Technique 1.124 Building Emotional Awareness (mindfulness)

Introduction

Emotional awareness is one of the key ingredients of emotional intelligence as it can help with your understanding of your own emotions. It involves noticing your own current thoughts and feelings, without judgement or interference, ie observing different emotional states.
"... Mindfulness is positively correlated with increased clarity of feelings, attention to feelings, and lower distraction...... emotional intelligence can be fostered through mindfully attending to current emotional states..."
G. Feldman et al as quoted by Hugo Alberts, et al, 2019.

This is about emotional awareness and not acceptance; it is about simply noticing and connecting with an emotional state.
"...The goal is not to regulate or tolerate emotions, but to help you become gradually more familiar with your emotions..."
Hugo Alberts, et al, 2019.

It is best to connect with positive or neutral emotions rather than difficult or distressing ones.

It takes time and practice to increase your emotional awareness.

Emotional awareness meditation script:

i) find a comfortable seated position (either in a chair or on a cushion on the floor; allow your spine to be straight and long while letting your shoulders drop; ideally close your eyes or gaze with a soft focus)

ii) while seated, notice where your body is making contact (eg your feet touching the floor, your back on the ground, your thighs on a chair, etc)

iii) notice your breath ( for several breaths, follow each inhale and exhale, feeling or imagining the breath flowing into and out of your body)

iv) shift your awareness from your breath to your body (start scanning through the body slowly from head to toe, observing any feelings and emotions that are present)

v) choose one feeling or emotion to focus on  (notice where in your body this emotion is located

    - What part of your body is holding this feeling?

    - How big or small is the feeling?

    - Where are its edges?

    - Are the edges sharp or soft?

    - Does the feeling have a colour? If yes, is that colour changing or remaining the same?

    - Is the feeling heavy or light, moving or still, hard or soft, rough or smooth?

    - If you could touch this feeling, what would its texture be like?

    - Can you name, identify, label, etc this feeling or emotion? (if not,
"...continue to observe the feeling in your body with curiosity and without judgement, until the nature of this emotion becomes clearer to you..."
Hugo Alberts, et al, 2019

    - for several minutes, continue 'to get to know' this emotion

vi) open your eyes and bring your attention back to where you are (once you have reached a level of comfort with an understanding of the feeling)

NB Describe your experience in writing as it will enhance your understanding and familiarity with it.