Owning Your Feelings

While 1 in 5 people will experience some type of a mental illness during their lifetime, everyone faces challenges in life that can impact their mental health. This year some people may need to adapt for the short term because of COVID-19 and social distancing.

All up in ya Feelings

It is easy to get caught up in your emotions when you are in the moment. Most people don’t think about what emotions they are dealing at that time when they in it, but by allowing time to really identify what you’re feeling can help you to better cope with difficult situations that you might be experiencing.

Allow yourself to feel what you are feeling

 In today’s society to show your feelings is a sign of weakness and it’s a big NO NO. People are encouraged to shut down their emotions, often expressed through statements like, “Big girls don’t cry,” or “Man up.” These old-fashioned ideas are harmful, not helpful. Everyone has emotions as they are apart of the human experience and you have every right to feel what you feel, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, socio-economic status, race, political affiliation or religion.

Do not ignore how you’re feeling

When we try to push our feelings aside without addressing them like “bottling up your feelings”, they tend to build strength and make us more likely to “explode” at some point in the future.

Every feeling has a message. Maybe that message is simply to allow yourself to feel the emotion until it dissipates. Maybe the feeling is guiding you toward some action

Talk it out

Try to find someone you trust, someone that you can talk to about how you’re feeling. You may find that people are eager to share their experiences they’ve had or times that they have felt the way that you are feeling. 

Build your emotional vocabulary

When asked about our feelings, most people will usually use words like bad, sad, mad, good, or fine. But at the root of “good, bad, sad, mad, or fine” are many words that better describe how we feel. Try building your emotional vocabulary by writing down as many “feeling” words as you can think of and think of a time that you felt that way. The English language has over 3,000 words for emotions.

Try journaling

Each night write down at least 3 feelings you had over the course of the day and what caused them. It doesn’t need to be a “Dear Diary” kind of thing. Just a few sentences or bullet points to help you practice being comfortable with identifying and expressing your emotions.

See a mental health professional

If you are taking steps to be more in touch with your feelings, but are having trouble dealing with them, mental health providers like counselors and therapists have been trained to help. 

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

National Teen Dating Violence Hotline: 1-866-33-9474

Boys Town National Hotline: 1-800-488-3000

Child Help USA National Hotline: 1-800-422-4453

Trevor Project Lifeline: 1-866-488-7386