It may sound cliched for a counsellor to talk about feelings but it is something I am very passionate about. It is so important knowing how you feel, communicating how you feel and also knowing what to do with your feelings. I believe if we can master this skill then we would all lead much happier lives.
At times it can be very difficult to work out what is causing us to be in a bad mood, upset or even angry. Most of the time people are only able to identify those bigger more noticeable feelings such as anger, sadness, excitement or fear.
Normally feelings come in clusters so while these bigger more noticeable feelings may be present, there is also likely to be more subtle and less obvious feelings present to. By using a feelings sheet it is much easier for you to identify what you are feeling.
Whenever you are not quite feeling ok (even if you have no idea why), you could grab a feelings sheet, run your eyes over the page and write down the feelings that catch your attention.
Once you have written all the feelings down you can then go through each feeling, one at a time, and think about what could be causing this feeling.
If you still are unsure of why you are feeling this way then try to think when this feeling began. For example did you feel this way when you first woke up? What about when you were having breakfast? On the way to work? By gradually reflecting on your day you are then better able to work out where the feeling came from.
Once you know why you are feeling a certain way you are then much better equipped to do something about it. For example if you were feeling upset because you had a disagreement with your partner that morning, a feelings sheet could help you work out how you are feeling and why. This would then help when communicating with your partner as the conversation would be more calm and coming from a different perspective when you explain how you are feeling compared to telling the other person what they have done.
Knowing your feelings also can help you to make a plan about what you can do to release them. Sometimes just acknowledging to yourself, or others, how you are feeling might be enough but sometimes you might need to do more. For example if you are feeling angry or frustrated, releasing energy in intense bursts will help to rid you of the feeling and leave you feeling more calm. Activities such as 10 second sprints, using a punching bag or even screaming into a pillow can help!
Feelings sheets are an invaluable resource that can be used to reduce anxiety, help identify self-talk, improve self esteem and help process difficult situations and events in life.
I highly recommending bookmarking this page so you can come back and print off the positive and negative feelings sheets linked below.