Why You Need to Be Good at Reading Your Emotions

Studies have found that just having negative feelings isn’t enough to lead to depressive symptoms. You also have to be unable to put a name to your feeling state, and then dwell on trying to identify it, to be at risk of depression.

It’s important, without ruminating, to try to identify negative emotions so you can move on, relying on methods proven to be successful against that particular emotion. Some people may just have a tendency to experience emotions intensely, but this factor is an independent contributor to feelings of depression.

 Is your ability to modulate or control the type of emotion you’re feeling, how long you feel that emotion, how strong it is, and whether you can turn it from negative to positive. Good emotional regulation, lets you get over negative feelings relatively quickly.

Having bad emotional clarity is thought to lead to low emotional regulation, which is linked to depression and rumination.

Involves your ability to identify what you feel with ease. It affects mental health by predisposing people to depression.

This is a “subjective” ability. There is no external objective reference point for naming your emotions. Emotions are also relative qualities, meaning different people have different definitions and experiences for a given emotion.