I suffered from chronic debilitating headaches from the moment I woke up in the morning to second I fell asleep for three months straight. During this time, I longed for a guide, or a patient advocate, though I didn’t have the language for that at the time. It was a lot of haphazard trial and error as a result, but through an overhaul of my lifestyle in addition to incorporating mind-body tools, another six months later I was headache free.
Labeling was one tool that I believe contributed to my healing of an intractable disease.
Labeling our emotions with precision legitimizes and organizes our experiences. It helps others meet our needs, helps us meet the needs of others, and connects us to the rest of the world.
There is a plethora of fascinating research on the power of labeling our inner experience and emotions.
For example, in a UCLA study conducted by Matthew Liberman, subjects were shown photos displaying negative emotions. The participants who were asked to label their emotions experienced less distress than those who simply saw the photos but were not instructed to comment.
In another study of participants with arachnophobia, subjects were placed in a room with a caged spider. Those who were able to make the most progress in getting near the object of their fear? The participants who used emotion words such as “anxiety” or “fear” to describe their situation (versus those who used emotion-neutral words to describe their situation).
Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett’s way of conceptualizing this idea is with a term she coined, emotional granularity. By this she means those who possess a higher degree of complexity in language to describe their inner world with greater precision. In her experiments, those who were deemed granular were better able to differentiate their emotional experiences and as a result, compared to those she called clumpers, were less likely to freak out or abuse alcohol under stress and more likely to find positive meaning in their negative experience. In opposition, the clumpers, those who were less skilled at differentiating emotions, were found to be physically ill at a higher rate.
Having a precise language for our experiences and emotions increases our ability to self-regulate. If we can self-regulate, then we don’t have to rely on external regulation such as drugs & alcohol, or in my case can show up in other ways such as the compulsive compliance with the wishes of others.
Convinced? Ready to give labeling a try? Here are few simple ideas to try:
- When you feel a pain or discomfort in your body arise (ie headache, back pain, tightness in your chest, chronic pain) take time to ask yourself “How am I feeling emotionally right now?
- Download this mood meter app, save this mood meter in a handy place, or print it out! and when are struggling to put words to your feelings or body, try selecting some from the chart