How are you Feeling
By Amani Shayo ~ Project Manager at Empower on 14 May 2020Health & Wellness
Yes! It’s another article that will mention COVID 19 – I never wanted to add more content on this topic. Personally, I feel there is already so much content out here which amplifies the problem rather than focus on solutions. But I had to do it, and I promise I will only mention it once. From now on, I will refer to it as “the Pandemic”
“How are you feeling?”
If any of these words (Okay, Fine or Good) came to mind, I will ask you again - Seriously, how are you feeling?
I work at a company where everyone must answer that question daily, sometimes even twice or thrice a day! After many months of “Okay, Fine and Good” responses, our MD introduced a feeling chart – it is a list of more than 20+ feelings. As a result, we had more options to use when responding to the question ‘how are you feeling?’
Fast forward; the pandemic is here, I started asking people that I interact with the same question. How are you feeling? and for the first time, they have to think before jumping to “Okay, Fine and Good”. Although they take time to think, for many the response is still: “Meeeh, Ivyo-ivyo, …”
I recall listening to a Tanzanian psychologist (Dr Nadia Ahmed) who said, “Feelings are a natural way to communicate with our body”. A number of people struggle to articulate their feelings which made me question: does this means they are unable to communicate with their body?
In such times, it’s more important than ever for you to understand exactly how you feel, as feelings control what you think and do and help you to understand the message your body wants to transmit. With so much going on in our personal life, work, community and the country at large, “How are you feeling” is a golden question.
In order to answer it, you have to take time to focus on yourself and ask yourself about yourself. It won’t be easy, but start, try to even identify small actions related to how you feel. Draw how you feel, sing how you feel, or mime it – just start!
Reflecting on my own experience, we usually make the mistake of giving our feelings different names which makes us fail to see what exactly is happening to us. We put ourselves in the trap of "I'm Bored” or “I am stressed” but most times we use these words unfittingly. This goes to the extent that we allow these feelings to steal our moods and affect our work, career and even relationships with others.
I acknowledge we all have different issues that affect how we feel, and we vary in how we use our minds when dealing such issues, but I hope you will agree with me that, in the end, our common goal is to find Peace. From our thoughts, chaos and pressure that fills our mind every day, it is important for us to know how we are feeling.
In our pursuit of PEACE (of mind, body or soul); “Own your feelings, they are yours...they are your data & they save a purpose” ~ Dr Nadia Ahmed
By Amani Shayo ~ Project Manager at Empower
How are you feeling?