How to understand how you feel

How are you?

I’m fine. - It’s right to say but not always necessarily true, is it?

Simple questions we hear in daily life like How are you? How are you doing? Are you ok? How’s it going? can be helpful when we pay attention to finding the accurate answer.

Many of us get the lured image of how we really are when we rush to conclude out of the habit by responding with ‘I’m fine’, whether it’s to get it over with or out of the habit, we lose the chance to connect with ourselves internally. In other cases, we start getting hooked up with telling the stories of what’s happening in our lives instead of focusing on the state of being. The fact is how we are is not the same as what is happening in your life at that moment. Knowing how we are feeling truly can give us a chance to know our inner state of wellbeing, to know and perhaps to understand ourselves better.

Here are a few somatic ideas for using the power of ‘awareness’ to help us reconnect with our inner states in the now and to promote wellness of the body and mind.

Tip #1 - Here and now

Take the time to tune into yourself and your environment. Ask yourself: how am I feeling right now? What are my emotions? How is the body reacting to this? What are my thoughts if any? What am I hearing/seeing/smelling at this moment? Slow down and focus on parts of your body and check in with how they are presenting themselves to ‘you’. Are they contracted? Are they feeling relaxed? By doing this, it can give you a spectrum of your own internal feelings and emotions, and help you to stay in the present more rather than going to the past stories or jumping to the future. The ‘Here and now’ technique allows you to reconnect with your state of being, whether it’s physical, emotional or mental in the moment. It can give you a sense of safety and calm you down on days you might not feel OK.

Tip #2 - Breathe deeply

Check in with how you are doing by observing how you are breathing. Shallow or deep breaths you're taking right now? Are you holding your breath? Are you breathing from your chest/tummy? Which parts of the body are moving as you’re breathing? Developing our consciousness around the breath allows us to intimately understand our physical and mental states and gives us the power and freedom to be and feel. It’s a way we can prevent dramas from escalating, learn what our stressors are and get familiar with how we physically respond to people, places and things.

Ask yourself what your breath is saying about you at that moment. Attentively changing the speed/way you are breathing, bringing air to your tummy and taking longer exhale can help you feel calmer as it calms down your nervous system. Taking shorter breaths and more often can help the body feel more enthusiastic.

"To awaken, sit calmly, letting each breath clear your mind and open your heart." – Buddha

Next time you get asked how you are, stop for a sec, breathe and reconnect with some of those questions above. Allow yourself to actually feel you, embrace the feelings, emotions, thoughts, and do not afraid to just BE. Voila!

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