Tag: emotion


  • anaingi

    Hunger is listed as an emotion in Tiffany Watt Smith’s work The book of human emotions. Smith argues that, “Food can be a way of bolstering ourselves against an oncoming stress, or showing some kindness to ourselves when we feel overlooked.” Emotions and eating are often (if not always) connected. “The Baining people of Papua…

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  • q of the day

    What is your emotional lineage? And how has it shaped you?

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  • an open letter for people feeling things they don’t want to feel right now

    Maybe you’re feeling a special cocktail of sadness, shame, and fear. Maybe a bit of anger mixed in. I don’t know your life, but I do know that you don’t want to be feeling it. And perhaps you feel helpless in it, as well. I’m here on behalf of you, and whatever you’re feeling. sadness…

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  • 3 words for this season

    3 words that I’m looking to feel this season:

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  • 2 questions that have guided me

    Last night I was thinking about the two questions that really have helped me: “how does it feel?” and “how do you want to feel?” Both questions seem like they may be working against each other, but actually do not work. The first one allows for honest reflection and acceptance. And the second one gives…

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  • the life of an emotion

    sometimes it lingers. sometimes it goes. sometimes it returns but in a different attire. sometimes it is distant. sometimes it is consuming. sometimes it is so consuming that changes the way you organize your life and thoughts. sometimes, if you let it, it merely is.

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  • when you sense that you’re becoming overwhelmed with sadness you have two immediate options

    When you sense that you’re becoming overwhelmed with sadness you have two immediate options: 1.) try to stop it, 2.) let it happen. Intuitively, I think, we subscribe to the first option. Of course, we should try to stop it because it is a negative emotion that will most likely rob us of time we…

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  • inventory

    Sometimes, when I’m feeling a lot, I like to do what I call inventory. I notice (either mentally, or writing down) all the emotions I’m feeling. And then all the physical sensations I’m feeling. And, then maybe if I’m feeling ambitious, I track the emotions back to possible triggers: I’m feeling this because of this.…

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  • Mind to paper

    One of my friends recently asked how a song goes from mind to “paper.” And I think the answer is relative to your experience. When I first started writing music, the song I imagined was always different than the song that came out. Radically different. And I never really cared because hearing a song in…

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  • happy or sad?

    Today’s self-help books are written about how to become happier. In the Renaissance, they were about becoming sadder. Tiffany Watt Smith discussed this in her Ted Talk as well as in her delightful book, The Book of Human Emotions. During the Renaissance, the idea was that if you practice the emotion of sadness, it won’t…

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