Expand your emotional vocabulary and learn to identify what you feel.

A reflection on the importance of knowing how to define what we feel.

Most people are used to walking through life without really asking themselves what they are feeling without really asking themselves what they are feeling.

When someone asks us how we are, the automatic answer is good or bad, but.... Have you ever stopped to think about the real answer to that question?

The importance of knowing how to identify emotions

The emotions that we normally know are anger, sadness, joy and fear; however, although these are of utmost importance many times they are not enough to describe what we are feeling and do not allow us to name and understand what happens to us.

Due to the above it is very common that we confuse some emotions with others. and so we fail to understand what is really happening to us. For example, a person may feel homesick and think it is simply sadness or a person may be feeling betrayed and attribute it to anger.

Not being clear about what we are feeling contributes to the intensification of negative emotions and the inability to find an outlet for them, and to our relationships being conflicted.and that our relationships are conflictive. That is why it is important to improve our mental health by expanding our emotional vocabulary.

The keys to emotional vocabulary

Strengthening our emotional vocabulary is a key element for us to maintain good interpersonal relationships, as it involves being assertive, knowing how to express ourselves and our emotions. it implies being assertive, knowing how to express ourselves and having empathy.This helps to create bridges based on respect and communication.

That is why being clear about what we feel is one of the most essential competencies for our emotional health.

Many times, when we talk about acquiring this competence we focus on early childhood education, since it has been seen over time the need for children to have emotional intelligence and recognize what they feel.However, many of today's adults have not had those educational opportunities and that is why we must encourage it no matter what age we are.

But how can we expand that vocabulary? And more importantly, how can I manage to identify what I am truly feeling?

Connecting with our emotions

For the first question it is important to understand that there are countless emotions and that all of them are valid.To begin to expand your vocabulary the next time you ask yourself how you feel, look for different words to describe what is happening to you, play with different feelings and you will see that when you find the right word and you manage to name it, you will feel a great relief.

This is achieved through awareness, in which we must connect with our emotional and bodily state, to understand that we are feeling something and recognize that our body asks us to credit it.

On the other hand, it is also is of utmost importance to know how to recognize the other person's needs and to be able to understand what he/she is feeling, this is achieved when we are receptive to the other person's needs.This is achieved when we are receptive and empathetic.

Another of the most important keys to express what we feel is to use the so called "emotional verbs". to use the so called "emotional verbsThese verbs lead us to be open and encourage expression. For example, I want, I feel, I am excited, I am uncomfortable.... among many others that we can use and learn.

As for the second question, first of all it is important to identify your emotion by allowing yourself to feel, since the habit of avoiding or denying emotions is something that can be observed frequently and that hinders self-knowledge. the first step is to give yourself unconditional permission to feel..

As a second step we must ask ourselves some questions that help us to understand what is happening to us. How do I feel this emotion? Where do I feel it? What triggered it? What causes it to diminish? To what extent is it for me? By doing this series of questions and reflections we will be able to find the root of the emotion and understand what we are feeling.

Finally, we recommend that you write or talk about what you are feelingThis can be in a diary or with a friend, listening out loud or rereading your thoughts will help you to have even more clarity of what is happening to you and therefore you will have more control of your emotions.

We invite you to try it, expand your vocabulary and ask yourself what you are really feeling, you will see that in a short time your vocabulary will become richer and it will be easier and easier to express what you feel, to know and understand yourself.