Are you familiar with the relief felt after talking about your feelings? That’s because talking about your problems can help make you feel better. Good communication, when it comes to your mental health, is a vital skill.

Some people are raised to believe that talking about your feelings or struggles is a sign of weakness. This is not true! It takes strength to speak honestly about what you’re going through. Being vulnerable is hard, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Communicating your feelings is taking care of your mental wellbeing.

When you’re struggling, you can hold in your feelings, making them worse. Your negative thoughts can compound; you start to believe what your negative thoughts are saying to you. However, talking about them can help you cope by providing an opportunity for you to get support.

Having someone listen to your troubles can be so validating. Usually, you’ll end up feeling less alone. Additionally, it’s a way to assess the truth of your negative thoughts; your confidant can fact check you, reminding you that you’re loved and worthy. Even just saying these harmful thoughts out loud can help you realize that they may be illogical.

When you live with chronic pain, talking about your feelings is essential. The people around you may not understand what it’s like to be in pain daily. So, talking to them about how you feel can help them better understand what you’re going through. 

Describing how you feel can be hard if you’re not used to it. Explain it however makes sense to you and over time it will get easier.

Talking about your feelings doesn’t need to be a formal conversation. It may be more comfortable to bring it up naturally in conversation, rather than asking to specifically talk about your feelings.

It’s not always easy to describe how you’re feeling. If you can’t think of one word, use lots. What does it feel like inside your head? What does it make you feel like doing? How does it affect your daily functioning?

Talk to someone you trust about your feelings

Choose to talk about your feelings with someone you know and trust. This can be a mental health professional; however, it’s also good to be able to talk to those you personally know about it. They’ll be better able to support you in your day-to-day life. Pick someone who you know is a good listener and will not judge you. They will most likely listen, hearing your feelings without interruption or criticism.

Reaching out is never a sign of weakness. You are not a burden; people are usually flattered that you trust them enough to share your feelings.

You don’t have to disclose all the details of your troubles. Rather than telling them everything, you can simply choose to mention that you’re not feeling great. Let them know how they can support you.

The process of talking to someone you trust can help calm your nervous system and relieve stress. Even if there’s no solution to the problem, the conversation itself can be cathartic.

Sharing your feelings can help encourage others around you to do the same. This creates a network of support and trust.

Practice

Below, you will find the worksheets for this lesson: the Communicating Feelings Worksheet and the Trust Worksheet. The first worksheet will help you break down your feelings in a way that will help you better communicate them to someone else. The next worksheet will help you reflect on who you can trust when you need to talk about your feelings.

Reflect

Take a moment to reflect on your ability to talk about your feelings. Do you struggle with this? What might help you feel more comfortable talking about your feelings? Additionally, how do you know you can trust someone with a vulnerable conversation?

In the next lesson, you will learn how to build a support network of people who care about you.