Navigating emotions and being in tune with yourself is one of the hardest things to do. With over 100 different human emotions that guide us and motivate us to survive, it is no wonder why we struggle so much at controlling those emotions.
The trick about navigating emotions is not to hide or suppress the negative emotions, but to embrace them and use them as a tool. Experiencing those negative emotions is crucial for your growth. They cause you to address problems and evaluate situations. Balancing both positive and negative emotions is important.
Here you will learn how to start understanding your feelings and how to acknowledge them as it is a key factor in your happiness and well-being.
So how can we really get in tune with our feelings? Well, it’s start with the 3 components of navigating emotions.
3 Components of Navigating Emotions
1. Access
You must first access how you are feeling. To figuring out what emotion you are really feeling, you must be honest with yourself. You can’t fix anything without knowing exactly what you feel and how you feel.
2. Harness
Take a step back. You want to control your emotions and make use of the situation and your feelings associated with them. When it is the heat of the moment, it is hard to understand your feelings and navigate your emotions. Taking a step back will allow you to harness that emotion and think more clear.
3. Transform
You can now use these emotions to be more aware and purposeful in your intentions and life. Transforming your emotions so that you adapt and accept them is the hardest part but with the right strategies can lead to great success and happiness.
Next post in the Wellness Series: The Secret to Being Comfortable Alone
5 Best Strategies to Understanding Your Feelings
1. Focus on Yourself
Do you ever get so concerned with making other people happy that you sacrifice your own happiness and the things that you love in order to accommodate someone else? More likely than not, this has happened to you or someone that you know. Or maybe you are someone that constantly turn to others for help.
Don’t get me wrong, leaning on others and getting help is nothing to be ashamed of and is actually one of the best ways to relieve the negative feelings you may be experiencing. Friends and family is one of the biggest support systems that we have. We need people that we can lean on and count on.
However, before we can help others, we need to focus on helping ourselves. Navigating emotions is hard because nobody else knows what you are truly feeling on the inside. You must tap into that yourself. This is why it is important to focus on yourself and understand yourself to the best of your ability.
2. Do what you love
Doing the things you love is hard because there is a fear of not fitting in and a world of possibilities that you might not have explored. Investing your time in the things that make you happy will help you understand your feelings. Once you know what makes you happy, it will help lead you toward a successful future.
The best way to start figuring it all out is to invest your time and energy into the things you want. Then, sit down and think about the next steps or how it made you feel.
3. Start self-reflecting
Self-reflection is a key component of focusing on yourself. Keeping a journal or notebook allows you to organize your life and put your feelings and experiences down on paper. Not only that, but keeping a journal is great way to let out any and all details and feeling about your life without fear of judgement. It is your safe space.
Take the time to reflect.
Focusing on yourself implies that you know what you want and what direction you want to go in. It is hard to focus on something if you don’t know what that is. Journaling will also help you brainstorm and track progress to understanding who you are and being in tune with your emotions.
4. Be Honest with Yourself
I mentioned this earlier in the post but I’m saying it again because it is so important. A lot of times we deceive ourselves when it comes to emotions because we don’t want it to be true or won’t allow ourselves to feel that way.
This mainly happens with negative emotions.
You can’t navigate emotions or understand your feelings if you aren’t honest with how you really are feeling. It is important in transforming those emotions and controlling them.
5. Accomplish your goals
Take time out of your day to work toward your goals. Goals guide you and give you a sense of direction.
Once you have some goals in mind and the action you need to take to accomplish those goals, you can start taking some time out of each day or week to work your goals. Accomplishing goals gives us a feeling of pride and success. It is will also give us a sense of purpose.
If the goal will take a lot of hard work and time, find small victories along the way which will help motivate you to keep pushing.
Once you start focusing on yourself, doing what you love, self-reflecting and reaching for goals, you will be a lot more in-tune with your feelings and able to navigate them better.
Read the previous post in the Wellness Series: Reduce Stress: 4 Easy Steps to Happier and Healthier Mind
Read the next post in the Wellness Series: The Secret to Being Comfortable Alone
“Recognize emotions as they start to arise and smile at yourself inwardly.” – Juliet Adams
“If you can learn to see your emotions as tools of your deepest awareness, you’ll be able to move forward as a whole and functional person.” – Karla McLaren
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