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    Investing Your Emotional Energy

    NL
    Nicole LannertonePublished January 11, 2015 · Updated October 22, 2026 · 1 min read

    Printable Worksheet

    Investing Your Emotional Energy

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    A mindful companion to this worksheet

    Meeting feelings with mindful attention

    Emotions are information, not problems to solve. “Investing Your Emotional Energy” 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

    Many of us want to help, and it’s tricky to find the balance between what we can do and what we want to do. What am I capable of without losing myself or overextending? That line changes moment to moment. Some days we have a lot of bandwidth. Some days we don’t.

    Try this today. At midday, stop and take three breaths. Feel your feet. Ask question 1: where has my energy gone so far? Name one thing that took more than you expected (question 2) and one that took less. Notice what your chest and shoulders do as you answer. Then choose one thing this afternoon to give a little less, as question 4 asks.

    Keep going: 10 Mindfulness Exercises for Work and Purpose and A Meditation For Self-Care And Caring For Others.

    This suits caregivers, teachers, and anyone who gives a lot. If you are running on empty, or caring for someone who is ill, go gently. Stop when you need to.

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