Expanding our emotional vocabulary can help us discern our internal states. It also helps us add complexity and nuance to our life experiences so that our days don’t get dichotomized into all “good” or all “bad.” This helps us become more conscious of what is really happening – often times this comes in mixed emotions, rather than just one. Helping our children identify (with more word choices) their feelings allows us to understand them better and also helps us all to paint a better picture of what is the true reality of a situation. It’s so important to help our children see different perspectives and also be articulate in identifying and interpreting their internal states. This is so hard sometimes, even for us adults!