Identifying emotions

[smilodon]

I am going trough some David De Angelo DVD series - the Become Mr. Right.
In one part of the program, he says to the attendees (all men) to remember 3 good and 3 bad situations in their life, and then identify emotion they feel in those.

Almost none of the men identified an emotion, but rather rationalized what they felt with logic, or just labeled what they feel with something that is not an emotion.

While watching that program I realized I cant identify emotions in my self.

David D does give tips for identifying emotion, like for example remembering when you first in your life felt joy, anger or any other emotion, and feel where in your body you felt it, what shape, color was it, does it move, does it have pressure, clenches, or tension, etc., when does that emotion happen for you, and how it changes your thinking.

To be honest, I was fascinated with the realization I cant tell apart the different feelings I have, I can only separate the good and bad ones apart.

I would like to ask you what feelings can you identify within your self, and how big a percentage of man, and women, can, or cant identify emotions within them selves.

Of course, any advice you can give, and you find might help, is appreciated.

[Plays With Life]

I know what you mean. I couldn't identify emotions I was experiencing for a long time. I normally have a pretty good label for emotion when it comes up, these days. Sometimes it's a mix of emotion, which can be a little confusing at first. Emotions can travel in pairs or threes or more. There are also different models of emotion. Some models consider Confusion an emotional experience, where others don't. Some models consider Love an emotional experience, where others don't. Some put Depression in a Sadness category - others put Depression in an Anger category. The labels for emotional experiences are not consistent across cultures or individual people.

I think some people have pretty good abstract distinctions of emotions in their mind, but simply don't have labels for them. They never had the emotional experience labeled for them by other people.

Other people actually go numb and genuinely don't feel any emotion, at any conscious level.

Some people do actually lack the experience of Shame, apparently from birth.

If your experience of an emotion lacks distinction, try focusing on the physical sensations. Where do I feel it, what does it feel like. Sometimes it moves. Sometimes it shifts from tightness to heaviness. Or from sharp agony to a more bearable discomfort. William James considered emotion an entirely physical experience. It's a good place to start identifying.

[Eduard E]

Yeah, for me, pretty much the only 2 emotions that existed for a long time were good and bad. I couldn't get more specific.

One exercise which helped me and I also use with clients now is to think of various situations, then identify the emotions in each situation by picking them from a big list of emotions. This helps with learning to identify and name emotions in a more specific and accurate way.

[smilodon]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Where can I find a list of emotions ?

[Plays With Life]

This site has a good one, with significant descriptions of each one -
Emotional Competency - Explore the Logic of Passion

The WREMS technique includes a model of emotion, with a set of emotion scales. Check out the emotion charts on this article -
Mastering your emotions : The principles of WREMS

[smilodon]

Thank you very much Plays With Life

[Plays With Life]

Originally Posted by smilodon

Thank you very much Plays With Life

Sure thing.