This episode is created and narrated using artificial intelligence (AI).
Do you struggle to put your feelings into words?
Do you find yourself saying "I'm fine" or "I don't know" when someone asks how you are—not to deflect, but because you genuinely cannot locate what you are feeling inside?
In Episode 53 of Labels Don't Define Us, Sarah is joined by guest Samantha to explore one of the most overlooked foundations of mental health: emotional literacy—the ability to name what you feel with precision and why the words we have for our emotions are far more powerful than most people realize.
This is the episode that explains why naming your feelings is not just communication—it is regulation.
What you will discover in this episode:
💛 What emotional literacy really is—and why most of us were never explicitly taught it, despite it being one of the most important skills for mental health and relationships
💛 Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett's groundbreaking theory of constructed emotion: why the words you have for your feelings do not just describe your emotional experience—they participate in creating it
💛 Emotional granularity: why people who can identify and distinguish their feelings with greater precision experience less intense emotional episodes, recover faster from distress, and use more adaptive coping strategies
💛 Alexithymia explained: the clinical term for difficulty identifying your own feelings—estimated to affect 10% of adults—its strong associations with depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms, and how it can be addressed
💛 The neuroscience of affect labeling: Dr. Matthew Lieberman's fMRI research showing that naming an emotion reduces amygdala activation and increases prefrontal regulatory control—a direct, measurable biological intervention in the stress response
💛 Why more precise naming produces more regulation: how distinguishing "I feel betrayed" from "I feel upset" changes not just the label but the experience—and your capacity to respond to it
💛 The emotion wheel: what it is, how to use it, and the research showing it produces measurable improvements in emotional identification and well-being
💛 Dr. James Pennebaker's expressive writing research: why writing about emotional experience with the aim of naming and making sense of it reduces rumination, improves immune function, and lowers depression
💛 How reading literary fiction trains emotional literacy—and why the research shows it is one of the most effective ways to expand your emotional vocabulary
💛 Dr. Tim Lomas's untranslatable emotion words research: why borrowing concepts from other languages can reveal feelings you have always had but never had words for
💛 Samantha's honest and deeply relatable account of discovering she could not distinguish between sadness and anger—and the single word that changed everything
💛 Three practical, evidence-backed tools to begin expanding your emotional vocabulary this week
Labels Don't Define Us is a weekly mental health and personal growth podcast about identity, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and living authentically.
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If today's conversation gave you a word for something you have always felt but never been able to name — please leave a review.
It takes less than a minute and helps this show reach every person who has been living in the grey space between "fine" and everything else.
Share this episode with someone whose emotional world deserves better language than the one they were given.
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#emotionalliteracy, #naminyouremotions, #emotionalintelligence, #howtoidentifyyourfeelings, #alexithymia, #emotionwheel, #mentalhealthpodcast, #emotionalregulation, #emotionalgranularity, #feelingsvocabulary
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