We learned last week that self-awareness—understanding our emotions and their impact—is the foundation of emotional intelligence. This week, we will focus on two strategies to develop the skill of self-awareness.
Undoubtedly, you have worked to develop other skills during your lifetime. Perhaps it was a golf swing or a swimming stroke. Perhaps you have honed your writing or public speaking skills. Developing any skill requires time, practice, and commitment. This week, you will be asked to commit yourself to two exercises designed to increase emotional self-awareness. The more time and practice you devote to the exercise, the more successful you will be. Continue practicing throughout the term.
Weekly Objectives
By the end of this week, you should be able to:
Complete a guided body scan exercise to strengthen self-awareness.
Use enhanced vocabulary to label feelings.
Reflect meaningfully on self-awareness strategies.
This Week’s Deliverables
Here are the things you must complete for Week 5:
Perform the body scan exercise on at least four out of seven days (ungraded*).
Complete the emotional vocabulary exercises by 11:59 pm CT Sunday (15 points).
Complete the learning journal assignment by 11:59 pm CT Sunday (15 points).
*You will use your notes from these exercises to complete the learning journal.
As we learned last week, awareness of our bodies can increase our ability to identify feelings. For example, a sensation of tightness in the abdomen might signal feelings of nervousness. A body scan helps us bring attention to all the systems of our bodies and nuanced physical sensations. Regularly practicing the body scan over a period of time can result in much greater awareness of the relationship between physical and emotional experience.
The body scan exercise consists of viewing the video and following the guidance it contains, then reflecting on the experience by writing brief notes. You should perform the full exercise at least four times during Week 5, preferably on four different days, and then regularly for the remainder of the term.
After completing the body scan meditation, jot down some notes about your experience.
What did you feel before, during, and after the scan?
Important: While this exercise is not graded, you will refer to your notes when you compose the learning journal entry for Week 5.
Video Link for Week 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyy3dHW4cSw
We learned in Week 4 that when it comes to emotional self-awareness, words matter. Having a larger, more sophisticated emotional vocabulary helps us make finer distinctions about our feelings and improves our ability to communicate with others about feelings.
Dr. Gloria Wilcox’s “Feelings Wheel” is a useful tool for developing a wider emotional vocabulary. As you can see, the wheel identifies six core feelings: mad, scared, joyful, powerful, peaceful, and sad. The middle and outer bands identify increasingly nuanced and specific adjectives associated with the core feelings. Although the wheel helps identify adjectives associated with feelings, it does not provide an exhaustive list.
Your task in this exercise is to enhance the wheel by adding adjectives to the middle and outer rings. Complete the following steps:
Click on the following hyperlink to download the provided worksheet: Feelings Wheel Worksheet (PPTX).
Type in adjectives (where it says “Type here”) for each word category at the center of the wheel. For example, you might type in the adjectives “content,” “elated,” and “thrilled” for the word happy.
Then practice using your enriched emotional vocabulary in your daily conversations.
Important: THIS IS A PASS/NO PASS ASSIGNMENT. A pass (15 points) means the assignment was thoroughly completed and submitted on deadline. A no pass (0) point means the assignment was not thoroughly completed or was not submitted on deadline.