How to Understand and Rewire Your Emotions
Understanding what moves inside you
We spend a large part of our lives reacting.
Reacting to situations. To people. To memories.
Often without realising what we’re reacting to, or why.
Emotional awareness isn’t about controlling your emotions.
It’s not about staying calm all the time.
And it’s definitely not about “fixing” yourself.
It’s about understanding what’s happening inside you, before your body takes the lead.
What emotional awareness actually means
Emotional awareness isn’t about being calm
Emotional awareness is the ability to notice what’s happening inside you while it’s happening.
It’s the difference between saying:
“I don’t know why I feel like this”
and
“Something in me is reacting, and I can stay with it long enough to understand it.”
Emotions don’t start in your thoughts
Most people try to think their way out of emotions. But emotions don’t begin in the mind. They begin in the body
A shift in breathing.
A tightening somewhere familiar.
A feeling that shows up before words do.
That’s why certain emotions repeat.
Why some thoughts loop.
Why small moments can feel enormous
The body responds first.
Meaning comes later.
Emotional awareness is learning to catch that moment 🫧
The Brain Behind Emotional Reactions
There’s a small structure in the brain called the amygdala.
Its job isn’t to make you happy or calm.
Its job is to protect you.
The amygdala constantly scans for familiar patterns: stress, threat, rejection, uncertainty.
When it senses something it recognises, it reacts before logic has time to arrive.
It doesn’t ask questions.
It doesn’t wait for context.
It acts.
That’s why:
That’s not weakness.
That’s biology
Emotional awareness vs emotional control
This is where many approaches get it wrong.
Emotional awareness is not about suppressing emotions.
It’s not about staying calm all the time.
And it’s not about fixing yourself.
Instead, it asks a different question:
What is this emotion trying to show me?
When emotions are ignored, they repeat.
When they’re misunderstood, they escalate.
When they’re named and understood, they begin to shift.
A simple way in
When emotions feel overwhelming, most people try to jump straight to solutions.
They analyse.
They explain.
They push through.
This works, for a while.
What actually helps is slowing the moment down just enough to see what’s already happening.
This is the rhythm I return to again and again:
Not as a rule.
Not as a checklist.
But as a way of staying present while something moves inside you.
Before naming anything, you notice the body.
A tightening.
A heaviness.
A rush of energy or the urge to pull away.
No interpretation yet.
No “why”
Just this simple question:
What is happening in me right now?
Noticing is powerful because it interrupts autopilot.
It creates the first pause.
Once you notice, you give the experience language.
Not dramatic words.
Not diagnoses.
Just accurate, honest descriptions.
“This feels sharp.”
“This feels familiar.”
Decoding matters because emotions that stay unnamed
tend to repeat.
When you put words to what you feel, intensity often softens, not because the emotion disappears,
but because it’s finally understood
Resetting doesn’t mean calming down completely.
It means giving your nervous system a little space.
One slower breath.
One change in posture.
One moment of grounding.
Just enough to signal:
I’m here. I’m listening 🌿.
That small reset is often what allows choice to return.
You don’t change the emotion.
You change how you meet it.
And over time, that changes everything.
What changes over time
Emotions don’t disappear.
They become familiar.
You start recognizing patterns sooner.
Reactions slow down.
Choices feel available again.
Not because you’re doing it “right.”
But because you’ve learned how to listen.
A final thought
This isn’t a skill you master once.
It’s a relationship you build over time.
A way of meeting yourself honestly,
without force, without judgment, without shortcuts.
If your mind feels loud,
this is where you begin.
YNot to change yourself.
But to finally understand what you’ve been feeling.
Nothing here needs to be rushed
Notice what’s happening now 🌱