Emotional awareness

Let’s get emotional. ♥ Some people literally jump when they hear or see the word feeling. Feeling, feeling, FEELING. ☺ Love, hate, anger, fear, happiness, sadness, contempt, hope. Did reading that make you uncomfortable? Even a bit embarrassed? Well, those are feelings too, right there. ❀

In case you score high on scientific logical left-brain boxes-and-arrows tests you might have to work on this a bit. I know I had to. If you are an extreme case, start by accepting the fact that feelings are part of the human experience and that goes for you too. That doesn’t mean you have to like your feelings, especially the bad ones (that’s why they are called that way).

Recognize the feelings you encounter when you think. Basically every idea that you write down in the map has a feeling attached to it, however small. Some ideas make you excited, others not so much. Some ideas never make it to the map, because you are not comfortable saying them out aloud, writing them down or even thinking about them.

If you want to be all objective about your feelings, be aware of your body, and you’ll notice that you’ll actually get visible physical reactions from words and ideas. Your heart rate, breathing pattern and muscle tension change. You can be rational about your emotions too.