Episode 16 - Connecting to Your Emotions to Understand Your Needs
February 5, 2024
One of the best forms of self-love I practice that has transformed my life is connecting to my emotions and identifying my needs.
In this episode I share why it's important to connect to your emotions and the insightful revelations that come with emotional intelligence.
Like so many, I lived disconnected from my emotions for many years. Then one day a friend asked me, "How are you feeling?" and I struggled to answer the question. But, it was just the question I needed to begin exploring my emotional disconnects.
In this episode I share 5-easy steps you can use to transform your emotions and understand my needs.
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My clients use these tools and have discovered so much about themselves. Understanding their emotions has helped them identify their needs, set boundaries and improved communications with others.
Understanding that emotions are the body's unique language, conveying needs and desires. Each emotion provides specific information about internal states, and tuning in becomes a powerful source of self-awareness.
The 5-Step Process:
1. Get Grounded: A mindfulness practice involving connecting with the present moment. Sit or stand, feel the support beneath, and take slow breaths, tuning into the body.
2. Scan Your Body: Turn attention inward, scanning from head to toe. Identify areas of tension or relaxation, recognizing physical manifestations of emotions. Get curious about the feelings in different body parts.
3. Use Emotions Chart for Language: Utilize an emotions chart to articulate feelings. Categorize emotions from joy to fear, enhancing the ability to express and understand them.
4. Use A Needs Chart: To identify underlying needs connected to emotions. Reflect on your emotions, consult the chart, and articulate relevant needs, fostering effective communication.
5. Write About Your Feelings: Document your emotional experience by answering the questions: What did you learn? What was happening inside your body? How did you feel? Where did you feel it? Who came up in your memories? Why did that feeling arise? When do I feel this emotion the most?
Paying attention to feelings offers insights into unmet needs, ranging from basic to complex. Understanding this connection empowers effective responses, fostering holistic well-being.
Embrace emotions as messengers that are guiding your actions to be in alignment with your needs. Acknowledge, understand, and empower yourself to make choices contributing to a more balanced and fulfilling life.
In this episode:
[00:02:52] Deepening your connection to emotions.
[00:04:26] Identifying and articulating emotions.
[00:07:29] Why explore your emotions?
[00:14:33] Body scan and emotional release.
[00:19:00] Identifying your needs.
[00:20:14] Understanding your emotions.
[00:25:34] Connecting with your emotions.
[00:28:14] Self-love and emotional well-being.
**Note**: Time stamps are based on the provided timestamps. Actual durations may vary slightly depending on the podcast platform.
Quotes:
"Why is it important to connect to your emotions? What are your emotions there to do? They are there to communicate to you." - LaShonda Walker
"Our emotions are there for a reason." - LaShonda Walker
"And when you ignore that system, when you override it, when you suppress it, you do more harm than good to your life as a whole." - LaShonda Walker
"Our bodies often hold onto emotions." - LaShonda Walker
"I'm feeling angry because my need for respect in this situation is not being met." - LaShonda Walker
"And it's so, such a valuable empowering tool to be able to identify your emotions, give language to your emotions, so that you can then respond to your body and give yourself what you need." - LaShonda Walker
"Feelings act as messengers. They're prompting us to take action and make choices that align with our needs, our own individual needs."- LaShonda Walker
"Discovering your authentic self is a process, but just stay curious." - LaShonda Walker