allows us to make decisions on what we want and who we want to be. Emotions help us to relate to other people and to know ourselves better. Every form of an emotion helps in some way.
- Name Your Feelings
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A lot of times in therapy, the therapist suggests using desciption words such as “I feel” or “I think”. This can help to better lead to a conversation and to shift your emotions to a more open possibility of changing. For example, instead of saying “I dont get enough attention,” you can say “I feel like I dont get enough attention.” This can lead to a conversation on why you feel this way and what can be done to change this emotion.
- Track Your Feelings
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Throughout a long day, a human can feel every emotion. To help better understand emotional awareness and how you feel, pick an emotion and track it throughout the day. This could be how many times you feel/are happy, sad, angry… Pick ONE emotion and make a note everytime you feel it change. By doing this, you can get a better understanding of the level of this emotion such as mild, medium. low. Once you figure out your level, you can work on changing it to increase or decrease.
- Broaden Your Vocabulary
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Try to think of all the different feeling you can feel. Which are the most common descriptive words? Try not to use them. For example, instead of saying mad, describe that emotion by saying frusterated, irritated, annoyed. By widening your vocabulary, this allows for more emotion and a more specific way to relax from it.
- Journal
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Keeping your feelings inside is when difficult feelings build up and emotional breakdowns form. Journaling is a way to express your feelings to yourself about how you feel and why. This could be used in any shape or form that captures an emotion you feel.
- Notice Feelings
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Feeling are something that everyone has. They are often conveyed on television, in music, throughout movies and more. By paying attention to how feelings were shown and reacted, this could help you relate more.
Understanding your emotions and having awareness of them could be a life changing factor. There are ways to overcome emotional obsticles by youself, but noticing and talking about feelings is healthy and is a great way to express them. Be aware of your emotions and the affects of them. You deserve to be happy :)
HCXO, Kate