Video Gallery

Feelings Vocabulary

Go to Video Gallery Added Mar 03, 2021 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//www.whiteriver.wednet.edu/apps/embed/?v=311334" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

Go HD

This 2-minute video for families features Mental Health Therapist Stephanie Dann talking about expanding your feelings vocabulary. We often use limited words to describe our feelings. Naming our feelings helps us manage our feelings. Research with the brain shows when we can name uncomfortable feelings, they start to go down. “If you can name it, you can tame it.” Challenge: 1) Do a quick google search for an emotion list, feeling chart, or feeling wheel. See if you can find a word or words to describe how you're feeling right now. 2) Try observing your student and using words beyond sad, mad, happy, ok, frustrated, excited to describe how you think they are feeling.

Show Transcript

Hi. My name is Stephanie Dann. I'm a mental health therapist with White River School District and today I wanted to talk to you about expanding your feelings vocabulary. Think about all the words that you use to describe the weather. Hot. Dry. Humid. Sunny. Snowy. Muggy. Cold. Cloudy. Think about all the words that we use to talk about our food. Crunchy. Sweet. Salty. Creamy. Dense. Light. Spicy. Smoky. As humans we're way more complex than the weather or food, but our ability to name our experience is often very limited. We usually will say things like, sad, mad, happy, okay, frustrated and excited. There's nothing wrong with the shortlist. We all need to start somewhere and many of us didn't grow up in a house that emphasized emotional intelligence. But now we have an opportunity to teach ourselves, and our kids, a broader vocabulary about feelings. We have a chance to name feelings that are confusing or complicated or tricky. Naming our feelings helps us to manage our feelings. Research with the brain shows that when you name an uncomfortable feeling, that feeling starts to go down. They even made a fun catch phrase for this that says, "If you can name it, you can tame it."  So here's my challenge for you today. I want you to Google search something like, 'emotion list', 'feeling chart', or 'feeling wheel'. And try to pick a word that describes how you're feeling today. Maybe you feel more than one of these feelings. That's okay! You can have multiple things that describe your feelings. You can be a mix. There's no right or wrong answer. The idea is to expand the words that you use to describe how you're feeling, and that can help you to tune into your student's feelings, and help them to describe their feelings in more diverse ways. You can say things to them like, you look overwhelmed, that was disappointing, you're feeling rushed. I wonder if you're feeling jealous? That was embarrassing. Being able to look at our students and what they're experiencing, and putting a name to what they're experiencing, will really help them to work through difficult emotions.

Listed in COVID-19 Information

Video Gallery

Feelings Vocabulary

Popular Videos