Method 1: Mindfulness
What is it? This involves being actively aware of yourself and your emotions. Whenever you feel something, stop and think “how do I feel right now?” “what does it mean?” It can be helpful to ask yourself these questions in a calm moment when you’re not in the midst of an emotional episode. You can also sit down with a pen and paper to write about how you feel.
Why is it important? Because feelings are transient, if we don’t take the time to note them, they might be gone before we even realize they were there. When we know what our emotions are as they happen, we are more able to deal with them appropriately (or ignore them until we have time later). If you don’t have time right now to process your emotions but need a quick way to get past them without letting them affect your thoughts or actions (e.g., during an important meeting), mindfulness can help you identify that feeling quickly so that you can move on from it until later.
How do I practice it? The easiest way is just by taking regular moments throughout the day—as often as possible is best—to pause and check-in with yourself: “what am I feeling right now? What does this mean for how I should act or react?” You could also try journaling about your feelings or meditating on what your current emotional state means for who you are at this particular moment.
Method 2: Journaling
Keeping a journal is an established method of monitoring your emotions. It’s easy to start, but the process can be intimidating at first. Even the most prolific writers can feel stumped when it comes to what they should write about in their journals. The good news is that journaling doesn’t have to be limited to writing at all—you could keep a photo journal, visual journal, or even an audio journal if you prefer recording voice memos over jotting things down in a book.
There are no rules for how often you should record your thoughts and feelings—some people write every day, others once a week or month, and still others whenever something major happens in their lives (good or bad). It’s up to you! What matters is that it helps you identify your mood and understand why it’s there so you can learn from it. Some ways to approach this include setting aside time each day for free writing; making notes of any recurring thoughts or dreams; keeping track of things that make you happy, angry, sad, etc.; or compiling ideas for bigger projects like novels or paintings. Use whatever prompts work best for you!
Once you have filled up one journal, try rereading the entries and identifying patterns among them—maybe there’s something triggering certain emotions that seems silly upon further reflection? Or maybe there are some experiences worth revisiting? Writing down your experiences will help clarify them as well as give insight into what makes you tick emotionally.
Method 3: Meditation
If you have some quiet time and the desire to explore your feelings, meditation is an easy way for you to figure out what’s going on. Much like journaling, it allows you to really think about how you feel and what may be causing those feelings. But, unlike journaling, it can also help fix the problem. Meditating can help get rid of negativity and put your mind at ease.
When meditating, it’s best to do so in a quiet room with no distractions or interruptions! If this isn’t possible then try using headphones with calming music so that you can focus better. You should sit up straight and close your eyes if you want to bring yourself into a deeper state of consciousness. However, there are many who prefer to meditate with their eyes open too! That’s perfectly fine—just make sure that nothing is distracting from the experience (TVs are usually off-limits).
It’s important not to let go of any feelings that might arise during meditation; instead, acknowledge them for what they are and then let them pass away quietly on their own terms in order for true healing energy to work its magic through our body-mind-spirit connection.”
Method 4: Therapy
How would you feel if you could understand exactly why you’re feeling the way that you do? You might feel a sense of release or serenity knowing the source of your emotions, and you may experience peace of mind within yourself. I think we all have a desire to know what’s going on in our minds, whether it be our thoughts or emotions. The reason being is that it makes us feel as though our world is more in control. We can often feel out of control because we don’t fully comprehend why we are feeling the way that we do. If you want to learn what’s going on inside your head, and how therapy can help with this (people seek therapy for all sorts of reasons), then keep on reading!
Method 5: Writing a letter to your future self
When you write a letter to your future self, you need to start by thinking of the things that are important to you now.
- What are some things that you want in your life?
- What kind of job do you want?
- What kind of house would you like to live in?
Even if it isn’t likely to happen, write down what your ideal life is like.
Writing in a journal can help you process emotions, but this exercise can take it one step further. Write as though your future self will be reading this someday. How would they respond if they knew how much courage and strength it took for their past self to write this letter? That alone might be enough for them—and for the person who wrote this letter—to feel good about themselves.
This is especially helpful if there’s something negative going on in the writer’s life: a breakup or failure at work or school, for example. It’s easy to think that these things mean something bad about us, but future-you will know better than past-you does right now about what really matters and what doesn’t matter as much as we think it does.
There are many different ways you can determine your current emotional state and what it means for you and your life. The act of becoming aware of emotions as they arise within you helps you understand what they are and where they’re coming from. It can also give you an idea of how much power they have over you.
Therapy or counseling is a process that allows you to gain insight into your existing behaviors and attitudes. A therapist or counselor provides an objective opinion about your emotional state and assists you with changing for the better so that the emotion no longer has such a strong hold over your life.
Journaling is another effective way to discover what’s going on inside yourself and why it might be happening. Writing down varying aspects of your life allows you to review them later on when things aren’t going so well for a more effective resolution.