5 Ways to Tune into Your Emotions

Everyone knows and understands emotions to a certain degree. If you’re walking down the street and see a woman smiling, you know she is happy. Next, you see a little boy crying outside a shop, you know he is sad.

As you continue your walk, you see a man standing by a bench with his fists balled up, and a red face, and hear yelling on the phone, you know he is angry. As humans, we are able to pick up on non-verbal and verbal cues to determine what basic emotion someone is experiencing. Below are five ways to tune into your emotions.

1. Identify Each Emotion Correctly

The first step in tuning into your emotions is learning to properly identify each emotion correctly. The primary emotion of anger can actually encompass frustration, annoyance, rage, irritation, outrage, and/or displeasure. You will need to break down each emotion and decipher what you are actually experiencing.

2. Track Your Emotions

The second step in tuning into your emotions is tracking your emotions. Tracking your emotions will allow you to determine what changes happen to your physical body and mental state of being.

Tracking your emotions will also allow you to determine what sequence of events took place in order for that emotion to come to the surface. Tracking your emotions is important so you can reflect and adjust your emotional responses in the future.

3. Pay Attention to Your Body

The third step in tuning into your emotions is paying attention to your body. In order to truly tune into your emotions, you need to know how emotions physically affect you and your body. Above we listed a number of different types of emotions.

Each of those emotions triggers a different response in your body. Your body's responses to these emotions can help alert you to what emotion(s) you are experiencing before you even realize you are experiencing them.

For example, when someone is angry their body may respond in the following ways:

● Increased heart rate

● Increased blood pressure

● Increased respiration

● A rise in body temperature

● Skin perspires

4. Practice Mind-Body Connection

The fourth step in tuning into your emotions is practicing mind-body connection. Our emotions are directly tied to our mental state of being. Our mental state of being is directly connected to our physical bodies. This is why it is very important to keep a strong connection between our minds and our bodies. You can practice this by engaging in mediation, yoga, deep breathing, and sitting in nature.

5. Regulation Not Elimination:

The fifth step in tuning into your emotions is by realizing and focusing on regulating your emotions and not eliminating them. Emotions are a natural part of human life. There is no healthy way to completely eliminate your emotions. Even if you could, why would you want to? Emotions are how we experience our lives.

It is important to learn to process your emotions fully in order to live a healthy, productive, and successful life. In order to tune into your emotions, learning to regulate your emotions is key.

Ways to regulate your emotions include, taking a step back from the situation and breathing, keeping a journal of your emotions and what actions followed them, and returning to your emotions after looking at them objectively.

Emotions are an important part of our lives. They allow us to express and experience a wide range of feelings. Emotions help create our story. In order to tune into your emotions, you want to identify each emotion correctly, track your emotions, pay attention to your body, practice mind-body connections, and learn to regulate instead of eliminating them.