Describing feelings and emotions and feeling them are two important—yet distinct—skills to have. Let’s explore both skills, and see how they can be helpful.
Describing Feelings and Emotions
For brevity, let’s call both body sensations and emotions feelings. Being able to identify, name, and describe feelings can help you connect with yourself and others. Identifying your feelings can help you identify your needs; and identifying other people’s feelings can help you identify their needs. In intimate relationships, identifying your feelings can help you describe them to others; this can help build trust and understanding. And when you’re empathizing with others, identifying their feelings can help you give verbal reflections of the feelings you’re sensing in them.
The first step in learning to name feelings is learning to notice them. Building your feelings vocabulary is also important—lists of feelings can be helpful for this.
Feeling Them
When we find a word or phrase that resonates with an aspect of how we feel, we may have an “a-ha moment” of seeing that aspect of our experience more clearly. But when we name feelings, something can also get lost. Putting words to feelings is a double-edged sword; it highlights some aspects of experience, and casts a shadow on others.
Emotions and body sensations are actually a subtle, constantly-shifting field of experience that encompasses the whole body. Learning to actually experience this field—that is, learning to feel your feelings—can give you a richer experience of life. And when you’re triggered, feeling your feelings can free you from the reactive patterns that are causing your triggered state.
Feeling your feelings is not a passive process. When you feel your feelings, you shine the light of awareness into the depths of your emotional world. Awareness is a force of love and healing that can transform you from deep within.
Photo Light shines through the oculus in the pantheon (by ftzdomino) is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.