🧠 The Power of Naming What You're Feeling 🧠

🧠 The Power of Naming What You're Feeling 🧠

Ever find yourself saying, “I don’t even know what I’m feeling—just off”?
Same. And that’s exactly where so many of us live: stuck in a swirl of emotion with no name tag.
But here’s the thing—naming your feelings is powerful. It might sound simple, even silly, but it’s one of the most important emotional tools we’ve got.

🌪 Why We Get Stuck in the Fog

Life doesn’t always give us space to feel, let alone process what we’re feeling.
Add in motherhood, hormones, relationship stress, or infertility grief—and our emotional landscape gets complicated.
Instead of identifying emotions, we power through, saying things like:

• “I’m fine.”
• “I’m just tired.”
• “It’s not a big deal.”

But when we don’t acknowledge our feelings, they don’t disappear—they build up, get heavier, and start showing up in our bodies, our relationships, our sleep.

💡 Naming Brings Clarity

When you name an emotion—“I’m feeling overwhelmed” or “I think this is sadness”—you’re no longer lost in the fog. You’re turning on a light.
It’s called affect labeling, and research shows it helps calm the brain, reduce anxiety, and increase emotional regulation.

It’s the difference between saying “I’m drowning” vs. “This is grief.”
When you name it, you can meet it. You can do something with it.

🧭 How to Start Naming Your Feelings

Try this the next time you feel off but can’t explain it:

1. Pause – Just a moment of stillness. Check in.
2. Scan Your Body – Is your chest tight? Jaw clenched? Shoulders tense?
3. Ask Yourself – What emotion might be here right now?
4. Use a Feelings Wheel – (Seriously, they help!)
5. Say it Out Loud or Write It Down – “I’m feeling anxious and kind of alone.”

No emotion is wrong or too small. You’re just collecting data about your inner world.

💬 In Therapy, We Name It Together

If you're not used to identifying your emotions, don’t worry—that’s a skill we build in therapy.
At Messy Bun Therapy, we create space to untangle what’s under the surface and gently put names to what’s been hiding.

Because when you can name it, you can heal it.

✨ Let this be your permission slip:

You’re allowed to feel.You’re allowed to not always know.But you also deserve to learn the language of your emotional life—one name at a time