Mental Health Tip of the Day: Naming Your Emotions Out Loud Can Calm Your Mind Faster

While many times you may feel overwhelmed and try to suppress your emotions, there would be days when the emotional intensity would only increase, leaving you confused. However, according to studies, the best

way to take care of this is by identifying the emotion that you are feeling – either by saying it out loud or in writing. Also known as labelling, the technique works great for most people, helping solve the problem. Experts believe it works as your brain tries to shift any kind of strong activity away from the emotional centre toward areas responsible for language and rational processing. Thereby, it lowers emotional reactivity and creates psychological distance, without repression.

Is naming emotions scientifically possible?

According to experts, naming your emotions helps reduce all kinds of activities in your brain’s fear centre. The amygdala - a roughly almond-shaped mass of grey matter inside each cerebral hemisphere, involved with the experiencing of emotions – helps drive anxiety and emotional overwhelm. And so, when you label emotions, it literally helps quieten them. Mental health experts say naming emotions is scientifically possible and proven to work by engaging the prefrontal cortex to calm the amygdala, which reduces emotional intensity and improves regulation. Researchers say it is a tool that needs mindful application, not a magic fix. It is a key skill in therapy that helps build self-awareness and resilience against stress.

How does emotional labelling reduce stress?

Due to their biology, those who are sensitive strivers think and feel everything more deeply. They have a complex and intense emotional response to all situations and are able to experience the richness of positive emotions like inspiration and gratitude, but also get stuck in unpleasant feelings like annoyance and disappointment more easily and for longer. Experts say sensitive strivers have so many emotions going on at once that it can lead them to shut down. According to a study published in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders, emotion labelling lowers anxiety without requiring coping strategies. Unlike meditation or reframing, it works in the moment, even during distress.

What is emotional labelling?

Emotional labelling, also known as affect labelling, refers to naming emotions with greater specificity. In other words, emotional labelling is also the practice of cultivating emotional literacy, where you identify what you are feeling as you are experiencing it to create distance from your reaction. Instead of opting for vague surface-level descriptors like “I’m fine,” “I’m okay,” you lean into the highly complex, nuanced spectrum of emotions available, which allows you to be happier, more effective, and productive. Research shows that naming emotions is a game-changing skill that reduces the influence of negative feelings like anger or frustration that they have over you.