feel-good.now

Naming the feeling

Put what you feel into a few plain words. Lab studies suggest it takes some heat out of a feeling, but the effect on how people say they feel is mixed.

Short answer

When a feeling is building, say what it is in a few plain words: “I’m anxious about this call.” Lab studies suggest naming a feeling turns it down a little, even though it doesn’t feel like it should. The evidence is mostly small lab studies, and the effect on how people report feeling is mixed, so treat this as a light, free thing to try.

How to do it

  1. Pause and ask: what am I feeling right now?
  2. Pick one or two words. Anxious, annoyed, embarrassed, disappointed, tired, hurt, restless. Plain words are better than vague ones like “bad” or “off”.
  3. Add what it’s about, in one short phrase. “I’m annoyed that the meeting overran.” “I’m nervous about what Sam will say.”
  4. Say it to yourself, out loud, or write it down. Any of these counts.
  5. Stop there. Don’t argue with the feeling or try to talk yourself out of it. Naming it is the whole exercise.

If you can’t find a word, “something unpleasant about this email” is fine. Being roughly right matters more than being precise.

When to use it

  • Before a conversation you’re nervous about.
  • When you feel a flash of irritation and want to avoid snapping.
  • When you have a vague, uneasy feeling you can’t place.
  • Alongside slow exhale breathing, which takes about as long.

It’s a way to take the edge off, not a way to solve what caused the feeling. If the feeling is about a problem you can act on, act on it once you’re calmer.

Evidence

In a brain-imaging study, people looked at upsetting images. Choosing a word for the emotion they showed reduced activity in the amygdala, a brain area involved in threat responses, compared with other ways of responding to the same pictures [1]. Brain activity is not the same as feeling better, though.

A follow-up set of four studies asked about feelings directly. People reported less distress when they labeled their feelings about upsetting pictures than when they just looked. The effect was similar to deliberately reframing the picture or distracting themselves. Oddly, people predicted labeling would make things worse, even after it had helped. Labeling also dulled good feelings when the pictures were pleasant [2].

In a trial with people afraid of spiders, those who described their feelings while near a spider had a smaller physical stress response a week later than people who reframed or distracted themselves. But they did not report feeling any less afraid [3].

A 2018 review argues that labeling works quietly, without feeling like an effort to calm down, which may be why people underrate it [4]. All the studies on this page involve the same research group.

Rated Weak. The studies are small, mostly in labs with pictures rather than real-life problems, and the effect on how people say they feel is inconsistent.

Try this week

The next three times you feel a jolt of stress, stop and name it in one sentence: “I’m ___ about ___.” Write it in your phone’s notes if you can. At the end of the week, look back and see whether any patterns show up.

Sources

  1. [1]Lieberman MD, Eisenberger NI, Crockett MJ, et al. (2007). Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science. Intervention study
  2. [2]Lieberman MD, Inagaki TK, Tabibnia G, Crockett MJ (2011). Subjective responses to emotional stimuli during labeling, reappraisal, and distraction. Emotion. Intervention study
  3. [3]Kircanski K, Lieberman MD, Craske MG (2012). Feelings into words: contributions of language to exposure therapy. Psychological Science. Randomized trial
  4. [4]Torre JB, Lieberman MD (2018). Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling as Implicit Emotion Regulation. Emotion Review. Review

Topics: Emotions, Stress, Nerves, Labeling

Sources checked 4 October 2026. Spot a mistake? Tell us.