Let's Talk About - Expressing Emotions

EMOTIONS

Emotions are what makes the world go round. 

Emotions are a fundamental part of every human being.

The emotions that we experience is important.

Being in a society, how we express our emotions is also vital.

We communicate our needs and wants by communicating our emotions to another in order to fulfil those needs and wants.

Do you agree?

Do you know how to express your emotions / feelings?

Do you know how to express your emotions / feelings effectively?

I grew up as an kid full of emotions, and expressed myself mostly through crying (If I remember correctly!) but other than that, I believe my vocabulary only consisted of the basic feelings: angry, sad, happy, scared.

I cried, hoping that someone would understand the real reason I was upset. 

I laughed, hoping that someone would understand the real reason I was happy.

I had never seen a Feelings Wheel / Feelings Circle until well into my adulthood.

If you have, good job! May you be able to use it to express yourself more accurately in your life. 

If you have not, here you go: 

Taken from PureWow website and article - they really do a great job at helping parents use this feelings circle and simplified feelings chart with children - do check them out!

For children / teenagers:

This Feelings Circle or this Feelings Chart could help you understand yourself better and what you are feeling in response to something that has happened to you. This would help you express yourself to a trusted adult in order to process the event(s) or your emotions associated to the event(s). 

Processing both positive and negatives events well is important to maintain a healthy mind.

Especially when things seem overwhelming and there doesn't seem to be anyone that understands you or the situation that you are facing at the moment - Please speak to someone you trust, reach out to your parents (if possible) or a trusted adult so that you can be referred to a counsellor or to get the help you need. There are free resources located on this blog (links at the left side) that you can look for, if finances is a concern for you. 

For adults: 

This Feelings Circle can be used as a reflective tool when you journal and reflect about your day or after an event has taken place in your life, and you are thinking about the people, things that have happened and want to better place the emotions that you felt about actions or inactions done by the people involved. This would be helpful especially when you want to convey how you felt during these moments / events to your peers, significant other, parents or even your supervisors, colleagues. 

For those not so good days, you can convey how you're feeling or how you felt when something didn't go well more accurately to your support system; so that they are able to better support you. On the good days or during events (birthdays, celebrations etc), you can convey feelings of appreciation and gratitude more accurately as well.

Processing both positive and negatives events well is important to maintain a healthy mind, across all ages.

Let us learn and practice expressing our emotions in a healthy and accurate way amongst our peers, family and community. Perhaps one day it will be commonplace and a general practice in our nation.

References

PureWow (2021) https://www.purewow.com/family/feelings-chart