Metacognition: Learning How To Identify Emotions

The emotions wheel taken from here.

As instruction on how to identify emotions basically doesn't exist outside of formal psychological education, the ability to consciously identify emotions has become an abnormal and undervalued skill, yet its importance cannot be overemphasized. The case studies analyzed in "Descartes Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain" that analyze the impact of brain damage to the emotional processing areas of the brain shows that without emotions subjects could think logically but couldn't make decisions, highlighting the fact that emotions are fundamental to behavior. This study (not fully available but the abstract refers to the conclusion) shows that rational decisions require emotional input, further backing the primacy of emotion. Emotion cannot be separated from decisions, learning, or any other aspect of human life. Humans are scientifically emotionally-based creatures.

Metacognition is the awareness and understanding of one's thought processes. While thoughts do play an important role in emotional awareness, it isn't the most effective way nor the only way. My definition of metacognition expands beyond the traditional scope of the term to include body awareness and behavioral awareness. In terms of efficacy I consider body awareness to be the most effective, then awareness of thoughts, then awareness of behaviors. Starting the process of becoming self-aware can be a challenging one, but with practice it can become second-nature and the potential gains are more than worth the effort.

Body Awareness

The mind and body are inexorably connected, one will always trigger the other, with neither starting point maintaining supremacy; the mind can trigger the body or the body can trigger the mind. Either way, the body is a simple and powerful way of gaining insight and awareness into oneself. Some people are so disconnected from their body that they can't notice any physical changes, but recognize them or not, they're there. Here are some examples of things to pay attention to within the body to gain body awareness:

• Tension - The body stores tension within it and most people store their tension in the same part(s) of the body. Pay attention to where you store yours as well as minute changes in tension in other areas of your body.

• Unique Physical Sensations - Things like a pit in your stomach, tightness in the chest or throat, headaches, dizziness, or other common sensations.

• Breath - Shortness of breath or breathing more rapidly.

• Blood Pressure - Feeling your blood pressure increase which can result in a flushed face or an increased sensation of heat in the body.

• Eye Positioning - Your eyes are the most physically sensitive part of your body and they react according to your emotions. Even slight eye changes can be used informationally or to create emotional shifts as the body can detect as little as .1 degree change, far more sensitive than other body parts. You can learn more about how to use eye positioning to possibly impact emotions states here.

  
  

  

For those who want additional help in gaining body awareness, I highly recommend doing a relaxation technique called progressive body relaxation. Progressive body relaxation is exactly what it sounds like, progressively relaxing the body one part at a time, typically starting at the head or feet. There are many guided meditations online but for those that want to do it themselves there are three ways of doing it. First, naming the part, noticing tension in that part, and consciously relaxing that body part. Second, visualizing the body in terms of lightness and darkness with darkness being any part of your body that isn't relaxed and lightness representing relaxation. Then increase the intensity of light in the named body part until the darkness is pushed out and only light remains. Third, tensing the named body part as hard as possible for a couple seconds and then releasing. Different people like different methods so experiment around to see what works for you (most guided ones use the physical tensing though just FYI). Many people use this technique to fall asleep, so you can also it that way. For our purposes there are many other reasons to use this technique besides sleeping:

1. Create Body Awareness - Most people don't know that they are tense until they release the tension. Relaxing the body helps you compare physical states and easily recognize discrepancies.

2. Know Where Your Body Stores Tension - Most people store tension in one spot or a few spots. If you know where you store your tension you have a quick way to check in with your body.

3. Teach You How to Relax Your Body - Seems important.

4. Recognize Triggers - The more relaxed and aware you are, the more you can notice changes in your body. These changes inform you about subconscious fears and insecurities that you'd benefit from eliminating.

There are other ways to increase body awareness which are basically just other relaxation techniques. Use whatever relaxation technique works best for you to gain body awareness.

Thoughts

For this awareness to work, you will need to know your baseline thought processes because thought changes equate to emotional changes. For this reason, thoughts are less effective than body sensations. They require more baseline knowledge and the changes are often less recognizable, especially when you're caught up in the moment. That being said, they can be extremely effective and indicative of emotional states if you pay attention to them. Thoughts can change in several ways including:

• Being more critical of self or others.

• Being more anxious or fearful.

• Having no thoughts or muddled thoughts.

• Perseverating - having one thought on repeat.

And there are plenty more. What you are looking for is any difference in how you typically think, or how you think when you're happy and feeling good. One of the simplest ways for me to monitor my thoughts is to monitor how critical I am of others. When I'm in a bad mood or tired my thoughts become more severe. For example, if I get cut off in traffic and normally think "Well, that's annoying" my change in thought process might look more like "That fucking idiot." Or in other situations I might find myself struggling to concentrate or thinking "I just want to stay in my bed forever" or any other variation of thoughts you can think of. The key here is, yet again, awareness. If you don't know your baseline thoughts, start paying attention.

Behaviors

Behaviors are by far the most obvious sign of how you're doing emotionally, but also the last in the chain of changes that occur internally. If you are in the middle of yelling at a loved one, you didn't just spontaneously combust into anger, you missed both body awareness and thought changes. Not all behavior changes are necessarily negative though, some are simply informative:

• Moving - Pacing, bouncing a leg, tapping a finger or toe, or any other body movement can be indicative of a change in emotional state.

• Body Postures - Turning towards or away from something or someone, crossed arms (defensive posture), avoiding eye contact, etc. About 55% of communication is based on body language alone.

• Vocal Tone Changes - Your tone says a lot, around 38% of communication is passed on through your tone.

• What You Say - While only 7% of communication, if you are saying something rude or self-deprecating, that should be enough to inform you of your current emotional state.

Everyone is different so this to use this method of self-awareness you need to once again know your baseline behaviors. If you don't like your behaviors, it isn't too late to change them. One time I was yelling at an ex girlfriend and mid sentence decided that yelling was not an appropriate way to express my emotions, so I stopped. Use your behaviors as a last measure to check yourself.

Creating Awareness Exercise

One exercise I like to do with clients to help them gain awareness is to have them write down the three categories listed above, body sensations, thought, and behaviors, on a piece of paper. Within each category make the subcategories "low warning signs," 'middle warning signs," and "high warning signs." Most clients are intimately aware of their "high warning signs" category so I typically have them start there. Write down all signs that come to mind for body sensations, thoughts, and behaviors then move down to the "middle warning signs" category and do the same. Typically the middle warning signs are related to the high warning signs, but not always. Do the same for the "low warning sign" category.

Now you should have at a least a basic understanding of what to start paying attention to and as you gain additional awareness you can add to your list.

The next, and more difficult step, is to use your awareness to actually get rid of your emotional triggers so that your heightened awareness becomes largely unnecessary. More work now means less cumulative work over the course of your lifetime (and far less pain).

Happy metacognitioning!