Naming emotions: Essential For resilience
Did you know…
There are around 3,000 words to describe emotions in English?
Most children and adults can expand their emotional vocabulary very quickly with the right support?
An extensive emotional vocabulary is vital for dealing with challenging feelings to boost your resilience AND increasing the frequency of your positive emotions?
Difficult feelings: ‘Name it to tame it’
We’re all experiencing many challenging feelings right now. Stress, anxiety, apprehension, the list goes on. Simply naming difficult feelings when you experience them reduces the intensity of your emotional reaction as well as switching on the part of your brain which is responsible for rational thinking. This provides an instant boost for your resilience.
Want to feel more positive?
Our brains have a natural negative bias, which means that we need to cultivate and wallow in positive emotions to purposely develop our positivity. Experiencing more positive emotions has a range of huge benefits, including better sleep and increased resilience to adversity.
How do I develop emotional vocabulary for myself and/or for my children?
One extremely easy way of extending your emotional vocabulary is by using my dual pack of emotion cards. The cards are a powerful tool to build your emotional vocabulary both for challenging and positive emotions. There are quick and easy tasks included in each pack. The cards came directly from my doctoral research, where they increased the emotional vocabulary of my pupils by over 300% in a matter of weeks. I’m currently offering a special price on the cards to support people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, focusing on our feelings is essential to our wellbeing and resilience. To buy your cards, click here.