Enhancing Your Emotional Literacy
Practice tuning into the physical sensations of emotions using a Body Mind Heart scan. You can do this by asking yourself these 3 questions:
What am I experiencing physically? (e.g., smile, frown, muscles tight, relaxed, etc.)
What kind of thinking am I doing (e.g., focused, distracted, evaluating, observing, etc.)
What kind of feelings do I have? (calm, agitated, bored, joyful, excited, etc.)
We invite you to reflect on how that is going, what have you noticed? What barriers are coming up?
As you reflect on the “heart” part of the scan, consider that feelings are multilayered. According to Joshua Freedman, author of the 6 Seconds free, downloadable, handbook Practicing Emotional Intelligence, “Frequently when people express emotion, they focus on the most obvious or the loudest feeling. For example, in an argument, it’s easy to notice that you’re angry. There are almost always additional feelings surrounding this one. Maybe you are scared, lonely, loving, hopeful, excited… all at the same time. They don’t cancel one another out, they exist together as a paradox, creating a rich (confusing) texture of feeling.”
