IO2 – Self-help

Cartoons and
Resources
Understanding and Naming
my Feelings
Topic Understanding and Naming My Feelings
 Theme Early Intervention

Activity Title Identify, Acknowledge and Name it!

This activity can be both face-to-

face learning and self-directed
Self-Help Resource Type of
Type of resource learning. It can be used in both
(SHR) learning
group settings and also for the
personal use of the individual.

10 minutes each day for the

Duration of
activity; and 20 minutes at the Learning To understand your feelings and
Activity
end of the week for the self- Outcome learn how to acknowledge them.
(in minutes)
reflection questions.

Aim of activity This activity will help you to identify, acknowledge and name your feelings in
order to appropriately express and understand them. It is important to recognise
your emotions and accept them. If you resist, deny, or pretend these feelings
aren’t there you will be supressing your emotions. This is harmful for your
mental health and can make you feel worse. This activity will aim to show the
importance and benefits of acknowledging your emotions.

Materials For this exercise, all you need is a pen and paper (or a journal) and the
Required for worksheet below.
Activity
Step-by-step The most important part of this activity is to identify, acknowledge and name
instructions your feelings. Learning to do this can help you to manage and recognise the
emotions you feel.

Step 1- Identify: Think of how you are feeling in this current moment. Do you feel
content, upset, stressed, anxious, angry? Recognise how you truly feel inside,
and not what you might be showing on the outside.

Here are some examples of emotions:

- Brave - Worried
- Cheerful - Stubborn
- Bored - Shy
- Confused - Satisfied
- Surprised - Impatient
- Curious - Relieved
- Proud - Jealous
- Disappointed - Overwhelmed
- Frustrated - Lonely
- Embarrassed - Loving
- Silly - Overlooked
- Excited - Angry
- Uncomfortable - Tense
- Elated - Calm
 Step 2- Acknowledge: Contemplate why you are feeling this way. Are you happy
you passed your exam? Are you upset because you had a fight with someone?
Do you feel stressed or overwhelmed by something happening in school or at
home? Think of all of these factors and how they can influence your emotions.
Acknowledging these feelings helps us to connect with how we are being
influenced by how we think and determining the emotional reaction that our
thoughts are invoking. This is important for our mental health.

Step 3- Name: With your pen and paper (or journal), write down the names of
your emotions that you are feeling right now. You can use the worksheet below
or you can simply jot them down. You might decide to write next to them why
you are feeling this particular emotion. You could even do a spider diagram to
help your ideas flow. As you write down your feelings, try to imagine that the
feeling has travelled from your mind to the page.

Step 4- Once you have identified, acknowledged, and named your feelings, it is
important to try to channel them into writing them down. You could choose to
do a daily journal that tracks how you feel on different days, or maybe just when
you are feeling overwhelmed. With this you can visualise how different situations
and experiences affect your mood. By acknowledging how we feel, we can
relieve the stress of carrying around all of our emotions every day.

Step 5- For the purpose of this activity, we recommend that you use the
worksheet below or your journal to track your emotions every day for one week.
Once you have completed this weekly log, you can visit the self-reflection
questions at the end of this resource and determine how useful this activity is for
you.

Resource/ Today I feel:

Worksheet/
Handout

Monday-

Tuesday-

Wednesday-
 Thursday-

Friday-

Saturday-

Sunday-

Any additional notes or feelings:

Self-reflection - Do you feel that identifying, acknowledging, and naming your feelings
Questions helps to recognise how you feel?
- Do you think this activity can help you to interpret your emotions better?
- Did this activity help you to be in touch with your emotions?
- From keeping your weekly log, how do you think your thought patterns
affect your emotional reactions?
- Have you been able to identify triggers or factors that contribute to
negative emotions?
- How do you think your emotions impact your mental health, after
tracking them for one week?
- Do you think that this activity is something you could do to help you in
the future?