Saying Hi to Yourself
The Gentle Path of Checking In and Noticing How You’re Really Feeling
One Honest Word Away
Naming an emotion can help free yourself from the emotion you are feeling.
Often I find myself rolling like a ball of cheese down a Minnesotian hill — unstoppable, but also kinda cheesy.
You know those hills — not the snowy ones, but the mental ones. The kind where your thoughts gain momentum and your mood subtly slips. It’s hard to notice when you’re rolling, especially when the hill is made of negative emotion. You move from one thing to another, feeling off, without really knowing why.
Sometimes it starts small:
- Someone cuts you off in traffic
- You forgot to respond to a text
- You scroll a little too long and feel hollow afterward
Suddenly, you’re in a fog, disconnected but still moving.
But what if… before the roll begins, you set an intention to check in with yourself? What if you paused and asked, “How am I actually feeling?”
You’d be surprised how powerful it is to simply name the emotion.
The Power of a Pause
When you stop and take a moment to notice how you feel, you give yourself a chance to slow down and look around.
To ask:
- Where have I been heading lately?
- Do I still want to go there?
This gentle pause is a moment of clarity — a redirect, not a judgment. Are you walking a path of complaint? Or are you moving moment to moment, letting yourself be present?
A Wake-Up Story
One of my favorite examples: the alarm clock moment.
You know the one. The dreaded beeping, the rush to hit snooze. It’s tempting to shut it down and curl up, but I’ve learned something else is possible.
I started trying a new approach — turning off my alarm gently, breathing for a second, and letting myself just be for a few minutes. In that space, I might stretch. I might mentally map out my morning. I might just feel what’s going on in my body.
That small shift — choosing calm instead of chaos — changed how my whole day unfolded.
If you’re waking up abruptly and rushing into your day, try modifying your routine. Give yourself five extra minutes. Check in. It’s a game changer.
How to Reset in the Middle of the Day
Even in the middle of a hectic afternoon, the same rule applies:
- Pause
- Name the emotion
- Ask if you’d rather feel something else
Don’t force it. Just invite something new in.
You might find that what felt like boredom is actually a need for creativity. That what seemed like sadness is really fatigue. That what looked like anger is unmet expectation.
Naming it doesn’t fix everything. But it opens the door. And sometimes, the way back to yourself is just one honest word away.
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