Four methods of emotional perception

The four methods of emotional awareness include keeping an emotional diary, practicing mindfulness meditation, conducting body scans, and using emotional labels. These methods help to enhance sensitivity to emotions and assist individuals in better understanding and managing their emotional states.

1. Recording Emotional Diary

Emotional diary is a tool for recording daily emotional changes through text. Choosing a fixed time to write down the events, specific feelings, and physiological reactions that trigger emotions can help organize emotional patterns. Long term persistence can reveal patterns of emotional fluctuations, especially suitable for people whose emotions are easily influenced by external factors. When recording, there is no need to judge right or wrong, the focus is on objectively observing the correlation between emotions and events.

2. Practice Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation emphasizes non critical awareness of the present experience. By focusing on breathing or bodily sensations, observing emotions come and go naturally like clouds, reducing resistance to negative emotions. Daily practice can enhance the prefrontal cortex's ability to regulate emotional responses, making it suitable for individuals with anxiety or emotional suppression. In the initial stage, you can start with a 5-minute short practice and gradually extend your focus time.

3. Perform body scanning

Body scanning is a technique for systematically detecting bodily emotional signals. Pay attention to sensations such as tightness and temperature from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, and identify physiological markers such as clenching fists when angry and stomach discomfort when tense. This method can break the disconnection between emotions and the body, and is suitable for people who have long ignored physical signals. It is recommended to lie flat in a quiet environment and repeat the process every week.

4. Use emotional tags

Emotional tags refer to using specific vocabulary to name current feelings, such as frustration rather than general unhappiness. Accurately distinguishing similar emotions such as jealousy and disappointment can activate the emotional regulation area of the brain. You can refer to the emotional roulette wheel to expand your vocabulary, which is suitable for those with weaker emotional expression abilities. When encountering strong emotions in daily life, pause for three seconds to name the feelings before taking action.

Emotional awareness requires continuous practice to form a habit, and in the early stages, one may encounter situations of inattention or self-criticism, which is a normal process. It is recommended to choose 1-2 methods based on one's own situation to focus on practice and avoid stress caused by simultaneous multi line operations. When feeling depressed or anxious for more than two weeks, seek professional support from a psychological counselor in a timely manner. Regular exercise and sufficient sleep can be combined in daily life to provide a physiological basis for emotional regulation.