Strengthening Emotional Vocabulary Is Important

Strengthening your emotional vocabulary will help you improve the quality of your relationships. It’s about knowing how to express yourself effectively, as well as being in tune with your needs while remaining empathetic to the needs of others. In addition to this, it is about turning your emotions into words, and building bridges based on respect and self-confidence.

When we talk about this dimension of our personality, it is common to focus our attention on children. Currently, both families and teachers understand the importance of teaching this skill to children. Emotional literacy and its relationship to our language produces interesting results.

In this sense, studies such as one conducted by psychologists Luna Beck and Irina Kumschik of the University of Minnesota show how important it is to develop language competence in children.

This skill is really important for children. But what about adults? What happens to those who fail to express their fears, needs, and frustrations to their loved ones?

Not all adults had the opportunity to develop socio-emotionally from a young age. Thus, we do not all have the mechanisms and verbal fluency that regulate them to turn our feelings into words.

How do you succeed in strengthening your emotional vocabulary?

By strengthening our emotional vocabulary, our vulnerability decreases. This is because putting our feelings into words makes us visible. It makes us, and also the people around us, more valuable. It’s a way to shape our emotions and a way to show them to the world. In addition to this, it opens up internal nodes, it’s a way to be in harmony with chaos, and so we can channel it into simple, understandable words.

We all experience realities that we don’t know how to convey to others due to linguistic difficulties. “Kilig”  is a word in Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines. It means the sense of joy we experience when we talk to someone we like.

In addition, the Dutch word  “uitwaaien”  describes the feeling of pleasure caused by the wind. The fact that there are similar words in our minds that allow us to integrate into such realities is exceptional, even cathartic.

Unfortunately, many of us fail to find words that describe our feelings. In many cases, we don’t even know what we’re feeling. Lack of emotional literacy leads us to suppress our feelings because we don’t know how to express them.

Here are some tips to strengthen your emotional vocabulary:

1. Emotional awareness and facial recognition

Charles Darwin once spoke of emotional expression. He defined it as an inner state that feels, and thus expresses itself. Therefore, the first step to it is consciousness, unification with this bodily state, into which emotion leaves its first mark. This happens, for example, with fear, sadness, anger, disappointment, and so on.

Every emotion has a physiological side that we need to accept, understand the message and stamp it conveys. For example, we need to recognize whether we feel anger, jealousy, or some other feeling. This is because it is useless to suppress emotions.

On the other hand, in order to strengthen our emotional language, it is also important to know how to identify other people’s needs. We need to be sensitive, receptive, and empathetic to other people’s feelings so we can communicate better with them.

2. Emotional vocabulary and verbal fluency

Experts urge us to learn to use emotional verbs, a truly effective mechanism for conveying emotions. These include, for example,  I feel, I want, I am excited, I am scared, I feel, I do not feel comfortable, I am jealous…

In addition to using the strategy mentioned above, it is necessary to train ourselves in verbal fluency. Some people are great at communicating and excellent conversationalists who, contrary to many people’s beliefs, lack verbal fluency when it comes to emotional issues. How can this be possible?

Basically, they don’t know how to talk about their feelings or needs, and they are unable to maintain topics of discussion on personal and emotional topics. This kind of fluency is something that needs to be taken care of in order for us to strengthen our emotional vocabulary.

3. Emotional narration

Each of us creates a different type of narration. We tell stories to ourselves while integrating our own life experiences. Communicating them properly allows us to respect ourselves more, take care of our needs, and give ourselves the esteem we deserve.

One way to achieve this is through emotional intelligence. When we know ourselves, give ourselves what we need, practice self-pity (every now and then), and be confident and empathetic, allow ourselves to create a clearer narrative. All of this turns into a positive self-image that we are better able to communicate to others.

We are all emotional beings who learn to reason at any moment. Mastering this inner universe makes things easier. Therefore, it is important to strengthen our emotional vocabulary.