Emotional awareness

How many of us have experienced certain situations that might block us or lead us to react instinctively, unaware of what we’re feeling and disoriented in recognizing and naming the emotion of the moment? Developing ’emotional awareness’ is increasingly important nowadays to intentionally guide not only our emotions but also our thoughts and behaviors.

When we talk about ’emotional awareness,’ we mean the ability each of us has to recognize our own emotions and those of others, know how to name them using an emotional vocabulary (so-called emotional literacy), understand the specific messages each emotion conveys to our body, comprehend how the emotions we experience influence our way of thinking and acting, and manage our emotional states without suppressing them.

How can we improve or train our emotional awareness?

• By learning to ask ourselves questions that help identify what we are feeling (also through observing our physical and bodily reactions and all the alterations that occur inside and outside of us) and giving a name to that emotion;
• Asking ourselves what this emotion is communicating to us? ‘Is it telling me that I am in danger?’, ‘Is something needing to change or blocking my path?’, ‘Is there something or someone I need to distance myself from?’, etc.
• Observing what we are feeling without judging it, without telling ourselves if that emotion is positive (and thus giving ourselves permission to feel it because it’s right) or negative (and thus we must reject it or are not allowed to feel it because it’s wrong). Our task is simply to observe what is happening and name what we are feeling, ‘I feel anger,’ ‘I feel sadness,’ ‘I feel joy,’ ‘I feel shame,’ ‘I feel fear,’ etc.
• Learning to identify when we have felt that specific emotion (or combination of emotions), the thoughts we associated with them, and how they influenced us.

In conclusion, the more adept we become at recognizing our emotions, becoming emotionally more intelligent, the more capable we will be of living healthy relationships, being more effective, and nurturing our physical and mental well-being.