They say that labeling or identifying a problem can make it easier to deal with. Doing so can provide clarity as well as reduce anxiety or uncertainty. It can also facilitate communication and support by making it easier to express ourselves and our experiences. Of course, labels can also sometimes perpetuate stereotypes or create confining paradigms.
But generally speaking, being able to identify emotions can serve to help us regulate our feelings, increase our self-awareness, and help us develop empathy. Then we can become proactive in changing the unhelpful thoughts that fuel the feelings.
Lately, though, I’ve been finding the language of emotions to be a little too stale and confining. The old “happy”, “sad”, or “mad” of the typical “feeling wheel” don’t quite seem to capture the shit-show that a serious spiritual growth journey can elicit. 😁 So I’ve been creating my own lexicon of emotions.
Today, for example, to capture the feeling of being both humiliated and disappointed at the same time, I coined the word humiliappointed. (It could just as easily be disappointalated.)
I laughed the moment I said the word. The label did indeed erase some of the searing pain I was feeling in my ego. It also made it easier for me to locate the deeper roots of the issue. I could see why I was having the reaction I was.
A few months ago, I playfully came up with several such “new” emotions. Maybe they will help you or encourage you to invent your own, especially during this ramped-up time of challenge on the planet:
| agitated and frustrated | agistrated |
| frustrated and anxious | franxious |
| hostile and annoyed | hostoyed |
| numb and confused | numbfused |
| shocked and fragile | shockile |
| inadequate and anxious | inadequanxious |
| courageous but jealous | courajealous |
| depressed and resentful | deprezentful |
Emotions are a fundamental part of our humanity and guide us through the challenges we face in life. It’s important that we are able to invite them to surface and let them flow rather than stagnate.
We might as well be playful, laugh and have some fun while doing the work.
