Name That Tune

The song comes on, you can feel the beat and almost hear the next lyrics in your mind, but they’re stuck and you cannot quite catch them, you cannot quite name that tune. But you find yourself bopping your head to the beat loving the moment. Sun in your face, clear roads, great song. Naming our emotions can have the same essence. We feel something. In the pit of our stomach, it drops, feeling faint. It’s familiar, like a rock put in a stream blocking the way, is it fear? Flushed cheeks, heart racing, unread message, shock, you passed the exam. Shoulders hunched, looking to fill a void, maybe another snack, another scroll: I feel empty. Sad. Naming our emotions can be like naming the title and artist of a song we haven’t heard in a while. The more you listen and pay attention, you can rip off the artists at the drop of the hat. Same with our emotions. We can learn to become more adept at naming our emotions. What do you notice first in your body? What does an emotion feel like when it begins, what are the indicators it is arriving? And like we mentally retrieve this information so too with our emotions we can flex our emotion muscles and begin naming our feelings, our emotions as they arise alongside our behaviours. Take a breath. What do you notice in your body right here and right now? What is the emotion you notice? No name for it? Do some research and begin expanding your emotional landscape today. This can be an important part of therapy. Walking away from good/bad and happy/sad and finding some texture and resonance in your ability to name and make sense of your inner emotional world. And while emotions themselves are not prescriptive. They’re information. Like a check engine light in your car. A notice that something is happening inside. And with all things information gathering is often a good place to start.