How are you feeling? Bad? Good? Or regretful? Frustrated?
You see, naming your emotions is important. This is called emotional granularity. If you limit your emotions to simply bad or good, you limit the strategies and abilities that you can use to deal with or dampen those emotions. For example, if you are frustrated you might simply shut down while another person may make fiery statements. People have various reactions to different emotions, and to simply label each emotion as bad or good limits your capability to deal with them. For instance, if you label your mild annoyance as anger, rather than simply letting go of frustration you might become embroiled in an unnecessary conflict. Though exaggerated, the point is clear. Being precise with emotions can help us become more emotionally intelligent. Being precise with our emotions can help develop more empathy and understanding which can help us to become more aware of what our peers are going through.
This leads to another question, what are you grateful for?
We often see similar questions during Thanksgiving, but is that one instance enough? You see, when we are grateful, our general health improves. By being grateful we strengthen neurological pathways inside our brain to focus on what is going well rather than what is going south. This can help build our resilience when we get a bad grade because our brain is focused on the good and that helps us endure through the bad. Gratitude is helpful for everyone but especially helpful for teens. This is because gratitude can help teens to think of not just themselves and rather towards others. Although we go through a lot, gratefulness and naming emotions can help us overcome obstacles.
