Naming Your Feelings

Psychologists call this "affect labelling". Brain-imaging studies (for example, Lieberman and colleagues, 2007) found that naming an emotion was linked with lower activity in the amygdala, an area involved in emotional reactions. It is a helpful skill, not a cure.

Try this

• Pause and ask: What am I feeling right now?
• Name it in one word: sad, anxious, irritated, lonely, hopeful.
• Get more precise: is "bad" actually disappointed, ashamed or tired?
• Notice where you feel it in your body.

Remember

All emotions carry information. Naming them is not the same as acting on them.