STEP 4: RECORD YOUR
THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS
You can practice listening and understanding feelings and emotions that you experience by getting into the habit of recording your emotions on a daily basis, every time you feel something new or different. This will help you identify your patterns and give you an insight into how you are feeling over time.
Keep a simple mood journal—just a few words a day.
Use emojis if words feel too much.
Use a 1–10 scale to rate your mood.
Note what triggered the feeling (if anything).
Ask yourself: What is making me feel this way? If you’re feeling anxious, what is causing it? Is there a difficult task looming in your future that might lead to performance anxiety? If you’re feeling sad, why are you feeling that way? Are you watching a movie or show that’s eliciting the emotion for you? What happened earlier today that might have caused the feeling?
Take a closer look at each situation and identify what’s triggering those feelings. Once you can recognize your triggers, you’ll be better prepared to avoid future negative feelings, or at least learn how to cope with them more effectively.
Negative thoughts can also play an important role in shaping emotions, and in many cases they actually create the feelings we experience in response to them.
For example: If you think “I can’t,” or “I’ll never be able to do this,” you might end up feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and stressed out. However, when you replace those thoughts with something like, “This is really challenging, but I’m prepared to give it my all,” you might end up feeling more confident and in control.
To learn more about the negative thinking that could be affecting your emotions, check out the post on cognitive distortions → HERE
Identify the thoughts that are directly related to the emotions you’re feeling. If you want to challenge negative thinking, try writing down some alternative, more positive thoughts about a situation, and seeing how it changes your mood.
ABOUT THE PROJECTWHAT IS E-MOTION