What are you feeling today?

What are you feeling today. Stop and think about it. Often we are rushing and so involved with what we are doing that we don’t take notice of how we are. The four main categories of feelings are: sad, mad, glad and scared. If you have grown up with people that don’t articulate their feelings, or when they do express their feelings, destructive things happen.  At times you might struggle to pin point what you are feeling. Developing a vocabulary of feeling words can help your awareness of different feelings. Keeping a journal about your observation of your and other’s feelings will help you recognize them; as well as the responses and reactions that follow. Often actions against us or towards others have emotional impact, such as thoughtless cast away comments made – we don’t intend them to hurt but they do. You could try to record as many different words that describe your feelings though out your day in your journal. At the end of the day or week you will find that reviewing them could be quite informative.

 It is a good idea to learn to recognize different feelings so that you can begin to anticipate your reactions. Being forewarned is forearmed. You can then begin to practice expressing them in constructive and positive ways. As you become more aware you might even spot different patterns of behavior that are triggered by actions and feelings.    

Today I have sketched nine faces with different expressions and clustered different words with the expressions to illustrate and stimulate you to think about different emotions that you might experience. 

Regretful, embarrassed, ashamed, guilty, inferior, incapable, vulnerable.

Glad, confident, proud, happy, content, kindness, love, open, understanding.

Bored, confused, worried, lonely, discouraged, suspicious, powerless, upset, sorry.

Disgusting, detestable, miserable, crushed, very sad, abandoned, disowned, rejected, grief.

Grateful, excited, impulsive, thrilled, ecstatic, hopeful, amused, amazed.

Quiet, calm, peaceful, content, empathy, cautious, shy, smug, aloof, arrogant, preoccupied.

Shocked, panic, hurt, humiliated, surprised, afraid, scared, alarmed, terror.

Sad, disappointed, unhappy, stressed, overwhelmed, frustrated, depressed.

Angry, mad, bitter, jealous, hostile, enraged, irritated, annoyed, aggressive .

You can look up a comprehensive list on the internet here.

I hope you have found this post thought provoking and encouraging. Keep observing and journalling and I'll be back with the next post.

A warm smile,

Morag