Untangle Your Emotions by Jennie Allen
Week 5: Chapter 4 — Name
Read Chapter 4 of Untangle Your Emotions. This is Step 2 of Jennie's five-step framework.
Previewing Week 5 of Untangle Your Emotions
Read 3 of 8 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 14-week guide when you’re ready.
There is a reason God gave Adam the task of naming — naming is an act of understanding, stewardship, and even power over what we carry.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Jennie introduces the concept of "emotional granularity" — the ability to distinguish between emotions with precision rather than labeling everything as simply "stressed" or "fine." Why does specificity matter? What is the difference, practically, between knowing you're "sad" versus knowing you're "grieving a lost friendship"?
2.She references research by psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett showing that people with a larger emotional vocabulary actually experience less emotional reactivity — naming the feeling, quite literally, calms the nervous system. Did that surprise you? Why do you think putting words to feelings has that effect?
3.Jennie includes an emotions wheel or list of feeling words to expand readers' emotional vocabulary. Look back at that list. Which emotions are easy for you to name? Which ones feel foreign, embarrassing, or hard to claim?
a.Are there whole families of emotion (grief, shame, fear, joy) that you tend to avoid naming? Why?
b.Pick one emotion from the list you rarely use. When was the last time you actually felt it?