01/12/2026
Love this post about increasing feelings vocabulary.
I think this is the most beautiful frame on the interplay of language and emotion. In the vastness of our experiences — the shipwrecks, the riptides, the storms — there’s a critical moment when what we’re feeling washes into language. That’s the moment everything changes. After struggling in that sea, wrapping words around our emotions can feel like finally being able to stand and catch our breath. The waves will certainly still toss us around, but we can touch the bottom, and we can see a way to that shore.
In a world where so many of us are feeling emotionally dysregulated, disconnected from ourselves and each other, and distrustful of the world in general, the heart can feel like a treacherous sea. Safe passage to shore seems even more essential, and this means increasing our emotional vocabulary. We need more shoreline — more words, more access to the nuanced differences between emotions that can present in similar ways.
Our team has been digging back into “Atlas of the Heart” and sharing what we’ve learned and continue to learn about some of the flotsam and jetsam that we’re all navigating around right now. We’ve explored despair and hope (in micro-doses), stress and overwhelm, and we’re working on some posts for the new year.
We’re also excited about revisiting stories we wrote for our 2024 ABK Edit. We’re so grateful for the people who are being awkward, brave, and kind with their work and their lives. The wisdom and beauty they’re putting out into the world feels like it’s own kind of life preserver.
Soundtrack for this quote has to be “Sailing” by Christopher Cross. I love a song about sailing that actually feels like the wind. And, your fun fact for today — courtesy of my friend Rick Beato — that orchestral intro to “Sailing” was an accident. The two tracks didn’t sync so we lucked into that gorgeous intro. Good music is always helpful in a rough sea!
