There are many words that you can use to describe your feelings. Because there are so many words to choose from, it can be overwhelming on top of whatever you are already feeling, so many people (myself included) stop checking in with themselves throughout the day and have no idea of how they feel, let alone why they feel it.
Another symptom of not identifying your emotions throughout the day is that you find yourself “getting through” or “overwhelmed”. This is because of the backup and growing amount of unprocessed experiences leading you to feel overwhelmed or like you need to get through.
If this is you, know that you are not alone. Sometimes looking at a feeling chart helps get this process started. Attached below are two feeling word charts (one from the ’90s counselors’ office), try using it each day to identify a feeling or two that you experienced. This exercise pairs really nicely with Contemplative Prayer at the end of your day. But by doing this, you are allowing yourself to experience throughout the day, and are using the experience to make sense of your day. An example of this is if you felt sad when you had a poor exchange with a co-worker, identify that you felt sad (maybe even like a burden or wrong) to create meaning and value surrounding your sad experience.
If/when you do this, you are validating your experience and may give you the opportunity to connect circumstances to your experience. Next week, I will highlight the difficulty to identify your emotions when you cannot accept them or are constantly trying to change them.
The Images used in this post came from Google Image search for “feeling word chart”.
This post originally appeared on www.GraysonWallen.com/blog/HowAreYouFeeling
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