Top tips for understanding your feelings

Understanding your own feelings is crucial to helping build emotional intelligence.

understanding feelings

1. Be still and listen

We can be quick to dismiss how we feel when we’re busy. When we make the time, negative emotions aren’t allowed to fester while positive emotions will improve our long-term health.

2. Identify the emotion

Try to name what you’re feeling, and don’t be surprised if you have to extend your emotional vocabulary – beyond happy, sad or angry – to get it right. See More

3. Rate the intensity

Be honest about how strong your emotion is – and how deeply it runs. Score it out of five. It’ll help you decide whether you need to take action. See More

4. Know why

If you notice what triggers you to feel a certain way, you can start to link context and circumstances to the emotions that bubble up in you.

5. Learn and move on

Feelings don’t follow reason, so they don’t need rationalizing. Observe your emotion, its effects on your body and behaviour, from a distance. Do less of what makes you feel bad and more of what makes you feel good!

Read more on happiness vs. job satisfaction here