Can You Name What You Are Actually Feeling?

A short work message can leave you tense before you know what it means. A friend's good news can bring happiness and disappointment at once. Maria and Noah explore how to separate an event, a body cue, an interpretation, a tentative feeling and an urge—then consider one useful response. Two invented examples and a private reflection make the distinctions concrete. We also examine two research findings and their limits. Naming a feeling does not guarantee calm, remove a loss or tell you what to do. Mixed feelings and uncertainty can remain. Continue listening: Why Letting Go Can Feel Like Losing    • Why Letting Go Can Feel Like Losing | The ...   Research discussed: Vedernikova, Kuppens & Erbas (2021), From Knowledge to Differentiation: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/... Kircanski, Lieberman & Craske (2012), Feelings Into Words: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22902... Full manuscript: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Maria and Noah are fictional, AI-voiced presenters. The examples and reflection cards are original teaching aids, not a diagnostic assessment or treatment. Chapters: 00:00 When a feeling is hard to name 00:36 The short work message 04:00 Finding a tentative word 05:01 What two studies can tell us 05:48 Two feelings about good news 08:42 What naming cannot solve 10:02 A private reflection 11:46 Making room for another person's words