Intense emotion can be overwhelming for all of us. And if you're just opening up to an emotion, it can feel very raw. No matter how experienced you are with your emotions, we all need help sometimes to know how to deal with them.

Learning to recognize and stay with our feelings is a valuable experience. We can learn that just because we feel something, we don't have to act on it. Or that we can be angry and choose how to respond rather than let the anger control us. The more we know how we feel and ways to feel, release, be with, or let go of our feelings, the better we feel about ourselves.

But how do I know what I'm feeling?
If you don't know how you feel or how to get in touch with your feelings:

1. Identify how you feel:
Sit quietly for a moment; you might want to close your eyes, and then wait and see what you notice from inside.

Notice how different areas of your body feel.
Focus on the areas of tension, breathe, and see if anything comes to your awareness. You don’t have to think about it.
Notice whether any thoughts, images, feelings, memories, sounds come to you.
If nothing comes, that’s okay. You may still want to continue.
Ask yourself how you're feeling, and be aware of what comes up.

You don’t have to figure anything out, just be aware.
If nothing comes to you, that's okay. Sometimes that happens. You may still want to try again, another time.

2. Acknowledge your feelings:
If you know how you feel, let yourself know that this is how you are feeling right now, and that’s okay.
You don’t have to know where it is coming from.
You don’t even have to know what to name it; you may simply know that you have a lot of pain in your chest.
Breathe through it.
Let your feelings just be there.
You don’t have to do anything with them, just accept that this is how you feel.

Next - Part 2 >>

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