Page 25 - Naming Your Feelings Ebook

How To ArEculate Your Feelings

Now that you understand how naming and expressing feelings

can help you have more awareness and feel more in control in your

life, and have reviewed the various feeling categories, you are ready
to start using the guide and put what you’ve learned into pracAce.

You can do this alone, or with a friend or loved one.

Start by picking a Ame of day, or a Ame of the week, where you

WeHeartIt make a commitment to check in about your feelings. Perhaps it’s the
morning, at a lunch break, at the end of a work day, or before bed. At

Strike while the iron is cold. your chosen Ame ask yourself how you are feeling. Aim to answer

As we’ve learned, powerfully this prompt several Ames in each siqng:
firing emoAons can take
over our thinking and make Today I feel….. (and follow this prompt with a feeling word)
it hard to think about very As you list your feelings, you will noAce that more emerge. When
much when we are upset.
The place to begin is when you feel stuck, or unable to arAculate your experience, browse the

emoAons are quieter, then feeling lists for inspiraAon. Glancing over the categories and words
build up from there. will help you find the ones that resonate. When those feelings jump

Prac<ce when the iron is out at you, insert them aoer the feeling prompt, “I feel…..”, and
cold so that you CAN strike either write or say it out loud. Repeat this exercise unAl you feel
while the iron is hot.
saAsfied. Aim for 4- 7 feelings each Ame to pracAce this exercise.

Feelings that are parAcularly truthful will someAmes channel
more emoAonal experiences. Don’t be surprised if you feel

physiological reacAons - chills, a flushing in your face, a spontaneous

smile, or even tears. These are ways your body is communicaAng that

yes, you are on to something. Be curious about your experience and
your feelings – this simultaneously sAmulates your emoAons and

your thoughts, building neural connecAons in your insula and mPFC

that we learned about earlier.
WeHeartIt

Curiosity about your feelings, and their meaning, opens further channels of awareness

that build self- understanding and emo<onal control.

Naming Your Feelings: A Guidebook to Understand & Control Your Emotions @Alicia Clark PsyD 25