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Ever feel something you just can’t put into words? You’re not alone. Inside the Mental Fitness Gym, thousands of members are doing the same, checking in and practising how to put into language to what they’re feeling.
Most of us start with simple words like “fine,” “okay,” or “tired.” It’s a meaningful first step, but when we don’t push ourselves to get specific, the emotions underneath can stay unspoken and unresolved. That’s why learning to put your feelings into words is one of the most powerful thing you can do to strengthen your emotional muscles and build mental fitness.
Why naming emotions matters
The ability to recognise, understand, label and express emotions is known as emotional literacy. Research shows it’s one of the strongest protective skills you can build: people who can name what they’re feeling tend to handle stress better and adapt more easily to challenges.1
Simply putting feelings into words, what psychologists call affect labelling, can actually calm the body, reduce emotional intensity, and help us respond rather than react.2
Naming emotions isn’t just descriptive, when we can name what we’re feeling, we:
- build our emotional muscles, learning to regulate and respond more effectively
- strengthen connection, by communicating more clearly and authentically
- feel more confident to ask for help, because we can describe what’s really going on.
Putting this into action
You can start practising emotional literacy today. It doesn’t take long, and it’s surprisingly powerful for how simple it is.
Notice what shows up:
Pause for a moment and ask yourself, "What am I actually feeling right now?" Try to notice what's happening in your body – tension, warmth, heaviness – before you look for words.
Name it clearly:
Once you've noticed it, try to find the right word for the feeling. Go beyond "good" or "bad." Maybe it's frustration, relief, nervousness or contentment.
Learn from it:
Ask yourself, "What is this emotion trying to tell me?" Sometimes it's a cue that you need rest, reassurance or connection. Naming it is how you start to respond with purpose.
Let's work it out
To strengthen this skill, we’ve launched a new app-exclusive workout: Feel It, Name It, Know It. Across seven days, you’ll learn how to notice where emotions show up, find the words that fit and understand what they’re trying to tell you.
Head to the Mental Fitness Gym App to start the new workout.
The Science of Mental Fitness
1 Brackett, M. A., Rivers, S. E., Shiffman, S., Lerner, N., & Salovey, P. (2006). Relating emotional abilities to social functioning: A comparison of self-report and performance measures of emotional intelligence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(4), 780–795.
2 Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., Tom, S. M., Pfeifer, J. H., & Way, B. M. (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428.
