Describe Your Emotions

Imagine you are meeting up with your friends after a hard day at work or school. Although you've been looking forward to having a relaxed and fun time with them, you slowly start feeling uneasy hours before you meet up with them. The uneasy feeling continues to grow, but you can't quite put your finger on what exactly the feeling is or why you are experiencing it. You try to ignore or suppress the emotion and focus on having a good time, but keeping it in only seems to makes it worse - you start experiencing tension in your shoulders or jaw, and you feel stressed. You begin remembering that this happens often, in different situations. Not being able to find a cause or a solution, you begin to worry and start being harsh on yourself.

This exercise is a great tool you can use to clarify what exactly you are feeling. By practicing the exercise, you can become more skilled in identifying your emotions and their causes as they arise during the day. This leads to having more control over your negative feelings and behaviors, as you learn to identify what causes them, what to expect when they arise, and subsequently how to resolve them.

Is this exercise really going to help me feel better and is it going to make me more effective?

Once you are able to identify your emotions and how you experience them, you will be able to be more in control of how you choose to react to these emotions. Further, as you are able to identify what causes certain emotions, you will have the opportunity to eliminate or reduce situations or interactions that cause you to feel negative emotions. This will help you feel and be more in control of what's happening in your life.

The steps seem simple. Do they really work?

Although the instructions might seem simple, this exercise is an effective way to explore your emotions.

What if I can't do the exercise well?

Just follow the instructions and try your best. Everybody is going to do the exercise a little differently. The more creative parts of the instructions, such as the drawing, may make sense only to you and that is fine. Also, the more you practice the exercise, the deeper you may go in certain emotions, and the more confident you will become in completing it.

If you have any behavioral health questions or concerns, please talk to your healthcare or mental healthcare provider. This article is supported by peer-reviewed research and information drawn from behavioral health societies and governmental agencies. However, it is not a substitute for professional behavioral health advice, diagnosis, or treatment.