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    What are Your Feelings

    NL
    Nicole LannertonePublished January 12, 2015 · Updated October 22, 2026 · 1 min read

    Printable Worksheet

    What are Your Feelings

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    A mindful companion to this worksheet

    Meeting feelings with mindful attention

    Emotions are information, not problems to solve. “What are Your Feelings” is a chance to build a kinder relationship with the whole range of your inner life, the easy feelings and the hard ones.

    How mindfulness can help

    Mindfulness helps us stay close to a feeling without being swept away by it. Turning toward what we feel, naming it, finding it in the body, and breathing alongside it, often makes the emotion easier to hold. Over time we learn to have our experience rather than be run by it.

    Gentle steps to try

    1. Name what is here. Quietly say to yourself, “This is sadness,” or “This is anger.” Many people find that naming a feeling takes a little of the charge out of it.
    2. Find it in the body. Where do you feel this emotion most clearly? The throat, the chest, the belly? Let your attention rest there with kindness.
    3. Breathe alongside it. Imagine the breath moving into and around the sensation, neither pushing it away nor pulling it closer.
    4. Ask what it needs. Many feelings simply want to be noticed. Some carry a request, for rest, a boundary, or a repair. Listen for it.

    Feelings are not flaws. They are weather moving through, and no emotion, however strong, is the whole of who you are.

    A note from Sean

    Can we name an emotion accurately? There are different kinds of sadness, anger, and happiness. So I ask what it is specifically, and what it feels like in the body. Often there is another emotion underneath, like fear or grief.

    Try this today. Pick the feeling you felt most strongly today (question 3). Put a hand where it lives, maybe the belly or chest. Name it as exactly as you can: not just “bad,” but disappointed, worn out, or lonely. Ask what might be underneath it. Then write one line for question 5: what is this feeling telling you about yourself, or about what matters to you?

    Keep going: A Mindfulness of Emotions Script for Naming Feelings and Mindfulness of Emotions.

    This suits anyone who wants to know what they feel, and teachers who guide others through it. If a feeling is very strong, or tied to loss or trauma, go gently. Stop when you need to.

    For teachers, therapists & coaches

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